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this anime dares to ask: what if pretty privilege was literal? really crazy stuff. if you're a pretty boy you have to dress like a girl in exchange for free room, free food, free everything, and on top of it they get paid. if you're a handsome man you're on the student council. i love it, it's so camp and over to top.

the art is really cute, the main boys are adorable! i actually love the three main characters, specifically Touru and Yuujirou, and the relationship the three of them foster throughout the show. i honestly wish it was a little longer, or just more ... focused on their lives than the activities going on at school. it could've been a really cute slice of life sort of situation!

the music is just fine. i will say i have had the theme song stuck in my head ever since i watched it, though.

also, the voice cast is absolutely loaded. Romi Park (Nana, Edward Elric, Hange, etc) voices Yuujirou, Kamiya Hiroshi (Levi, Izaya) voices the student council president, and Fukuyama Jun (Grell, Watanuki Kimihiro, Shinra) voices the main boy Touru!! just crazy. love them

the plot is just super silly, i think it's best to not take this show seriously and just have fun while you watch it. it is cute, it is camp, and it is fun to watch. don't worry about the logistics too much and you will enjoy this show!

this manga made me cry so hard. the cats are drawn so well and they're so cute, which is kind of a double-edged sword...

the story follows two stray cats and their experiences being strays as well as their relationship with humans (and other stray kitties). it's a painfully realistic account of what cats with no owners go through; there are scenes depicting violence against the cats by humans, car crashes, cat catchers, and some of the panels were so heartbreaking that i had to skip past them. but there are many more touching, adorable scenes that make this manga so sweet.

the story flows really ... well, and it has a satisfying ending. i was crying like a baby during the last chapter, it was just so sweet and happy. i definitely recommend reading this, and it's so short!! but be prepared to cry both happy and really really sad tears.

i think all i can really say about this manga is that the art is beautiful. the boys are very pretty and i like the character designs, and i think that was the main purpose for this manga even existing: the artist wanted to draw some interesting looking characters. if you like greek mythology and think this will be an accurate telling of the Ganymede myth, then you will be very disappointed! the author even says herself to think of this story as having nothing in common with the myth besides the names. so don't go into this excited for a manga based on Greco-Roman ... mythology, that would be setting yourself up for disappointment.

in the end nothing really happens. this may be a fault of the translation i read, but all of the dialogue is dreadful. no one says anything meaningful and i sympathised with Ganymede every time one of the gods monologues about something and all Ganymede has to say is "?". that is exactly how i felt. the gods say a lot of words that just mean nothing. it was frustrating. as far as a plot there really isn't one. Ganymede is there, and he will be forever until he "goes mad", whatever that means. Apollo is also there and i guess starts to like Ganymede a little by the last chapter. Hades and Zeus are also there sometimes.

they look cool, they are definitely all very pretty, but there is little variation between frames and i found that each drawing of each character looked roughly the same. this felt particularly true in the last two chapters, there were so many frames of Hades that just looked identical somehow. it is very, very short though, so i can't say it was a waste of time to read or anything, which is why i'm giving this a "mixed feelings" rather than "not recommended". if you're bored it's a quick read and the boys are pretty. but was it worth reading? not really. i wasn't positively or negatively affected by reading and completing it.

a bunch of incan warriors are reincarnated as japanese people who one by one remember their past lives. this show was a little confusing, and i feel like there was something missing that kept it from being really special but i'm not sure what it was. either way it was fun to watch, there's something kind of Jojo-esque about it from the whacky character designs to the fantastical battles and the fact that the main villain is voiced by Dio's voice actor. it could be really goofy but there were plenty of genuinely touching moments!

i think the best thing about this anime is the ... music! it was mostly very beautiful and some were funky as hell. the art is also really nice, i like the way the faces are drawn a lot, everyone's face is actually unique and the shading is pretty.

while the plot is kind of silly i still think this is worth watching, it's interesting. i didn't really know what was going on most of the time (granted i could've paid a little better attention i think) but i still had fun and i liked hearing the pretty music and looking at the pretty faces. it's short so might as well give it a try, especially if you like goofy fighting anime like Jojo :3

arina tanemura never fails to create a crazy plot! in a sea of samey shoujo romances, shinshi doumei cross is a breath of fresh air. well... not really, it's kind of stressful and a constant roller-coaster of emotions but it's definitely got a unique plot. shoujo romance lovers, please read shinshi doumei cross! you will not be disappointed.

