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Nov 13, 2023
what does it mean to "be yourself"?
i feel like this manga is kinda hard to parse because you can interpret it in so many different ways; evidenced by the fact that i disagree (but only mildly) with the person who recommended this as a trans allegory. i do not feel the same but it's very clear that themes of what it means to be a man/woman are present within the story and are obviously up for discussion! it's a valid lens to view the story through! but i don't think it's the *Main* Point.
'inside mari' presents itself as a body swapping story but it ...
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[spoiler alert] isn't. there are heavy themes of identity and sublimated selfhood present here... i think that's why i identify (lol) so heavily with the themes present. MANY (in fact, i'd say most) of my favorite stories are about identity/what it means to be a person/be yourself. so when 'inside mari' gives you "frumpy guy switches bodies with a cute young girl" for the first 50 or so chapters, you're obviously going to expect the worst. and you're not wrong for doing so, but everything is kosher here.
'inside mari' is actually about fragmented identity. it's also about trauma (yawn... what isn't nowadays) but it's MOSTLY about what happens when you no longer recognize yourself. what if your id was so separate from your ego that you no longer identified with the person that you are? what if you idealized someone else so much you became them? i think that this manga shines the most when it's trying to answer those questions, and ESPECIALLY when it comes from MARI's pov and not ISAO's.
i originally assumed that something supernatural was going on in this manga but that's not the case. the psychological tag is riiiight there, baby. i should've expected it but for some reason, when it was recommended to me, i didn't exactly understand the climax. i had to sit with it for a bit... and i realized that this has the exact same feel as all of my other favorite stories. it's... a bit more HORNY than the others but it makes sense why it is.
mari constructed an interior isao. the "isao" we follow for a majority of the story is just another part of mari. she needed him, or at least the persona of him that she created, in order to reunite with the fumiko part of her identity. nearing the very end of the manga, where mari is inside herself, separating (or perhaps uniting with) the other fragmented parts of her psyche, she is represented by a crude drawing of herself. this is what it meant for mari to "be herself" before the events of the story. now she no longer has to be "mari" or "isao" or even "fumiko" ... she can just. be.
and i think that's why this story works so well!
mari is a nothing but voyeur in her own body. to the depths of her being, she has no idea what it means to be herself anymore. her original identity (fumiko) was stolen from her by her mother and then everyone else became obsessed with "mari" as if she were some sort of shiny toy. she became a lightning rod for everyone's ideals and attention, without ever being seen for who and what she truly was. that's what leads her to isao in the first place. the isao she created in her head IDOLIZED HER JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, instead of the, perhaps, much more confusing reality in which the OPPOSITE is true... but the most interesting thing about the real isao is that he never even seemed to recognize the fact that existed, despite her constant voyeurism of his life. she wanted to be as free as he supposedly was (though it's clear she's only seeing this "freedom" through her own distorted view) but she ended up as more of a prisoner inside herself than ever.
it's clear that there is some reason why mari's identity is so tied up with feelings of love and sex... isao's own sexuality is obviously a big part of that, but, looking deeper: mari's own unfamiliarity of her body, the fact that she turned down every confession from boys her own age, the fact that her first breakdown is spurned by a boy's romantic/sexual advances towards her, the fact that mari's cuddling with yiro in the nurse's office was completely non-sexual, the fact that she only feels comfortable enough to explore her own body and sexuality when she is overtaken by the isao personality she constructed and the only person she explicitly has sexual intimacy with (outside of groping her best friend earlier on in the manga) IS THE REAL ISAO, DESPITE BEING DISGUSTED BY IT/HIM... i think when you add all of this up, it paints a certain picture of the LGBT variety (perhaps not of mari being transgender, though i still think it's a valid reading and i can't help but see it myself) but perhaps that mari needed to sublimate her attraction to women THROUGH the lens of a man. she is only able to act on these urges/attraction because she is perceiving it from the point of view of isao. (it's definitely worth re-reading the whole manga with this in mind, because it actually is very interesting, even if it's not the intended reading!)
speaking of which, it is ONLY through her intimate connection with yiro (which is sublimated through isao's fictional personality, and thus, "HIS" feelings - gotta love plausible deniability) that she's able to figure out who she is, what happened to her, and why "isao" became the dominant personality in her body. and when all is said and done... when isao and fumiko "leave" and mari is left "alone" in her body; it is only after she's finally able to come to terms with what she has done and what she has lived through. the fact that yiro can physically feel this change occuring, and that mari can recognize that her isao is still lingering... watching over her... is. beautiful. despite the fact that yiro fell for the isao personality in the end, and perhaps this is what ends up making them drift apart... and for as convoluted (on the surface) and weird and intense as the fixation mari has on isao AND herself is; i think it's beautiful that it ends up being the very thing that saved her.
and isn't that the most important thing of all?
