yeaaah, just needed to make that comment because someone postet something about it being near to reality, had me laughing for like 15 minutes srsly

its just dramas and cliches built on the normal nice guy falls in love with hot girl and actually gets her (which will NEVER happen in real life, except for if the girl hasn't got any self esteem)

well i'm drifting off, the whole harem part just sucks balls and the girls just magically fall for him because he's a nice guy (sry but i'm really sick of all this same harems, you can do it once, maybe twice but not in every frickin one)

despite all that rage, i quite liked it in the beginning, haruto should have stcuk with azusa and the end, now it seems like its taking a turn for worse

ps: to all guys giving it a 10 or 1, cmon this is nowhere a catastrophe manga that should never be read and by no means a masterpiece

edit: ok really, this is going nowhere, they are COLLEGE students and her dad is controlling his daughter like a dog, this is just ridiculous, same with haruto, grow some balls idiot -_-

Haruto has dumped asuka and gotten back to Eba. Right now, Seo Kouji has used almost all of the love/drama ideas possible in previous chapters. As the series is right now, I would simply classify this as romance and slice of life from the fact that absolutely nothing is happening. yes they are going on dates and it seems like yet another girl has fallen for Haruto, but his current self is so devoted to Eba nothing is probably going to happen. If something does then Haruto is an asshole, a player, and should go die. Otherwise, i don't see exactly where this manga can go from this point. In Suzuka they managed to get married and have a child, but Kimi no Iru Machi most likely can not have this ending.

crying back to Asuka

For one thing, they grow physically: Haruto and friends start out just starting high school, and in recent chapters have been enjoying university life. Granted that the manga could do more in actually showing school life for once, but at least it's still realistic: they spend most of their time figuring out the relationships that they end up in some second-tier university (we know because Eba's sister Rin wants it as the second choice, and Eba presumably is already in a top-tier university). But aside from progression in life, they also physically get bigger, and there is attention to detail. Anyone who's watched Pokemon from my time knows that Ash has been 10 years old for about ten years now (oddly enough, he's somehow gotten slightly taller).

Finally, and most importantly, the characters develop. Haruto, by virtue of his kindliness, becomes more mature and serious about his relationships - a far cry from crushing on Nanami and then asking her out after two or three conversations in their whole lives. Perhaps the clearest contrast is when Eba is used as a foil: the very first chapter shows a 16 year old Haruto stumbling down the stairs protesting the new family member's presence, and recently he's moved into his own apartment in Tokyo, the down-payment handled by Eba and Haruto together. Character growth is, of course, observed in all the other characters throughout as well - Takashi and Kiyomi both get over their respective hurdles, for example, and Rin becomes less overtly bitchy. So life goes on.

Throughout the maturing of our friends, we see complex themes interwoven into the storyline: love, loyalty, trust, belonging, family and whether blood ties are all that defines one (Eba and siblings v. Eba and Haruto). Life lessons are learnt through the experiences and choices that are made throughout: Haruto moves to Tokyo against his parents' and friends' wishes, Eba breaks up with Haruto for Kyousuke who later dies, Haruto gets over Eba with Asuka, and Haruto dumps Asuka for Eba. Most of these choices are made by Haruto, the main character and perspective we see the story through, but we do get the back stories of our other friends.

What's significant is how difficult the choices are, and how it's no mean feat making them all: Haruto, for example, throws away his chance at conquering his long-held crush on Nanami to make sure Eba gets home safely. Unlike other shoujo manga where a filthy-rich prince comes in with an army of secret police to save the day, Haruto has to go by himself to ensure Eba's safety (gets lost while looking for her), punches her brother to get his point across and goes home with an enlightened understanding of why Eba came to Hiroshima. There's no easy way out, as Rin tells Haruto: "Aren't you being a little selfish now, not wanting to hurt either of them?" Indeed, Haruto breaks up with Asuka against the will of all his friends, and invites a backlash - Kiyomi warns Haruto poignantly, "Nobody will ever obtain true happiness if they have to hurt someone else to gain it." (Nanami pretty much tells Eba the same thing), but Shiori, an outsider to Haruto's circle, tells Haruto: "For what it's worth, I don't think what you did was wrong." And that's it: sometimes we just have to believe in our own decisions, and walk forward. The process of making tough choices in Kimi no Iru Machi, without any knowledge of what the future may bring, reflects the harsh truths in reality via beautiful, complex interwoven illustrations, and forces both character and reader to grow up and abandon the innocence of yesteryear.

