narutolvr's manga / #shoujo(188)

A really interesting collection of stories. Even though the guys in the first two pissed me off, it still had valuable lessons about learning to accept only what you want from a relationship- no need to compromise yourself into sharing a partner. The second one was especially painful; taking back a cheating boyfriend is a decision that just makes my heart hurt!

One of the few shoujo manga where the MC ends up with the 2nd guy; always a pleasure to see since they usually work so damn hard to be loved! Despite the ending, though, I didn't care much for the manga. Maybe I would have liked it more if it weren't for all the added drama with Asou and Kyou's senpai; after a while, I just got annoyed with all the couple issues and wanted Nina to pick somebody so the manga would end lol.

Boo. Not really lol, but it wasn't for me. Reminds me of the type of manga I'd read when I was 10, both in art (very young, cutesy style) and plot, which was damn near nonexistent. Perhaps it was the bad translation but I couldn't really feel any drama or emotions from the story at all? She fell out of love and back in it in all of 2 pages; ex gf showed up but never really did anything. All in all, there was just no tension at all that would make me feel any sort of emotion when they actually got together. Even worse, I absolutely hate when manga feature a sport (or any activity) as a major backdrop, but barely show any understanding of it. I think this author could have done the baseball scenes way better; if at least by drawing a realistic field and/or plays. It just all came off so boring and lazily put together. All in all, a bit disappointing.

whoa! So many feels, so little time! This author truly did a good job rounding out each character; their joys, regrets, sorrows, and mistakes made them so painfully human that it almost hurt to read. With this sort of emotion packed story, though, I should really pace myself- reading it all in one go is almost too much! Always inspires some good introspection, but I find I'm never really happy after reading such angsty works. Even when there's a "happy" ending, I always wonder if that's really the best (or even a good) outcome. I guess that just adds to the verisimilitude, though: we don't really know if the choices we make are the best ones, we just have to do what we feel is right and roll with it. The happy outcome is entirely up to the people involved.

Aoi is a countryside girl who falls in love with a Tokyo boy and moves to the big city in pursuit of love (also mostly because her dad got transferred). Along comes her country childhood friend who's loved her forever and a love triangle situation ensues, cue father's interference, lies to naive idiots, etc. Only, this story takes a turn for tragedy and delivers some of the most heart rending final chapters I've ever seen in a shoujo. And so, despite hating the characters, I can't help but love them because, at the end of the day, they're just dummies dumbing the only way they know how. I was totally ready to write this story off after the first 8-10 chapters: the MC was an irredeemable idiot, and all of the male characters were so stuck on themselves and their pride they didn't care how the MC felt in the best of cases, and actively tried to hurt her in the worst. I literally kept reading for the satisfaction of dealing a hearty "sucked!" in my review when I was done. Then it took an unexpected turn and delivered some of the most tear-jerking chapters I've ever seen in a shoujo that I just couldn't bring myself to keep hating it. The MC was no longer a fool; the guys stopped being sociopaths and started to value her feelings, and the overbearing father all but disappeared. At that point I could only think "Aha! This is the story I've been waiting for!" And although the ending left a bit to be desired for me (can't put my finger on it, maybe it was because I didn't feel he ever really got closure after losing both her picture and letter?), it transformed into such a touching story in the last 5 chapters that I was left in tears afterwards T-T And all of the extra stories were comical, or just interesting to read, even if I didn't particularly care for most (all) of the male leads in them.

Get the feeling this is gonna be a flip flop situation so I just put that in. As for my impressions...hmm didn't care for the first bf too much since he was basically taking advantage of the girlfriend (of her girlfriend like actions without reciprocating as a boyfriend) but I realized I quite liked his character when I saw he didn't get unreasonably jealous or try to break her and Megumi apart or anything. It was just two people who fell out of love, and split up amicably without any drama. I was a bit shocked at Megumi's trauma- I'd secretly been hoping he'd come out as gay and that could explain why he was so friendly and tried so hard but ignored female advances. The actual story was a bit disappointing. To be honest, I'm even surprised he took it so hard; usually the guys are okay in that situation but it was an interesting perspective. I'm not particularly interested in reading more or anything since I've got a general idea of where this is going but it was an entertaining enough read.

It was good! Not as good as Life, even though it had tons of drama (why was her elementary teacher such a bitch?), but still great. This author really has talent for portraying her MC's emotions and I love the way she does their expressions. Their smiles fill me with joy while their pained expressions make me tear up! I think the way the author portrayed the actual drawing -especially when someone was fired up- was a bit overdramatic, though. But her intense art style really suits the dark emotions she draws out.

Exactly what you'd expect, I guess? Not terrible, but not particularly enjoyable, either.

Not bad.

Oh good just so touching! I knew this would be a great story from the first 3 chapters, and it just kept hitting with the emotional punches all the way to the end! TT_TT I still feel...not let down, but I do wish we had seen a bit more of Kakeru overcoming his demons and moving on a bit more since, even at the end, he was still a bit unstable. But the way it ended was also very meaningful, since we did see that he had the desire to keep on living. Guess I just wanted to watch them all grow up a lil longer. This must be how parents feel lol