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 5, 2023
okay... i'm thoroughly convinced that myuuna** doesn't know how to write stories with any actual respect to the the characters in the stories or the readers. this whole thing just reads like a checklist of things that should probably be included in a shoujo manga, i'm actually beginning to be convinced that they're just writing the easiest and unimpressive kind of love stories as a front for like money laundering or something.
that's MOSTLY a joke for legal reasons, but i mean what other explanation is there, really? it seems like this "myuuna**" person, whoever they are, just makes up some random characters and does the
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old "draw from a hat, throw a dart at a dartboard" kind of storytelling where they just try to fit as many clichés into a story as possible to make it feel simultaneously SO bloated and essentially like the story version of cotton candy dropped into a puddle of water.
they clearly do not care about their characters at all. all of them are lazily written and 1-dimensional. you know from minute one that the ML is only fronting as a player because some "traumatic" event happened to him sometime between when he saved the FL and when the story begins. you know immediately from the clunky way her childhood friend is introduced that he's gonna confess to her at the drop of a hat, whenever she shows interest in the ML. it's just so fucking BORING, i can't stand it. and i know that most shoujo enjoyers are smarter than this. they wouldn't like it either! so the only conclusion is that it's not actually being written for ANYONE.
i started feeling like i was gonna throw up from laughing so hard about the point where the FL's female friend was introduced because it's so fucking hilarious that they didn't feel like it was necessary for her to show up until that point because the only thing that "actually matters" in shoujo is that the romantic leads get as much time together as possible, right?
storytelling actually ISN'T about creating a rich narrative around characters and their relationships to one another; it's actually about how fast in an afternoon you can shit out a romance story about two fucking giant idiots who are only concerned with one another and no one else in their lives is ever given the time of day or the spotlight because they're not the important ones. that's crazy! you learn something new everyday!
you cannot seriously tell me that young love happens this quickly, i don't CAAAAAAAAAAAARE. there are stories where the MCs get together in chapter one that are WAY FUCKING BETTER than anything this dumbass author could ever hope to even imagine, let alone write. it's so unrealistic, and hyper-fictionalized and so reliant on tropes and clichés and annoying bullshit. if you told me this is the shoujo manga that the girls in shoujo manga read, i would believe you. if you told me someone trained an AI to write a shoujo manga and this was the result, i'd believe you. if you told me that this was an approximation of what shoujo manga seems like to someone who's never read a single one before, i would believe you.
it's. that. fucking. bad.
once again, though, the art is lovely.
[10 year long sigh]
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 5, 2023
okayyyyyyy where do i even start with this one...
well, i'll be honest. it's been a little while since i've read a good shoujo romance cover to cover. i tend to like most of the shoujo manga i read, simply because it's usually full to the brim with good-hearted fun and wacky antics, even when it does have a dash of cliché thrown in here or there. i also think we can bring up the fact that most people do not know what a cliché is versus what a convention is, y'know?
conventions of a genre, (in this case, the shoujo romance genre) are things that you
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would expect to happen within the genre of story that they're in. in MOST shoujo manga, you expect for the MCs to be in high school, go to see fireworks together, have a big confession scene, and to deal with some type of love rival during the course of the story (depending on how long it is, of course). these are all pretty common CONVENTIONS of the shoujo genre. clichés, however, are things that happen within a story that aren't necessarily functionally part of the story, if that makes sense? they're moreso forced into a narrative rather than actually being utilized in the narrative. such as, in this story, for example: a first kiss being stolen by a skeevy ML, the ML being a weird pervert every time he gets near the MC, the ML negging the MC about being flat-chested... uh. hmm.
yeah.
you can probably see where i'm going with this.
this manga (at least the first two chapters, because i can't find the other 18 and i'm certain they probably won't change my mind) reads like a wattpad fanfiction from 2013. "i have to live with harry styles for 6 months because my parents left the country?!?!" or some stupid shit like that, y'know the type. the type in which every single scene with the male lead ends up with him essentially forcing the female lead into a salacious position? mhm.