characters:
the characters are fun, and there are a lot of them! all of them have a satisfying ending, even the ones with barely any screen time. all of the main characters get conclusive arcs too. my favourite character was Maora-chan <3
the protagonist, Haine, has a lot of typical ... shoujo MC traits but she's also an ex-delinquent, which actually has some bearing throughout the story instead of just being a fun fact. the love interest is someone i can't even go into without spoiling everything, it's just crazy. there's also canonically gay characters! and a canon gay relationship!!! i loved that.
in any case, you think you know all there is to know about a character, and then in the next chapter it all comes crashing down. and by the end they all have their own stories wrapped up in a little bow, finished in a satisfying way.

plot:
it's crazy. whenever you get a grasp on what's going on, arina introduces something insane to mix it all up. these poor kids. i did not expect anything that happened and it just kept adding layers onto what was already a crazy situation: a school with a rigid caste system. tbh the gold/silver/bronze thing didn't end up having much weight on the story, Haine is not a bronze for long and we barely interact with any characters outside of the student council (who i think are technically silvers, but because of their status in the council are like special). but that doesn't even matter, there's so much going on you will forget about it.

art:
BEAUTIFUL, AS USUAL. if you hate the plot and characters just read it to look at arina tanemura's beautiful art. she is such a master of classic shoujo illustrations, there should really be an arina museum. every panel is beautiful and so carefully drawn, every character is adorable, their hair and clothes and eyes just look amazing at all times. it's so crazy, she truly is a manga god.

romance:
also insane. love triangles and love polygons and secret relationships galore (and, unfortunately, there is a teacher/student relationship. but what can you do). everyone has their person and it's cute. definitely unconventional at some points but that's what makes it fun!

when i first started watching this, i thought maybe i just wasn't the target audience... but with each episode i realised that that wasn't the case, it's just not interesting. after the first two episodes, the plot moves at a snail's pace and the same thing happens basically every episode and isn't satisfying in the least. it can be summed up like this: two grown adults are kind of dating each other while each leading on a hopelessly devoted teenager. my main advice for anyone thinking of watching this: just watch Kuzu no Honkai. similar themes but things actually happen and the characters are fleshed ... out.

the MC is dreadful. he is miserable and every single one of his problems is his own fault. for the first few episodes he feels hopeless because he works part-time, and then he gets rejected by his unrequited crush which makes him crash out like a baby. the rest of the show he pretty much gets what he wants and still acts like a dejected teenager, acting bashful and depressed at every little thing. unrequited crush, named Shinako, is so insanely submissive, virginal, and shy, that every little word and glance makes her blush and go "eh". MC's other love interest, a manic pixie dream girl named Haru, is in love with him because she saw him once a few years ago (why does she even have the crow? it just pokes its head out of her bag from episode 3 onward). the whole plot revolves around MC being seen with Shinako, and Haru happens to appear, and cries and runs away. there's also a high school boy in love with Shinako too who for some reason she won't reject or even tell him that she is seeing MC. other side characters are introduced for a single episode just to cause tension between Shinako and MC or Haru and MC. it's not interesting at all.

apart from the two-dimensional, annoying characters, the music isn't good, the art is meh, the character designs are not interesting in the slightest, there's just nothing good about this. i finished it because it's short. i started watching it on 1.25x speed, and then i thought "why is this so slow? i must've forgotten to turn on 1.25x speed" only to realise it was in fact sped up, and then turned it to 1.5x. so many 10 second shots of someone looking around...

**SPOILERS AHEADDD**

despite more than half the episodes being dedicated to MC and Shinako's relationship slowly blossoming, she ends up vaguely dumping him. and then he gets with Haru. after being annoyed by her and pushing her away for the entire show. he just decides he does actually like her and wants to date her. it's so weird. i don't know what they were thinking with this plot, it wasn't interesting at all.

if you like shoujo manga, and you don't mind somewhat predictable shoujo manga plot points, then you will love kitchen princess! it is so wholesome and cute, the art is adorably classic, and the food looks so tasty; they even include actual recipes at the end of each volume if you want to make them yourself!

i usually get really frustrated at shoujo protagonists because they do really annoying things, like hear something out of context and then run away and make a lot of drama out of nothing. and Najika, the protagonist in Kitchen Princess, is not immune to this shoujo whims, but i ... only got frustrated once... and it quickly got resolved. so i'd say it's a lot better than other shoujo in that sense!

