You could tell exactly the type of person Yoshino would be just from reading the first chapter of the prequel to this manga. An empty shell of a human being who couldn't even imagine an existence outside of being a corporate drone in Japanese society. Her tirade about how she was overcome with rage because fellow students in her middle school had dared to speak out against authority and staged a protest over not being able to wear casual clothes was the least surprising bit of dialog to ever come out of her mouth. This portion Yoshino's arc was very well done. The author is clearly familiar with this type of awful person in real life.

Anyways, Yoshino and Akio's relationship had zero intimacy or chemistry outside of sex (and even their sex life was shaky). They were very clearly only a couple for plot's sake. Akio spent the entirety of this manga and its prequel moaning about how much he did not want to become a salaryman like Yoshino wanted him to, yet he was somehow still deeply in love with a woman who represented every disgusting aspect of corporate drone society in japan. Yoshino is a product of, and a purveyor of, that stern, soulless Japanese conformity and "the nail that sticks out gets hammered down" mentality.

At first I thought the Akio x Yoshino pairing was meant to be ironic and that the message would become clear in the latter volumes, but that never happened. The author simply did not know what to do with Akio or any of the supporting characters. So that leaves us with Yoshino, but just when you think this manga is going to expand on or challenge some of her views instead we get Akio just nodding along with everything she says and then the next arc is a really shitty melodrama about that old guy Yoshino fell in love with and his wife.

So like several other reviewers before me, I was left wondering what the point of this manga even was. It is not a good or realistic depiction of relationships, it is not a good drama and it is not a good thematic story because it doesn't actually have anything to say wrt said themes.

Guess I'll just chalk this up to being a very early and bad work of an author who had yet to find his voice. Read Genshiken by this same author instead. He actually had something to say with that manga.

It's not a bad manga. Let's say this first. It's well written, and it got me reading with interest until the end. It's obviously not a romantic fairy tale, that's for sure. But is it truly realistic?
While being on the opposite side of the "true love" stories we usually tend to read about, it actually isn't much better in portraying honestly how a real life relationship looks like. Sure, real life is full of conflicts, and fights, break-ups, bad memories. But that's not ALL of it. The relationship we are looking at in this manga is about a completely mismatched couple of extremely flawed characters, to the point that we only get to see the worst in them, unlike its prequel. And it's not just the main relationship: every relationship is depicted as a bleak stream of downs with no ups, with sex being the one and only thing anyone truly looks after. It doesn't sound like a mature relationship at all to me, but actually a very deformed version of it, not so unlike the deformed happy version we usually see in media. I wondered if the point of the manga was exactly this, to portray how these characters just haven't matured yet to take the final steps in their lives. While leaving something for the reader to think about is good, this manga never did anything to even subtly hint what its main theme was about, and just seemed to wander in circles with its points. And it's not clear how the characters negating any growth and ending just like they began has to be interpreted: if it's done on purpose, or if it's the unwitting representation of this manga not having a point to make.
In the end I can't really judge this manga fully, as I feel I haven't understood it as much as I would have liked to.
But if someone praises it for depicting realistic relationships, let me disagree. It removes the sugar, but it doesn't add that third dimension.

... Last updated on November 3rd, 2016, 3:16pm

For many its a bit hard to swallow take on romances and relationships and looking at reviews it seems people are confusing it to be a bad manga. It is not. It is a good manga if you know what you are getting into.

It follows the romantic life of two leads as they fall in love and deal with their relationships. One is lazy and the other is serious about life. It is not your typical feel-good manga and the ending doesn't give sufficient closure but that's how life is, you don't always get closures or things to go the way you want.

So, if you are looking for fluffy romance, unyielding love, happy closure this manga is not for you.

The characters just don't seem to really care to deeply for each other at all. They were more like friends with benefits. I don't think either one of them actually expressed a single feeling to the other in this manga or it's prequel. It seemed they only stayed together out of convenience. The dialogue was UN-natural . Both characters are completely hollow and shallow. Every time she asks him a serious question regarding their relationship, his answer was always something like "I haven't ever thought about it that deeply" or something like that. He's a complete and total slacker wasting his time in college and has no ambition for the future. She's studying hard to pass the bar exam. Is he too stupid to understand that this is a major part of their problem? When I read romance, I want to read about 2 people falling in love. I want to actually feel the love flow off the pages. I don't want to read about 2 people who don't feel strongly for each other and I don't like reading about couples doomed from the start. I should of quit reading this after the 1st chapter of the prequel, but like the glutton for punishment that I am, I read all of it and the final ending didn't really resolve anything.

The disorder of the love/sex lives of the main characters, summarized above by ajaykumaryadav, is probably realistic re the behavior of young people now. I can't tell for sure though, because I'm old! But if it is, then this series will find its audience. I suspect that the main thing that will get in the way of its doing so, however, is the sheer unattractiveness of almost everything we see in this series. The main characters are definitely plain, even ugly. The guy blows smoke on the girl constantly. Reminds me of almost a whole lifetime ago in the USA, when smoking was practiced everywhere, to the discomfort of every non-smoker, and especially me. Therefore, given the moral disorder of the people plus their ugliness, this is totally not for me. It's probably not for a lot of teenagers either, because many of them may still prefer to read stories about virgins.

... Last updated on October 27th, 2014, 6:33pm

If you are looking for a fairy tale, this isn't it.
Unlike the reviewer below me i actually loved this story, got knots in my stomach when i read it and could hardly wait for the next chapter to be translated. Seems like the majority of what he wrote is just plain wrong.
My only problem was with the female lead. Her dialogue was just so unrealistic and he actions contradicted everything she said. Maybe that was the whole point, i don't know.
Overall i really enjoyed it.

... Last updated on October 11th, 2014, 9:51am