well, it's trite. it's been-there-done-that with a extra large side of who-was-this-actually-written-for because i don't think tweens should be reading what is essentially a dry-humping porn book. i mean how lame can you get, let's be honest...? do people actually like this shit? because i simply couldn't give less of a damn about what happens when you present me with something like the first chapter of THIS stinker. i only read the second chapter because it was the only other one available, thank god. you KNOW it's bad when i rated the shoujo manga with the rapists higher than this one LOL.
that being said, if the mangaka came up with better characters and a better plot, it would actually be really enjoyable to read because her style is excellent! i mean it's pretty typical-looking in this genre, but it's probably the best weapon they've got in their arsenal at this point. maybe someday if the author thinks up something less ridiculous and less tween 50 shades-esque pandering-y then i'll give their work a shot, but you couldn't pay me enough to finish thing manga even if you were offering all the world's supply of cash.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Sep 12, 2022
first off, let me start off by saying this story is absolute bottom-of-the-barrel horseshit. it's like a car crash you can't look away from. and i don't really have much to say about it other than the fact that it is a joyless husk with absolutely no nuance that would've been way more interesting and funny if it was something someone posted onto r/AmITheAsshole.
i really don't understand any of the character motivations, no matter how many times they keep showing the process behind their thoughts. i dunno why reiji is somehow hotdick supercock to all these people, because he really just seems like a
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sadboy mumble rap artist in every respect. that's another thing: i hate, like, every character. all of these people need to be in prison or dead. there's seriously no fixing this shit! the only characters i don't hate are the childhood friends, who i don't even really like but they're the least bad characters of the whole story, and nagi, who i'm completely apathetic towards.
i just don't understand why any of these people act the way that they do. i would lock them up with a therapist but i'm afraid they'd eat them. having trauma is no reason to unload your shit onto someone else. that teacher has NO REASON to act the way that she does, and she's the craziest one of the bunch. i truly believe all of these characters should be lined up and shot. seems like that's the best ending for everybody. can't say i'll be revisiting this one when more chapters come out, at least i don't PLAN to. seriously, what a steaming pile.
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Sep 3, 2022
man... how long have i wished for a good horror romcom?
i know there's plenty out there but they always seem to get the balance off one way or another. "i want to hold aono-kun so badly i could die", however, is an impeccably well-done blend of seinen and shoujo ideals. the way that umi shiina has crafted this narrative that could so easily have wound up cheesy or disgusting in a lesser author's hands is just... outstanding. i seriously wanna kiss her brain for coming up with something that lines up so well with my tastes. there's not a single thing in this manga i
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would change (so far, at least, but i have faith that she'll tie things up in a satisfying way.) it's absolutely flawless, in my opinion. even the title is perfect.
i don't usually fall so head-over-heels in obsessive love with something (lie) but this manga really sucked me in so quickly and violently... i literally made a playlist for aono and yuri right after i caught up on the chapters and i've been working on it for hours. it's one of those loves where you just wanna shout it from the rooftop. i want everyone to know about this thing.
the characters are so wonderfully written. though i have a feeling we don't know everything there is to know about them, yet. i'm genuinely excited to learn more. yuri is an amazing protagonist. she's quirky, relatable, funny, affable, and strong. and aono plays so well with her character; both his light and dark side. the supporting cast are also unique and engaging and interesting. i adore all the relationships here, ESPECIALLY aono and yuri's and it's just crazy to me how more people aren't writing dissertations on them and web-weaving with song lyrics and poem fragments and whatnot... there's genuinely so much material there. it's so twisted and romantic and... ugh. *chef's kiss*
the plot itself gets more complicated as it goes on but umi shiina does such a good job at establishing the rules of the ghosts & the spirit world believably and explaining them all in a way that makes sense and lines up perfectly to the themes she's trying to convey. having mio be the lifeline in the story because she knows so much about the horror genre is so funny to me also LOL she's a wonderful play on the "expert" character in these types of stories bc she's literally just a high school girl who likes horror movies. it's neat! i adore her.
