If you want a fluffy rom com with an absolute of a loving dork as a protagonist, that has a natural inclination to get into the most dumb of situations, look no further! This is the perfect pick!
It's so underrated it hurts, I wish more people knew about it.
Not gonna lie, I may be " a bit" (as you can see from my scores..,,,) biased when it comes to Kieta, which is easy easy one of my all-time faves (going as far as making me sell my dignity and soul for costly japanese tankobon), but let's see why I hold it up so high.
Firstly,
...
it's definitely one of a kind. There is no unnecessary melodrama, and misunderstandings here are only for comic effect, as it should be. There are no 3-volume-duration problems that would be solved with simple ✨communication✨, a 5 minute dialogue. Speaking of communication, I love that when there is a misunderstanding here, they always get fully discussed. Sometimes, they are even already taken care of, but the other person wasn't aware of the entirety or details of the situation, and the author comes up with a situation where it needs to be fully exposed, and I love this. There are no secrets and misconceptions.
After I read Ao no Flag, I saw the synopsis of this one and went all "oh no, more drama and love triangles", but no! If you're worried about any of those things, don't be!
One of the aspects of this manga that I truly love is the comedy. Is top-tier on my book. I wasn't expecting it to be so good vibes, and when I read the first chapter I went "woaah??! It’s an actual comedy??!". I love them. And Aoki has the most funny, relatable and sometimes dumb break-downs ever, with the most amazing faces, and we have to thank artist Aruko for that, and for the godlike art too, she's completely good in what she does (did you see the covers? man… you at least should!).
Next, something that probably put some people off. It is indeed a boys love in essence. But it has shoujo written all over it, and it's another thing I never saw before, at least done correctly. If you don't like the genre, don't worry. It is a silly wholesome fluffy rom com as any other, it just happens that two guys are the main couple, this is no biggie. This is published in the same magazine as Kimi ni Todoke and Lovely Complex for example, the crowned rulers of slow burn. If you're like me and hate heavy, explicit or cliche/fetishized yaoi, this is the thing most further away from it, and will most certainly stay that way.
Other thing is the story truly moves forward. Things get solved so quickly (compared to long-running series, with annoying problems that run over for even 10 volumes, usually 2 at the least), it's refreshing to see. You'll not be troubled and pulling out hair for too long, and I always get satisfied with the solutions given. There is no third person here to screw with the main couple too, or love rivals. I won't put my 2 cents here because it can happen in the future, it's one more troupe almost always used, but for now, the situation is looking pretty clean. There happened to be at least one character that looked like they would take this role, but then became a supporter instead, and was shown to have a loving personality. I think this would happen too if another situation like this rises in the future.
And I should have written about this first but xD well. The characters! I love all of them! With all of my heart! Don't be scared at first because of some questionable actions of the cast, because not everything is at it seems! I'll not say much to not spoil it, but damn, they are natural, realistic, have mistakes, but even then, super loveable, and I love how different they are from one another. I saw it happen a lot, having an annoying character in the main cast for no reason, but this doesn't happen here, and they're all very supporting. The secondary couple is super cute as well.
At last, I forgot about mentioning this, but it's a series that is indeed very very light hearted, but knows how to have some more heavy topics now and then, after all, the main couple is gay (the couple, but the characters seems bi). There is a recent little arc involving homophobia and I really liked the way Aoki dealt with it, the answers he gives.
As teens in high school, there is too some debate about the future and what to do with it too, and things like that. About finding yourself in general.
Wait, not last yet, one more thing I remembered! The plot twists, lmao. Especially in the beginning. Like, I cried. Of laughter. When you think there couldn’t be any other thing behind the situation, BOOM, there are!! And I love how they change the flow we thought the story was in. All the ones I remember here were pretty good for the story, in my opinion.
But yeah, I think that's it! At least all my small brain could remember. This turned out to be a kinda chaotic review, but anyways! I love preaching about Kieta, so here we are. Give it a chance, please! And if you like it, there will be an English release later this year =]
Sadly, there is nothing in my country and I’m not thaaat hopeful there’ll be, but enjoy it for me :D!
Aug 3, 2021
Kieta Hatsukoi
(Manga)
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If you want a fluffy rom com with an absolute of a loving dork as a protagonist, that has a natural inclination to get into the most dumb of situations, look no further! This is the perfect pick!
It's so underrated it hurts, I wish more people knew about it. Not gonna lie, I may be " a bit" (as you can see from my scores..,,,) biased when it comes to Kieta, which is easy easy one of my all-time faves (going as far as making me sell my dignity and soul for costly japanese tankobon), but let's see why I hold it up so high. Firstly, ... |
