This manga is focused on telling the struggles of a rising indie rock band trying to become better than the famous band they idolize. The romance portion is a secondary minor element. It is only ever touched upon regarding how it affects the band as a whole.

This manga is NOT a sequel to the author's earlier work Suzuka. It is only very loosely connected. You can read this manga without reading Suzuka and not miss anything. Many readers have a knee-jerk negative reaction to the early plot twist (chapter 36 out of 195 total chapters). This is the reason for so many 1 ratings. This could have been mostly avoided if the author had named the manga differently and/or avoided the connection to his earlier work.



... Last updated on April 4th, 2018, 4:43am

Initially, the romance is a generic love triangle with a generic tsundere and a generic childhood friend type character. In that, it's similar to Suzuka, although done better in my eyes. It doesn't screw around as much, and rather than doing track FOR romantic purposes, the protagonist plays music AND experiences romance. It has its similarities, but it's definitely not a rehash. That said, this sort of generic work is still predictable and sometimes a bit dull. I'd probably give this section a 6.7/10 because as far as 'generic' goes, it's well done. Then, there's a rather interesting twist, and that makes me think this is going in a much more interesting direction. Honestly, not enough has happened for me to give this section a fair assessment, but it's been enjoyable after the twist, so I have high hopes. If those hopes are met, it might score it a 9/10.

Halfway (chapter 36) it changes up, alot, which is why many people gave it a 1. Suddenly, the story becomes one of redemption and the pursuit of happiness in the face of grief. Great read.

First of all, I actually *like* Seo Kouji's works, so I'm not one of these people bashing this just because they're mad about Kimi no Iru Machi or something.

That said, this particular series really rubs me the wrong way. It reads like blatant wish fulfillment. Dorky guy just happens to be childhood friends with a super popular idol, becomes friends with a cute girl at school (who just happens to be the daughter of the protagonists in Suzuka) who just happens to want to be like that same idol, goes to a summer job and just happens to become acquainted with the band he's always liked, puts on a school concert and some big American pop start just happens to be passing by (seriously, at a Japanese high school...like that happens). Come on...

I can accept one 'just happens' in any manga. They're often necessary plot devices to get things going. But this series just tosses out one after another without the slightest appreciation for how absurdly unrealistic it all is. It's both lazy writing and makes the whole manga just too hard to swallow. It seriously needs to be grounded but at this point I feel like it's already too late to be salvaged. Even though it's still early in the series the roots of the problems go all the way down to the very premise.

I can't relate anything in this manga...

I've currently read until chapter 131, and I can say that the major plot twist everyone hated was necessary. Blame it on human nature, but people who've gone through struggle seem to have more depth.



... Last updated on January 16th, 2017, 1:00pm

For the first 30 chapters this manga was plain average. Nothing special but not bad either and I kept reading. After the big twist I gotta say I have high hopes for future chapters. It became much more interesting and jumped my rating from 7 to 8. I hope it can climb up to 9 even. And I don't understand why the plot twist ticks people off. Without it this would be just another plain teenage/band/love triangle/whatever manga.

EDIT: Sadly my expectations were too much and it seems the story reduces itself into plain mediocrity...

... Last updated on March 26th, 2015, 10:06am

UPDATE (10/27): I initially wrote a mixed review of this, seen below; same as Kouji-sensei's other works, yadda yadda. But the recent development has me thinking that he's gonna do something else. It could be a gimmick, or it could work dramatically to his favor. It's all in the execution. And there's no way this event is a one-off thing that won't have lasting effects on the story.

ORIGINAL
I continue to read this out of some weird loyalty to Seo Kouji, like how I continued to read Kimi no Iru Machi in the last 100 or so chapters of its serialization. It ties in to both KNIM (slightly, as it used the final chapter as a pseudo backdoor pilot) and is a "sequel" to Suzuka, in that the main heroine, Fuuka, is the daughter of Yamato and Suzuka.

As always, Seo's art style is great and has only become sharper and sharper. Characters and environments are drawn splendidly. The first chapter has an extremely well-done color version. Fuuka, in particular, is the splitting image of Suzuka but has a personality that shows she is indeed her parents' child, ranging from moody to cheery. As a heroine, she's fun to follow. The side character Mikasa is one of the least tropey characters I've seen in a while, acting like one of those charming rivals in a shoujo manga, but, well, is gay. Unlike many other gay portrayals, he's neither flamboyantly so nor gay for humor's sake.

Easily, the weakest point is Yuu Haruna, the main character. A whiny, shy kid, he gives me the impression that Haruto (MC of KNIM) gave me, and just doesn't improve. He's also obsessed with Twitter, too. It's really silly.

Right now, the manga is OK, but not great. It's not as good as KNIM when it started, but certainly not as bad as it ended up. I doubt that this manga will surpass Suzuka, easily Seo's best work.

... Last updated on October 27th, 2014, 8:22am

Well, after reading the author's both big series, on the first chapters I thought it was going to be pretty similar. I was wrong. After the major plot twist (Ch. 36), it shows the author is ready for a change in his writing topics. I'll keep reading next chapters with high hopes.

If you are like me, you finished reading Suzuka and still wanted more so now you are looking to start Fuuka.

The characters presented in Suzuka are NOT involved in this story in any greater depth than simple cameos. Yes, the title of the story is Fuuka but just like with Suzuka, the MC was not her but the guy, and the story was about how she affected his life and others, and vis versa.

I am very upset with how many spoilers are being given away about this series in the top comments. It is to the extent that I was not able to match the emotion expressed throughout, even though it was done very well. Surprises were no longer surprises...

This story is very good as the author continues to do the same extensive character development found in Suzuka, so I highly recommend reading this story. However, please read it with an open mind to new characters and new directions rather than for the limited appearances of the characters from Suzuka. And as a last note, where Suzuka was about Track and Field, Fuuka is about Music (more specificly the Indie Rock Band scene)

... Last updated on March 9th, 2016, 8:56am

If you have any positive feelings of suzuka I recommend you don't read if you want to keep them. Unlike kimi no iru machi and suzuka this isn't primarily a love story romance plays apart but the story is more so about achieving your dreams no matter what.

If your expecting a proper love story of fuuka the daughter of suzuka prepare to be heart broken in worse way possible since fuuka is actually a likable character unlike her mom. And theres really no point for this story to even be connected to suzuka and does more harm because of it.