OH, there's another thing! the HORROR, oh my god. it's so understated and it works PERFECTLY for this story for it to be less "all in your face" and more of a creeping dread where something is clearly not right here and it just gets more and more horrifying as you begin to understand it, unlike a lot of horror media where you feel less scared as you understand the monster more. finding out the bad intentions behind the actions of our other protagonist that he himself isn't even aware of and what is driving him to become what he's becoming is just... so horrific.
the art style also works perfectly for the type of understated horror that umi shiina is going for. the art looks very simple on the surface, but that makes it all the more horrifying when an incredibly detailed panel shows the true horror of the situation that our characters are in. i also think it works very well because it's more... pulpy and demure and shoujo-esque than the average seinen, so it works perfectly for the more cheesy and funny scenes. it's truly just beautiful tbh.
all-in-all, i dunno if this review is gonna make anyone wanna read this manga but i really really urge you to check it out if it sounds even the least bit interesting to you. it's not just terrifying, but funny and sweet and romantic and erotic and emotional... it is jam-packed with some of the most delightful art and writing i've ever had the pleasure of checking out. this manga really brought me back to the days of elementary school when i used to voraciously read 500 page books in one night because i couldn't put them down. i'm hungry for more. i want it so badly i could die.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Aug 1, 2022
i really hate this story.
i remember the first time i read this, i wanted to like it so bad. i was new to reading shoujo (i had been a yaoi-enjoyer before that and didn't really care about heterosexual romance all that much but that was slowly changing lol) and i think this was maybe the 3rd or 4th one i ever read so i wasn't super knowledgeable about all the tropes and themes and what-have-you. i liked it well enough at the beginning, but as time went on i really started to grow bitter towards the story and the characters. i began not really caring
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about what was going on and it was a slough to get through it the first time. i'm surprised i even did, honestly.
after that, i swore i'd never read it again. however, like most promises i make to myself, i broke it.
i've been a long-time hater of this manga that everyone says is "the best of all time" and "the #1 essential romance manga", so i needed to check if i had really been overreacting or not. because tbh 7 years is a long time to hate something you only ever gave one chance and don't remember everything about. i guess? it had been a long enough time; i figured maybe my views have changed, or maybe i was remembering it as being worse than it actually was.
well, i wasn't. it really is that bad.
so bad that i honestly can't stomach pushing through to the end a second time since i already know what happens. i mean the story is just so confusing after a certain point? it starts out fine and actually very intriguing but past chapter like 28 or something it just becomes so fucking annoying. i won't lie and say i don't like ASPECTS of the story, though that may leave you wondering why i only gave the story a 1/10. well, it's the fact that it's just about the most annoyed i've EVER been while reading a professionally published story.
seriously. i don't know why it gets on my nerves so bad but it's incredibly irritating seeing these two characters who, up until this point, have been pretty consistently & competently smart become so easily manipulated by other people? narumi literally shows up out of NOWHERE and puts the story to a full halt and it is HEADACHE inducing the way she is able to so easily manipulate the situation between futaba and kou even though she's a literal nobody? WHO EVEN IS NARUMI LMAO. she literally serves no purpose but to make kou depressed again and stop all of the progress he was making with futaba and co. still, i at least think kou's arc with narumi actually has purpose in the story and adds meaning to his own character.
on my initial read all those years ago, i felt bad for touma because of everything that happens towards the end (you know). however, on my reread... i can't fathom why i ever felt that way? literally his WHOLE purpose as a character is to come between futaba and kou, and i KNOW that's how the second male lead is usually supposed to function but the problem is that there's NOTHING interesting or good about his character BESIDES THAT? i never feel anything but annoyance when he shows up on a page. literally all he does as a character is manipulate futaba (the whole "i'm sure he thought the kiss was meaningless, don't worry." thing? C'MON!) and be a fucking nuisance because you know for a fact that he and futaba aren't gonna end up together, anyways.
now hear me out, because i LOVE drama and it has been done really well in shoujo manga before (it's even been done better BY THIS MANGAKA) but this drama is just so fucking avoidable if the two leads would just COMMUNICATE AT ALL! OR EVEN THE FRIENDS??? ik the whole conceit of these stories is that there are misunderstandings and miscommunication but, jesus, it has never felt more poorly done than it was here. to me, anyways.
the sad thing is that i like the main 5 characters and even most of the secondary characters, but a little bit past the midway point, kou and futaba become fucking USELESS!!! futaba randomly decides to make herself more girly because she still likes kou (and it's a conscious effort on her part lmao, makes me wonder why she even did it, considering he doesn't care abt that) and then in like the next fucking chapter she's like "jk i don't like kou anymore i gotta move on" and then she switches back and forth constantly it's like GIRL YOU ARE SO WISHY-WASHY just shut up oh my god. as for kou, i really do like his arc after the stuff w narumi and how he's trying desperately to move forward even though he's still sad about his mother's death and that he feels like he can actually move forward with futaba (and co.) as opposed to narumi who is holding him back... but it still doesn't save this manga.
