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Somewhat decent premise with an interesting idea ruined by an insufferable MC.

First things first, the art. Yes, when you read the first chapter and see how it looks, you’d probably throw up, but it does get better over time. It went from looking like a literal sketch to something more polished. Just comparing the background from chapter 1 with the later chapter shows how much the art improves. The character designs are quite bland, but for a high school romcom story, it’s passable. I personally liked the artstyle but if you say otherwise, I can totally understand.

Now, this manga commits one of the most common ... romcom sins: introducing new characters out of nowhere and then ditching them. You’d think we’d get some backstory or explanation about certain characters, but you get nothing. It’s not a huge deal since only 2-3 characters get that treatment, but it’s still worth mentioning.

The biggest issue is however how terrible the MMC, Tanaka, is. First of all, the reason why he fell in love with the FMC, Mizuno, is because he believes that scary girls like her are actually cute, which… I can respect since, hey, ain’t that the reason why we most of the time went head over heels for someone? Tanaka also helps Mizuno to be understood by their classmates which is nice of him and in the process opening up the isolated Mizuno to Tanaka more and more. Sweet, isn’t it? So why is Tanaka the worst part of the story? It’s because he’s just a nothing burger of an MMC. It is definitely not uncommon for romcoms to have a very very bland MMC in service as the reader’s self-insert, but Tanaka’s personality is literally “Mizuno so cute, Mizuno needs my help, Mizuno so cute” which gets real annoying real quick. But if I’m being honest, it’s not really enough for it to ruin the enjoyment for me. What made me turn from enjoying this manga to rolling my eyes over it is the conclusion of Mizuno and Tanaka’s relationship.

SPOILER

Near the end of the manga, Amano (one of those characters who never got closure) tells Tanaka that Mizuno might be aromantic. She doesn’t see love the way other people do, which is why she values friendship more than romance and if she and Tanaka got together, it would be a one-sided relationship. Mizuno later confirms this by rejecting him and says she does like him, but doesn’t understand it romantically, hence why she wanted to preserve their friendship forever because Tanaka is the one that gets and understands her. However, instead of listening to what Amano and Mizuno said, Tanaka basically said: No, I want us to be a couple and it’s okay if we don’t understand it because it’ll make us fall in love even more, which is the most self-centered shit he could say at that moment. By saying that he is implicitly saying that it’s okay if the relationship is one-sided and fuck whatever your feeling is regarding this relationship that we had as long as I got a cute GF. And to add salt to injury, just remember that the seed of their relationship is Tanaka thinking scary girls are cute, not some deep emotional bond, just a boy and his bizzare fetish which is fantastic. Tanaka is just so insufferable for the last 3-4 chapters that it ruins the manga for me immensely.

Am I reading too much into it? Definitely. It’s just a romcom about highschoolers. However, if you want to introduce concepts like aromantic MC, you better do something about it instead of killing the entire idea by “talk-no-jutsu”-ing it out of existence and settling for a typical romcom ending.

Enjoy 3/4th of the manga and zap the rest out of your precious memory.

If you read the synopsis and imagine the MCs going through all the cliché situations from a typical high school romcom, you’ll get the gist of this manga.

It fails in every aspect. The romance is vapid, the comedy is painfully flat, the characters are shallow, the SoL elements are a slog even for SoL standard, the art is below average, and the story is plagued with clichés and pacing issues. It feels like the author just listed all the clichés and events they wanted to draw without properly connecting them, making the story feel more like a gag compilation rather than a cohesive narrative. The ... concept of the "usagi illness" could have been interesting on paper, but the execution is so poor that it kills any intrigue the synopsis might have sparked.

There’s hardly anything substantial here for me to recommend this manga to anyone. I might suggest it to someone who is very, very new to manga and wants a sterile romcom, but even then, I’d prefer to recommend something with more depth. The only thing I found remotely interesting was the final omake (not the last chapter, just the omake), because it ventured into a place that romcom mangas rarely explore, but that's just a novelty point.

Read other romcoms.

When the "COM" in romcom is an actual "COM," you get a different feel to the story compared to the abundance of their repetitive and frustrating contemporaries.

The story focuses on the relationship between Ayame, a misunderstood delinquent, and Nagi, the boy Ayame has had a crush on since childhood, and their middle school life as a couple. Yes, they are dating, and no, it's not a spoiler—the manga starts with Ayame "forcefully" confessing to Nagi. So what does the story offer if the end goal isn't for them to take 30 chapters just to say "I love you"? It offers a narrative where Nagi, who ... is initially afraid of Ayame, slowly but surely grows closer to her and begins to appreciate her, in turn helping Ayame become a gentler person. It's like a tiger being tamed by a gentle trainer.

Thanks to this story, the comedy is able to shine through. It does have its moments where it gets too goofy and random, but when the goofiness is just right, it's charming. However, this comes at a cost. Since the focus is more on the comedy part of the romcom, you don't get a lot of fluffy and wholesome moments. There are still some moments, of course, but if you're coming in looking for a fluff train, you're at the wrong station. The romance itself is nothing out of the ordinary; in fact, if you skipped reading the first chapter where Ayame confesses to Nagi, you might not even realize they're dating unless the characters mention it. But let’s be honest—in romcoms, is there really a massive difference between the dating phase and the blooming phase? Mostly, it's just the characters being more touchy with each other, but that’s the charm of "Koisuru Yankee Girl's" romance. They're dating, but it feels grounded and doesn’t feel like the main characters are about to kiss each other the moment they see one another. They still get embarrassed doing certain things, but you can chalk that up to middle school’s maiden heart, which seems quite realistic. The fact that they're not playing a push-and-pull game with each other makes the romance comparatively less frustrating and more enjoyable overall.

The art style is typical for a 4-Koma, which makes the manga look quite basic, but if the story hits, you can overlook the art, and "Koisuru Yankee Girl" does hit most of the time. It's a relatively short manga, so there isn't much space for all the characters to breathe and develop, but for what it is, it does its job well.

Would I recommend this? If you want a break from a romcom where the main characters take 10 million years just to hold hands, then you'd probably enjoy this. It's nothing special, but sometimes being different from dozens of derivative works makes you stand out like a healthy thumb.