Mocha's manga / #Adorable(94)

This is what I mean by good shoujo!! It's not overly cliche that it focuses on only romance. There's proper development. The characters also weren't made to just fall in love with each other, but to live their own lives and be their own person with personalities. Rintaro didn't start off written as the ML who bakes cakes solely for the reason of gifting it to Kaoruko, the FL, he bakes them because he has a background that's detached from her—he has an actual genuine interest in baking inspired by that chef and his family. Same goes for the other side characters. When a character feels grateful, it's not just direcred as if the love interest is the only person who contributed and actually changed them for the better, they acknowledge that it's the combined experiences they got from friends, family, and other people. It's not a "lover saves me from everything, they are my only saviour" type of trope. It also feels so refreshing and light to read, sure there are some hiccups, trauma, and personal conflicts that adds depth to the characters—when they struggled about their future careers, for example—but it's not overly exaggerated or not relatable to the point that it's so dark? I'm actually reading a regular person's love story that's easier to come across in real life. I also really like how the story doesn't mainly revolve as if they're the only ones who exist, the manga also focuses on building relationships between the FL and ML's seperate social circles. The FL doesn't always just hang out with ML and vice versa, we see platonic interactions between all of them like how real life friend groups go and merge. This is basically my dream relationship! Two people like each other so much while still preserving the person they were before they met each other. Me and who? ;-;