i feel insane! i don't know why so many people revere this story?!?!? i'm sorry but i don't see it as anything that actually stands out among the genre or even how it stands out from the stories within the mangaka's own catalogue. it's just fucking awful in my opinion, the ending feels rushed and sloppy and it feels as though it's the only way they actually could've ended up together even though it makes little to no sense? it's just fucking stupid.
excuse my annoyance and everything, even after all that, i still feel like i didn't properly explain why i hate this story so much. but honestly it's just... not fun to read. that's the real bottom line here. i didn't enjoy it... and ik you don't have to enjoy everything for it to be considered good but i just can't see any value in this story. if it had remained on the original trajectory and hadn't added touma and narumi to ruin the story half-way through, maybe i'd think differently but... i don't.
oh well!
Reviewer’s Rating: 1
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Jul 31, 2022
i tend to gravitate towards stories that break my heart in some way and force me to face something fundamental about myself in the process.
if me saying that this story was paramount to founding my ideas about love and relationships sounds a bit hyperbolic, i'm sorry. it's true, though. this story is insanely brilliant and beautiful and world-rending. i've never wanted so badly to be able to read something for the first time all over again. that said, every subsequent read has added even more to the experience, so i'm not mad.
i don't usually buy physical copies of things (i mean most everything has a
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free version online, anyways) but it really proves the quality that i spent my own hard-earned money on a physical copy of this manga. in fact, i consider this to be among my top three books EVER.
on to the actual meat of the review, though. i think this is a standout piece of media and i know not everyone agrees with that, WHICH IS FINE (even though bitterness fills my veins whenever i see people calling this boring or "style over substance" or whatever lol) but in my eyes, it's the most perfect manga i've ever read.
the setting of the story immediately makes you feel like you're part of this beautiful, eccentric world that Usamaru Furuya has painstakingly created (i don't need to explain how hard it is to create your own fantasy world, do i?) everything from the mysterious god floating in the sky, to the steampunk-y feel of the actual world is so masterfully done and contributes so much to the enjoyment of the story. this isn't the type of story where a world like ours would work, anyways, so it only makes sense for it to be fantastical.
i'm definitely not religious but i love that the main plot has this giant, otherworldly (even in this other world, Marie feels otherworldly) THING that everyone reveres and the way it's actually incorporated into the story in a way that makes sense. the way she hangs over this world, seemingly watching our protagonists' every movements while not even really being an active participant is just so... MMH *chef's kiss*
the way everything flows in this story is amazing, i truly feel that it does everything it was set out to do and explains everything that needed explanation. yeah, the story can probably feel a bit outlandish or even dull to other people but i don't feel that way at all. this story has a weird way of getting to you? the first time i read it i was so deeply entranced by it that i could feel myself disengaging from reality LOL it really sucks you in if you let it!
as does the art, for that matter! the way everything looks is so incredible. the maximalist set-pieces of gears and gadgets and metal and everything is such an interesting setting and the art is perfect for it imo. from the haunting and quiet, desolate landscapes, to the huge, imposing figures, and the humble homes in the village it's all just so GORGEOUS. the characters are very simple-looking but not in a way that doesn't translate or work. i like that... it makes everything feel a lot more put-together since the world requires so much detail. i think it would be odd if every character had some elaborate costume or design element y'know?
not to mention, the characters are also soooo wonderful! pipi is an amazing leading lady. she's fun, exuberant, smart, and while she's a bit childish, it surprisingly never comes off as annoying. kai is also a stand-out. his main draw may be that he has this weird power that alienates him from everyone (except pipi, anyways) but he's no slouch on the personality front. also, his connection to Marie is horrifying and grotesque in a way that i absolutely adoreee. even the supporting cast are interesting and fun!
the themes of love and belief and reverence in this story are irrevocably important to me (seriously, that ending is going to be burned into my brain forever and is ALWAYS going to be how i measure love from now on). i know it isn't good to feel so connected to a piece of media (i guess) but i truly feel that this story is a part of who i am now, since it changed the way i feel and think about love forever.
