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---------THIS REVIEW IS SPOILER FREE---------

Koishita node Cast shitemita, five years of publication in Ganma! and 96 chapters. Written by female mangaka Tama Azuma, Koishita is her second published manga to my knowledge. She also wrote Yumekui from 2014 to 2018. From 2021 to 2024 she also did VTuber wa Mana Naranai! For the Ultra Jump. The manga only lasted 4 volumes and 27 chapters; I’m wondering if two mangas at the same time was a bit too much for her.

So, what is Koishita about? Yuu Inuzuka face inspires terror to the others, he can’t smile normally (never done before you might think). As he ... tries to restart his social life in high school, he shares a dorm with 5 people: Hakua Arisuwaga, Yuzuko Jimi, Sora Takane, Saotome Souta and Aruvina Satou. They all have a secret: they are live streamers. Inuzuka was a streamer but something happened and he stopped, hence why the whole « fresh start ».

I’m cool with suspending my disbelief. All 5 streamers aren’t aware that they all break the dorm rules by doing so and they don’t know each one of them is a streamer. Obviously, you could argue that they make so much noise, they have to know (which will be a huge running gag). Especially Hakua since she’s literally screaming all the time. But like I said, I don’t mind, it’s fiction.

This is where the manga lost itself: the theme isn’t part of the story; it’s just a pretext so start a story. In the end, Koishita just uses every single common trope you can find in any romance manga and the livestreaming part doesn’t add anything to enhance the story. It’s absolutely just a pretext so deliver the same storyline you can find in any generic romance manga. And it’s really fast. I feel like everything about livestreaming goes out the window really fast, I never felt I was reading something unique. Just generic.

It goes the same way for the characters. There’s nothing much to say, they all play a type of personage with little to no real psychology behind their own problems. I’m especially astonished on how the reason behind Inuzuka quitting livestreaming is not even a really big thing. It’s the freaking synopsis and I legit cannot remember precisely why he stopped. Incredible, quickly swept under the carpet.
As the story goes on, the manga is just a poor-made harem. I feel bad for Vina and Souta, the two boys besides Yuu. They’re bland man. Even with the gimmick Vina brings to the table, it’s just bland, you don’t care about whatever happens to them. Sure, they both got some little story arcs but there’s not enough to empathize with either one. Jimi and Takane are fine (even tough Takane absolutely disappears towards the end) but it’s not a revolution nor well-written characters.

About the art… whatever, I guess? The artstyle of Tama Azuma does suits characters like Jimi and Takane but I don’t really feel like it was a good match for everybody else. I don’t know, the backgrounds weren’t existent most of the time, the decoupage was alright at best. Average overall.

Bear in mind, I’m a sucker for romances. It’s by far my favorite theme, hence why I found myself reading things like Koishita node Cast shitemita. I don’t think it’s a good manga, it’s quickly boring, you don’t sympathize with the personages, blandness all over the place. I don’t get it.
I’m cool with people liking the manga, everybody has their own taste after all but I’m not going to recommend you to read this. Look elsewhere.

When I finished Dear Sa-Chan a day ago, I thought it really was a good manga and I was wondering what other people might say about it.
Oh well, sub 6.00 on MAL which is a dramatic score on the website, I didn’t expect that

Like I always say, I think people tend to misunderstood what a good manga can be. A lot of people are confusing a good ending and what they wanted to see. Because it’s not what you expected, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

