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I really enjoyed this series, and I'm glad I eventually decided to give it a shot.

I recall seeing it in bookstores all the time, but the story didn't sound interesting to me, too cutesy, and I thought a manga about hairstyling would be a snore. But this wasn't the first time I was proven wrong.

Sure enough, it was cute, but not overly so. I just found everything about it endearing. The characters grew on me, and by the end I even developed a soft spot for Iori's annoying way of speaking.

I don't know the first thing about hairstyling, but the story was ... entertaining. It was the characters that really held it up and kept things going, so they were the favourite part of my Beauty Pop experience. At first, I wasn't sure who I liked best, but near the end I realized Narumi had won me over.

As for the art, it begs to be described with one word; cute. That word is extremely overused when it comes to my opinion of BP, but it's so true. Every aspect of the series struck me as quite adorable, from Narumi's angry outbursts, Kiri's nonchalant attitude, Ken's over-apologizing, Kei's love for sweets, or Ochiai's little crush... to the clean and sweetly drawn facial expressions and large eyes, the bright, colourful volume covers, and the panning out of random story events.

It was a good read. Any fan of the shoujo genre shouldn't pass this one up.

I picked up a copy of SA during a random manga buying spree, and I wasn't sure if I'd think much of it at the time, but it sounded interesting enough for me to give it a shot.

I am so relieved that I did. That was in February 2008, and now SA has become my favourite manga of all time. It starts off like your average shoujo, but as I read more I was just so surprised how much I enjoyed the story and characters. It's very well written, every chapter is entertaining and the re-read value is very high for me. Needless to ... say I've done so quite a few times. :) The more I read the more obsessed I get with this manga...!

I usually find it hard to get into shoujo manga... I'll read them, but the cliches and events that happen over and over again makes me feel like all these manga artists are just copying each other's plots in order to show off their art. The stories feel empty. SA was different for me. I feel like it strays from the norm of the main female quickly falling for the main male and that was what grabbed me. It isn't just that, though, SA is different in a number of ways. There's a lot of characters and Maki Minami eventually gives all of them attention, and they all get their own stories. I really enjoyed that. Instead of everything revolving around Hikari and Kei at all times, she offers a good balance of character spotlight.

As far as art goes, I really didn't like it at first. It certainly has its moments, but it's nothing gorgeous like, for example, Arina Tanemura can pull off. But to compensate, the story quality can't even be compared. I now have a soft spot for Minami's artwork because of how much I love SA, it doesn't need to be beautiful at all times. (though I'll admit I'm one of those people guilty of buying manga just for lovely artwork. xD)

And Hikari is just an awesome character for a shoujo heroine. She always cracks me up with how ridiculous she is, and that's part of why her relationship with Kei is so much fun. 8D

I'm really, highly enjoying SA right now, and am excited for future chapters to see what other dramatic events Minami can pull out of nowhere. ;D I'd recommend this manga (not so much the anime, the manga is much longer and much better in my opinion) who happens to like romance (for there's plenty to be had!) or just a really amusing story with characters that are easy to become attached to.

I couldn't help but instantly fall in love with this anime, which was partly the fault of my love for Pita Ten, another work by Koge Donbo.

The story, on the surface seems like any other super cute magical girl anime, but the darker, mysterious theme beneath that really grabbed me, just like in Pita Ten. (more so the manga, though)

Not to mention the tons of secrets that Karin and Kazune's relationship hides. They slowly unveiled, leaving you to predict what was really happening, and who really knew what. Not much more can be said about that without spoilers, but it was absolutely amazing. ... Especially so in the manga. Needless to say, Kazune and Karin are one of my favourite couplings ever. I can only hope Chu (KCK's sequel) will get a proper animation someday.

This anime was recommended to me a while back but I didn't get the chance to watch it until now, and I'm sure glad I remembered to! Before watching it, I thought it would just be a normal school anime, the last thing I was expecting was the twist added by the characters' "Alices", which are like superpowers.

I didn't have trouble enjoying this anime; it's fun and entertaining right off the bat. I was especially charmed by Natsume's character, but was a little disappointed that more wasn't explained about his background and current "situation". I'm sure the manga does a better job, so there's ... always that to look forward to.