i don't think there will EVER be a manga that is as special & important to me as this one is, which is equal parts disappointing and wonderful. i see this manga as MY manga like ... honestly i dunno if anyone will ever like this as much as i do. i'd love if everyone gave it a try, though! it's definitely not entry-level but it's perfect for people who like oddball shit heh.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Dec 8, 2021
love is really complicated, isn't it? at least, that's what the first half of this manga tries to portray. i'll be honest... it's hard to stomach some of kyouya's behavior early on in the manga (it's a big drawback of the anime never getting a second season.) the whole premise of the story relies on the concept of sadomasochism which is.. a bit much for a school girl romance, but, in the first place, the manga showcases its complete disregard for the general demographic of these kinds of stories by making its literal FIRST CONVERSATION about sex. that being said, that attitude doesn't really last.
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much like how kyouya's sadistic personality slowly unravels.
i should say, before i continue, that this is one of my absolute favorite manga of all time. it hits (almost) all the marks for ME, personally. i happen to adore complicated relationships and drama and dangerous stupidity so that makes erika and kyouya an A+ pairing to see develop, in my eyes. it's genuinely interesting to see how these two grow independently and together throughout the course of the story.
i think what i like the most about this story is the fact that kyouya and erika don't really change as people... moreso that their connection to each other makes them better and healthier people. i think stories that try to completely change characters like kyouya are disingenuous. it's not that kyouya has to change, just that he has to recognize that he can't go on without considering other people's feelings. erika, of course, is a silly and desperate girl, and she remains that way, but she has some really charming and wonderful sides to her character as well.
life, and manga, would probably be pretty boring if we weren't allowed to be mean or stupid sometimes, y'know?
on that note, the story never gets stale, either. there's always a new adventure for these goofy characters to partake in and it's so worthwhile to see how their relationships develop over time... the way they respond to certain situations and emotions and how you come to understand what everyone is thinking and WHY everyone is thinking the way they are. this story makes all of that pretty easy to understand.
the side characters are incredibly entertaining and down-to-earth, too. i think all of them are fairly realistic, for a shoujo manga anyways. i do think it's a bit sad that marin and tezuka take a back seat after the first couple chapters until near the end, but i'm not surprised that everything was wrapped up in a satisfactory way. sanda is always a stand-out for me everytime i read this. she's the most human of all of these characters and i think there's a great balance of her in the story. it's so easy in stories like these to not care about all of the characters, but every single one of them was entertaining and valuable.
it's your standard shoujo fair, i suppose, but this story means a lot to me. it has endless re-readability, in my opinion. some of the jokes are fairly dated nowadays but that's to be expected lmao. i like kyouya a lot. honestly think it's a bit pretentious to only be able to root for characters you deem as "good" and, while there's no shortage of stoic or sadistic male leads, kyouya is probably the most well-written of the bunch. erika is incredibly inspirational. she's not the brightest or kindest or prettiest (relatively speaking, i think she's adorable but. yknow) shoujo protagonist but she makes up for it by having a lot of heart and being (mostly) genuine. it helps that she's really entertaining to follow.
all-in-all... i'm writing this after my fourth (i think?) time re-reading this and i still feel the same, if not better, about this manga after all this time. it's not perfect, but shoujo manga so hardly is. it's enough to me that i have so much fun reading it everytime... because i always do!
btw: the chapter where kyouya tries to plan erika's birthday date and everything fails miserably is probably my favorite thing that i've ever read. i loveeee when shit like that happens.
9/10, what a gem of a story.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Dec 25, 2020
there's nothing i love more in media than a complicated relationship between two people. well, to say the friendship in this story is complicated would be a bit of an understatement.
kazoe and hanazono meet in very specific circumstances to discuss specific things and the only thing that connects them at first is kazoe's interest in sex-ed... if this story were written by a man or were even a bit less delicate with its two leads innocence, i wouldn't have even given this one a shot. however, i'm constantly surprised by the amount of stories that can be told about a boy and a girl
...
in high school that are engaging, unique, and fresh.
this one is exceedingly simple in its premise and deceivingly so with its characters. i do think the story suffered from the edgy concept of high school students hyperfocusing on sex to the point of considering engaging in foreplay just to see what'll happen? it's kind of unclear what kazoe planned to do after seeing hanazono's "morning glory", as they put it, but i feel like that's part of her charm as a character. she desires to understand but she seems to get herself in trouble due to hyperfocusing on her own desire for knowledge to the point of ignoring her surroundings and, like... all reason.