So, what do we have on our hands? Dear Sa-Chan is the story of a couple, Kyo and Sa-Chan. They ... have a long-distance relationship and while Kyo is in Tokyo, he’s starting to cheat on Sa-Chan with his neighbor, a married woman. You might think it’s a NTR manga but it’s not. Or at least it’s not your typical and cliché netorare.
Kyo is an asshole. The mangaka doesn’t you to like him because you’re not supposed to but you have to think about why is it happening. The problem with Kyo is that he doesn’t know what’s the meaning behind the concept of love and that’s a legitimate question. He’s a 14-15 years old pretty kid with a lot of girls falling heads and heels for him and he doesn’t understand it.
When you grow up, you take your parents as role models. While school is here to teach you about living in a society, your parents are very important for your personal development, especially when we’re talking about relationships. Kyo’s mother left him early and he grow up watching his dad flirting with a lot of women. A lot. And each of them was trying to get him to love them back, to have a long and official relationship. It never happened. That’s why Kyo lost. That’s why he doesn’t understand shit. That’s why when he’s starting to cheat on Sa-chan, he doesn’t really regret it because he didn’t learn what’s good and what’s wrong. The whole thing about Kyo cheating on her because she was reluctant to have sex with him is just misleading on purpose, that’s not the problem here.
There’s a phase where Kuroiso states that he and Kyo are alike. Kuroiso is a playboy but he chose to. He chose to “play the flied” and have sex with a lot of partners. Kyo didn’t. I tend to think that’s also why in the end Kuroiso is able to change and has what it seems like a healthy relationship with a girlfriend while Kyo is just lost, Kuroiso became a playboy by choice, not because that’s the only think he knew his whole life.

I think the ending is really appropriate because it’s not bittersweet, it’s harsh reality. Honestly, Sa-Chan could have saved Kyo is she stayed with him and I don’t think the possibility of her fully forgiving him and having a happy life together would be far-fetched, it’s in the range of outcomes. But for the sake of interest, this was clearly better. As stated before, Kyo is broken and since he never got into any serious relationship for decades, he’s still in the same mental broken state.
Remember when I said her mother left him ? I don’t remember the exact phrase used but the last words she told him were to be a better man than his father. To be different. But you can’t overcome that easily a broken childhood and here’s the tragedy that finally unfolds at the end : he’s open to dating a very very young girl, moreover the daughter of Shino (the married woman). In the end, he’s just like his father and he’s searching for a new Sa-chan, a new young and ecstatic girl who can light up the flame.

I don’t have a lot to say about Sa-chan, she has a classic but good character development. You could sense before it was said that something wasn’t right when she asked Kyo to be lovers again after he told her about the cheating. Her face, her words, the crying, everything was apparent : it was wrong.

I do think Kyo, Kuroiso and Sa-chan are really well written characters. They’re not all likable but they are not empty shells acting because of a deus ex machina and making silly and incomprehensible decisions one after another.
I have my reserves about the Shino x Kaname problem. While I think they both have legitimate concerns, I think Kaname is a tad too cliché for my liking. For Shino, she did go overboard by having an affair with a young student but I can understand the reasoning behind her actions. It’s not perfect but I can buy.
I will say that the mangaka fucked up with Misuzu, it felt like he/she didn’t know what to do with her. The backstory was up, the interest for the MC was in and we never had a conclusion like she was gone from the story, I don’t get it.

Quickly about the artwork, I’m not fond off some faces and I think there’s not a lot of details behind the characters. Not very important and still a likeable pen.

I don’t think this story is for anyone because I feel like you have to experience the questioning of the concept of love to fully understand what the characters go through. It’s painfully realistic and I want people to view this manga differently. Maybe re-read it with a better global view of the situation and with a better understanding of the conflicts inside Kyo. Don’t bring your own knowledge on the table, it’s about what the characters each know about relationships.
Yes it’s brutal (and quite illegal in the end) but it’s not bad. Not at all.

Lonely Girl in Sakaraenai is a simple yuri manga with nothing really exciting. The premise is alright, I kinda like the way it was going and then we went on with the typical romance tropes. Honestly, I don’t necessarily feel disappointed, It’s just an okay-ish manga.

I will give the mangaka some props though. He (or she) didn’t drag it for long, didn’t milked it for no reason. They were strangers, then friends, then lovers and happy ending.
The drawing is quite good, the surroundings are well drawn, I like it.
If you are a yuri enjoyer you’ll like this manga, there’s nothing wrong with it. No ... reason to write a pamphlet about it, It’s just aight, nothing special.