the romance is cute. nothing special, but it is cute. the characters are pretty classic shoujo archetypes: good girl protagonist Najika, most-popular-boy-in-school dreamboat Sora, and repressed anger issues naughty boy Daichi. there were actually some shocking twists that i won't even mention here but they did add a little freshness!

all in all, i would recommend kitchen princess! it's cute and a quick read, so why not?

this manga had its moments, some of the male characters are pretty, but it just runs on for far too long. there is a story somewhat unique in the shoujo romance genre based around the whole hacker thing, but the main team is basically invincible and the solutions to all the problems are almost childish. think like, the solution was love the whole time! stuff like that. i did enjoy the beginning, it seemed like a classic sweet shoujo, but then the back and forth of doubting themselves and each others feelings (due to misunderstandings and miscommunications, of course) and the constant "kurosaki is a ... p*do" jokes turned me off of it completely. there's a degree to which i can pretend that they're around the same age, but the amount of times kurosaki freaks out about not having a "loli complex" makes it impossible. at the end of the day, he is a 23 year old and she is 15/16, and they remind you of that a lot throughout the story. it's kind of gross.

there is some potential there, however, and if you're used to reading basic shoujo stories maybe this could bring some excitement for how different the main storyline is from the usual. but i can't recommend it, especially if you can't stomach adult/minor relationships.

this is genuinely one of the most frustrating anime i have ever watched. take the "miscommunication / misunderstanding" trope from every romance ever and that's literally ever episode so far. i'm only on episode 10 as of writing this, and i wish this was the love triangle anime that it appeared to be, but so far it's really not... i'll keep watching just to see if it gets any better though.

--

the story thus far revolves around Momo, our main girl, and her boyfriend Touji, as well as Momo's conniving "friend" Sae and a boy who likes Momo named Kairi. Momo & Touji are ... sooo lovey-dovey when things go right, which is almost never, because Sae is constantly thinking up dumb plans to break them up and what's annoying is that it always works. her plans are usually things like "i'm going to tell Momo that Touji wants her to meet him somewhere, but when she shows up, it's going to look like Touji was kissing me because i'm going to trick him into doing it!" and then when Momo inevitably sees this, she's heartbroken, runs away, and thinks its over. then they make up when it comes to light eventually. and the cycle repeats over and over.

the only character worth watching for is Kairi, who is funny and silly and super sweet. but unfortunately he hasn't shown up much since like episode 3. but Sae is so annoying and Momo & Touji are so dull and brainless that it cancels the good characters out. it's really tough.

there have also been episodes so far involving sexual assault and implied r*pe as well which is crazy. so just keep that in mind if that is a trigger for you.

the good parts though is the art style is pretty cute! and the music is fine. and the moments that aren't insanely stupid are fine, classic shoujo moments. but they're so few and far between so far!

This is another one of those quick manga that you can read in a few hours that I do think is worth josei/romance fans time. The characters are a bit frustrating, but not in any way that I haven't seen or behaved like myself in real life. It deals with jealousy, the cycle of abuse, and toxic relationships (both the high highs and the low lows) in a straightforward way just through character behaviour and their inner thoughts, which I definitely identified with. There are some really nice moments of good communication between couples, but also a lot of instances where those communication skills go ... right over the MCs head which I think is very realistic. She isn't an amazing person, she has her problems, and life isn't going to be perfect all the time.

The art at first is a little bit shoddy but improves significantly very quickly as the manga goes on, the girls are absolutely gorgeous with their big eyes and long eyelashes. So it is worth reading past the 3rd chapter if the art is what turns you off—it gets MUCH better.

The ending felt rushed and confused me. I don't like endings like this one, that just seem open-ended and make very little sense. It ended abruptly and I remember reading the last page, realising that was the last page, and being incredibly confused like "no way it just ended like that..." but alas, a lot of these short josei romance's seem to end like this so nothing that hasn't been done before.

I think this manga is just fine. It's not long and it tells an interesting story and has important themes. Definitely try to find a good translation if you're reading in English, the one I read for the first few chapters was dubious and it was really hard to tell what was going on but that only lasted for a short while and then it all made sense. It's short enough to just get through it and see how you feel for yourself.