also, i underestimated how much i'd love hanazono's character? it's so refreshing to see a male lead who isn't really even all that interested in sex, though usually women have a tendency to write their male characters as non-offensive and nonthreatening presences so, while it may not be REALISTIC, i have a feeling there are teenage boys out there who are like him who grow up in very open families who are really just tired of the whole concept since it has no mystique... and i'm sure he was written in good faith. that tense scene during the last day of their field trip? geez... the way hanazono figured out he wasn't ready for that kind of thing yet and the way kazoe immediately dropped it when she realized how uncomfortable he was??? that was beautiful and i love that they had an honest and open conversation about it and established boundaries...
i even like the other girl (i just read this and i can't remember her name lol) the one with the shaggy hair and the bad friends? i like her character, even though her arc is kinda overshadowed by that "third act breakup" thing that's super contrived but also totally understandable knowing that hanazono hates being seen how he is by his classmates and he definitely wouldn't want kazoe dragged into that and kazoe just goes along with it for his sake because she doesn't want to push him anymore... it makes sense but it's just like... y'know. it happens all the time. kinda boring.
BUT the end when kazoe has her breakdown about feeling immense guilt and shame for wanting to know so much about sex to the point of touching herself for the first time .... bro it was so heartfelt and real? their whole talk in the nurse's office was soooo sweet. i also love the callback to their little alphabetical list with the fireworks date <3
this is just such a good story... a bit too short but i like the open ending and the ambiguity even though it's pretty clear where it was heading... i'm glad they get to figure things out for themselves at their own pace.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Oct 7, 2020
here's my problem with series' like this one. what's ... the point? i'm fairly certain that question was even addressed in one of the early chapters of the manga. "what's the point of shoujo manga? it's all just romance over and over again. how boring." and like... yeah. that's true. it does get boring to read tons of shoujo manga at a certain point. however, i'd take a hundred lovely complexs over this. hell, i'm not sure i could finish this if someone forced me to at gunpoint.
it's... so... BORING. i'm sure it picks up some after the point i decided to drop it
...
but i honestly can't bring myself to care. i thought the conceit was interesting. a confession gone wrong divulges into the two mains getting in constant disputes? well... that's SOMETHING at least! but it becomes nothing, really. in the end... isn't that just another trick to entice readers like... violence for men or romance for women (outdated gender stereotyping btw... plenty of women and men enjoy both or the other.) it's called "our precious conversations." obviously, you're enticed to see what those precious conversation are about, right?
turns out... they're not about much. this whole "men and women disagreeing about what is and isn't wrong with their gender" is so overplayed. i understand that the main guy has some weird complex about women because of his weird aunts (don't really get it and not sure if it's ever explained in greater detail because, again, i can't bring myself to care enough to finish it.) but i just think it's funny how... nozomi falls for him simply bc he smiled at her and then got curious, not because of his actual character. in fact, every man around her is utterly self-serving, selifsh, and misogynistic. it's not a surprise that she falls for someone who shows her even a little bit of kindness. i admire how she can put up with his constant misogynistic ramblings (i'd have been done in the first chapter and i almost gave up on the series immediately bc of it) and somehow love him even MORE??? i don't understand the motivation there.
she and him have different points of view so it's ... "interesting" to see them fall in love with each other? but like... it isn't. it's just outlandish. i mean i'm a real person with a nuanced point of view and these are characters in a manga that's meant to show how shallow men and women can be or whatever so... that's that, i guess. i won't be able to understand such a cartoonish view-point. i found myself constantly disagreeing with both of them.
i'm just put off by the main love interest. nozomi is a pretty strong leading lady and her best friend is a great foil. i wish the story had been about nozomi's bff and the caffeine guy instead, that seems much more enticing that whatever we're supposed to get out of the Man vs. Woman Bickering Match of the Week.
another thing i liked was the art style. clearly, the mangaka has grown a lot since they've released tonari no kaibutsu-kun (another series i got bored with half-way through and couldn't bring myself to finish) but i don't think, even with the art as good at it is, that that's justification for finishing the manga.
it really just comes down to this not being ... very good. it's not good social commentary, it's not a very interesting or new way to write a romance and it's just... not a very good shoujo manga. plus, i can't handle when men rant about not being able to understand women. maybe just... ask them to explain? like a human being would? most women aren't gonna bite your cock off just for asking a simple question. and if you're reading this rn and thinking "yeah they would." you're part of the problem. anyways. 5/10.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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