This manga has absolutely ridiculously gorgeous and beautiful art.
One of the most amazing art I have ever seen in manga history.
I would list this manga in top 10 of all time shoujo manga art.
(Absolutely one of the most amazing art I have ever seen!!!)

Meru Tachibana is 12 years old, and this story is not about romance, instead it's about friendship.

Although the solution to the problems in the manga might be idealistic, but the theme and the message the author is trying to send is heartfelt and really tug your heart strings.

Gosh, she's only 12 and she already has boys swooning over her? I feel deprived of a love life....

Anyways, this manga has gorgeous and adorable art--which was the primary reason I bothered which this at all. Everything else about this manga is not worthy of mention. (everything else sucked)

I feel misled by the summary and the first pages of the manga.

I'm okay with stupid heroines if they're physically strong. But seriously, the beginning talks about how she knows all these martial arts, raised as a boy, and must hide her strength. BUT...

Then when confronting the bullies and all she does is talk about "FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC" and gets saved by another dude. Uggggh! In whole first volume, she doesn't fight AT ALL until like 2-3 pages at the end. I want to see heads roll and everyone at school to know she's the boss and what I get is her simpering while being held up against the wall by a bully.

This is honestly a stereotypical shoujo, where girl takes on the bullies who control the school. She doesn't beat anyone up. Doesn't manipulate or do smart things. She wins them over with her stubborn cheerfulness and sincerity. Believe it or not, I sometimes like these mangas, but this manga did not pull it off well and was totally not refreshing. If you want a heroine who wins over the bullies who control the school, read Penguin Brothers.

... Last updated on October 11th, 2013, 11:43pm

I read it for the story. I wasn't expecting much romance. In conclusion, the story was enjoyable and Meru is cute and likable but the unresolved romance detracts from the story rather than enhance it and therefore unnecessary. I liked Meru with short hair. I preferred her that way.

There isn't much to be said after everything I wanted to say had already been done so by previous posters.
To be honest: I expected more, having been told "This manga has a strong willed, fighting girl!"
Only to find that the strength she posesed wasn't all that strong (and used very rarely if ever, its still blatantly obvious that the male lead (Ichiya) is oh so stronger . _ . ), and her 'weakness' made her utterly useless (the only scenes she fights, and she is useless...*sigh* ). The plot was riveting at best, and the romance turned into nothing but a laugh. The only semi-normal character (Ruka) was a shoo-off for the bad-ass that need be saving (Ichiya).
Overall, if you're desperate for a read, this is very mildly amusing, about as much as watching a very badly orchestrated horror-flick just so you could laugh at all the scenes.

... Last updated on December 28th, 2012, 12:51am

I would not recommend this to anyone. I wasn't really expecting much either from first glance.

The art was average. Although I would not believe Meru was that strong seeing as how scrawny and frail she looks.
The characters were completely unrealistic and the fact that everyone is around 11-12 years old makes it even more ridiculous. Why is a 13 year old holding a celebrity party with all the famous people?? The author had many poor excuses to set the scene. I guess Mary Sue means the stupid perfect type, in that case, Meru was stupid and fake. And then, there was no point in having a genius blonde from Princeton in your backwards school but to make it even more shoujo-ly unrealistic.
The plot was typical and uninteresting. Sometimes, comedy saves plot but I never laughed once, during the last chapters, I was skimming through pages, but those weren't funny either.
A bunch of 12 year old kids skipping classes and doing whatever they wanted because just because they were scarred and should be pitied.
The best part was the extra about the parents.


... Last updated on December 21st, 2012, 8:49pm

i knew from the first few chapters that there will be little romance on this manga and that there will be a cliffhanger in the end..i mean you can easily tell by just the flow of the story..however, i continued reading, so it's my fault to feel like this. anyway, im giving it 8pts for the lessons in the story. some romance shoujo manga don't have those. so yeah =)

I know everyone is complaining but I found the art and humour to be entertaining! The plot was good and I know everyone's saying how unrealistic it is but come on! It's a manga! I find books being based on real life quite boring and usually miserable that's why I enjoy mangas so much! Even if many people don't like it, I just happen to be one of them people who really like it and have read it a few times!
But hey, everyone has an opinion of there own! ^^

One of the few things that are decent in this manga would be the art, though personally, it seems too overwhelming. As for the characters, a couple of the personalities are present in other shoujo manga, so I didn't mind that too much. However, the storyline is just plain ridiculous...even for a manga storyline.
It was fine at first, because it added humor (since the dad didn't even know what gender his daughter was) but then, everything else was blown so out of proportion, that I declared Fly High the most horrible shoujo manga I had ever read.

Want to know a couple of my reasons?

1. The storyline.............does not make any sense. When writing a school-life manga, it should be school-like. A small group of students shouldn't have total control over the entire school no matter how popular, rich or beautiful they are. Ok, it's a manga, and manga are unrealistic. That's a load of ____. Manga story lines are imaginative and creative. This manga has little (if any) creativity. Perhaps it started out with some good ideas, but I don't think the mangaka thought this one through. It seems more like her ideas are glued together by clichés, underdeveloped conflicts, and unnecessary characters.
Very poorly developed.

2. The characters have little to no personality. Let's take for example, Meru. She is a complete Mary Sue. She's clumsy, caring, sweet, strong, nice, absent-minded but that only serves to make her cute...or was supposed to. The character of Meru Tachibana makes me sick to the core. Why? Because her character is not "human" per se. She has too many good points, and her "bad" points are actually good points. Basically, she's an idealized person, and therefore, she does not have any personality. When I read manga, I want to relate to the characters, even just a little bit, but with Fly High, most of the characters make me sigh in exasperation.
A lot of the characters are created with no purpose in mind. Most of Ichiya's group, for example, are only there so that Ichiya seems more powerful. I mean, they wouldn't be so threatening if there was only two of them. So the mangaka decides to add in a couple more characters just to add to the very badly developed plot. They are, at first, portrayed as a group of individuals that do nothing but bully the school and are basically tyrants. But then, the author decides to tell their story, how they're not bad people and how they're "just trying to help" their friend that was traumatized...Well, that is absolutely no excuse to why they should treat others so terribly. Not only that, but if Ichiya's group needs a dim-witted, righteous girl to tell them right from wrong then not only are they completely oblivious to how the world works, but they are also inhumane. If the author really made her characters dumb enough to think that controlling the entire school with their bullying nature will help their traumatized friend come back, only to realize that they were wrong all along with the help with one of the dumbest characters I've seen in a while (Meru), then I believe that this manga should not be published at all.
The only character that I can tolerate would be Ruka because he is one of those typical bishounen guys that are found in practically every shoujo manga.

One of the few things I enjoyed about this terrible manga would be the short story about Meru's parents. It was funny, kinda sweet in it's own way, and of course clichéd (though that just adds to the humour unlike the main story of Fly High). This short story was what I expected Fly High to be, but I was extremely disappointed.

The mangaka finally concludes the manga......with a poorly developed ending to a poorly developed story. It was as if the author decided that, since she couldn't think of a good ending, might as well end it with practically no resolution at all.

I think the only reason why people enjoy this manga would be to pair up Meru with the guy they prefer, and then fantasize about it. How disappointing.

Personally, I would not recommend this manga to anyone...ever.

2/10 --> mostly for the art and the potential to become mediocre

... Last updated on January 23rd, 2011, 2:50pm