Let’s start off by saying that I consider this manga divided into 2 very different parts: the first one being the first 50ish chapters, a generic shoujo manga with no particular flaws, very likable if you’re into this genre. And the second part being complete shit. And yes, I said shit.
I don’t really have much to say for the first part. This is really just a simple and generic shoujo manga. I enjoyed it since I’m really into this genre, but it doesn’t have any quirky qualities that make it any different or better than any other manga of this kind. It was good though, and if it was all like that I would have given the manga a solid eight. The art was mediocre, but it never really bothered me, whereas the characters were pretty decent and the jokes were quite entertaining.
The problem comes after. After a while, I started noticing that the author had this particular liking to unconventional relationships: age gaps, brother and sister and so on. It seemed to me that, in order to distinguish different relationships and having no talent to do so in a healthy way, she had to force some kind of weird shit into it, which is, honestly, kind of disgusting. We are in fact introduced to some side stories that for some chapters show the love life of the other characters of the story. The problem with these stories is that they give off the impression that they are just different stories that were put in the manga just to make it a bit longer, not really written with the intention of being connected and actually important to the general plot. The result of this are unnecessarily long, boring and problematic stories of characters that, after having their 10 chapters of glory, stop mattering to the manga, being completely forgotten and left to rot. And let's not even talk about the enabling of problematic relationships in this manga; we see completely normal couples such as a 14 year old being with a 28 year old man, or a guy falling in love with his step sister. Completely normal, right?
The brother and sister’s side story it’s definitely the worst one, being not only completely unnecessary, but also extremely unreasonable. It’s just pure nonsense, with him being completely absorbed in music and her falling in love for no reason at all. Nobody in the story finds it weird (instead, some characters even encourage him to confess), and not even their parents question this behavior. Here is where the downfall started.
Let’s talk about the character of Arima. While I really appreciated the representation of depression, I hated the way it was dealt with. To me, it seemed like a perfect character was struggling with being perfect, and he decided to deal with the situation by…. being perfect. I have no way to describe it in a better way. He never, not even once, gave off the impression that he wasn’t perfect, so the incredible craziness he goes through seemed kinda uncalled for. The author tried really hard to prepare the field for this twist, but the few hints she gave never actually broke down the image of the perfect boy Arima had: he just gave off the impression that he was insecure sometimes. And how did he deal with it? He just..did..? And crazily, what happens after he overcomes it? He’s literally the same, he opens up a bit but we are never shown any significant changes in him. He tries so hard to change from just being the perfect boy, but while we are told he actually got freed form his obsession with being perfect, the boy we see hasn’t actually changed, and the result of this is that to us it’s like he was really the perfect boy all along, which kinda breaks down the WHOLE point of the manga. He wanted to become someone else but we never see an actual development. He just goes crazy for some chapters and then comes back like it never happened. And let’s not talk about the role of the girl: after a while she completely stops mattering to the story as well. Arima is in the spotlight. Honestly, it was heartbreaking to read. The relationship seemed fake, or, at least, it seemed like they were together just because they felt like it, connected with one another just because they were both pretending to be someone else. But does this really bring together people? Was the fact that they were both pretending their whole personality? I never actually understood why they were together and never actually felt connected to the couple. At some point it’s just a story about Arima, not about the couple, which is not a bad thing itself, it becomes bad when it’s the only thing you want to show in your manga, which is supposedly about a freaking couple. Yukino after a while has no role other than being a major support to her boyfriend, which is an even more harmful depiction of a relationship. She’s just there to give his boyfriend some help, and that’s her only role, even though at the beginning she had so much potential to be independent, and generally just a really good character. To me it seemed like she was giving up her independence in order to help and serve her boyfriend. And let’s not talk about all the dramatic and tragic twists we have towards the end, because they only served as a way to make the whole thing painfully longer and “darker”.
But the biggest let down for me was teenage pregnancy. Was it necessary? Is it a good message to portray in a manga that is literally made for young girls? Really, this left me disgusted. And I don’t understand why nobody has a problem with this disgusting thing. And, be careful, I’m not saying that the disgusting thing is the pregnancy itself, but the fact that it was portrayed as a happy occurrence, something that doesn't bring problems to the very, very young characters, and, most importantly, something good or common to deal with. Why? Nobody ever questions the actions of the two protagonists, and everything they do is always enabled by everyone in their surroundings. This completely positive response to this unexpected news inevitably clashes with the generally very dark tone that the manga had in its last chapters. But again, they both are too perfect to actually have problems, and a pregnancy at 18 wouldn’t scare anybody right? That’s why to me they seem even more fake. Of course, I am aware that we are talking about a shojo manga so I can’t expect extreme realism from this, but at least, if you want to talk about something deep like abuse or teenage pregnancy, you have to do it with some care.
To me, it felt like I was reading something completely different from what I started reading at the beginning, and I felt little to no connection to the characters. It’s a shame, because I really enjoyed the anime, but the manga really let me down. I decided to give it a 5 just because the first part is actually enjoyable, and I loved reading it, but if it were just for the second part, my rating would most definitely be a four or even less.