The similarities to life don't end at the decision making stage - the characters are very much people you might know yourself, giving greater credence to the title "A Town Where You Live", precisely because you feel like you might have lived there yourself. The protagonists and antagonists reflect reality: shoujo manga commonly have a girl and a boy fated to be together, and rivals appear with a million schemes. In Kimi no Iru Machi, there are no clear-cut heroes. We are always inclined to take the side of the one narrating, but in Haruto's case, he makes so many blunders when it comes to his love life that - despite his natural kind self - we do sometimes get rather pissed off with him. (Isn't it obvious that when you're courting a girl, you do not abandon her time and time again for another girl, and then lie to her about it?) The relationships aren't cast in stone right from the start - no one expected Eba to break up with Haruto, no one expected them to move on, and in recent chapters, probably no one expected Haruto to be hardhearted and dump Asuka for Eba. It could have easily swung any way. And there isn't really anyone at fault, much like life - it simply is. No one can control who they truly feel for, and what they truly feel. The closest we get to an enemy is Rin (she certainly seems like the typical manipulative bitch initially when Eba returns to Tokyo), but later on we revise our opinion - the most she does is cause annoyance by interfering all the time, but she doesn't really have an agenda - she isn't out to make Haruto her own property.

The single criticism weighing on my mind right now is that there are too many girls. Normally, I am all for fanservice (mm), but when as a guy I start getting turned off by the quantity of girls, I think there's a problem. Discounting the childhood friend who kisses him (Akari), the girl who drags him to a love hotel (Shiori), and the girl who mistakenly thinks Haruto likes her and ends up stalking him (Mina), Haruto has had no less than five girls falling in love with him - current girlfriend (Yuzuki Eba), initial crush (Nanami), ex-girlfriend (Asuka), ex-classmate (Kiyone) and current neighbour (Hoshina). This is also omitting his hot sister who lived with him in Tokyo (Aoi), Eba's sister (Rin) and his best friend's new crush (Kiyomi). There are two guys still in the manga: Haruto and his best friend Takashi, who's normally forgotten - Kazuma, Eba's ex, is now dead. The current neighbour's probably going to constitute the next arc. As much as I agree that nothing is certain in this world, the Law of Large Numbers suggests that the more times an experiment is conducted, the more the result tends towards the mean. In this case, I think it's high time for Eba to get some of the action if nothing else - clearly, five-to-one is no healthy relationship ratio. It's getting slightly tiring - and annoying - that Haruto, who has been touted as slightly useless and unattractive from the beginning (he joins the cooking club and loses to girls in athletics) is getting so much action from so many girls. In the end, having 9 main, developed female characters onto 2 male ones should feel imbalanced to even the guys - let alone the girls. It's nearly as bad as Mahou Sensei Negima - and that's saying something!

So, I decided to look back on the page of one of my fave mangas, KNIM, and I see alot of negative comments on how people REALLY dislike this manga now since Haruto went back to Eba, and how he dumped Asuka. I also don't get why people even hate on Eba. I seriously don't know why everybody hates Eba... I do know for a fact that there were a lot of people hoping for a Haruto x Asuka ending, but Eba>Asuka for me.

Anyways, back to my general thought. As I was saying, I'm seeing a lot of negative comments on KNIM now, and how the manga should have ended earlier and what not. And how in the world is Haruto a jerk? He loved Eba more then he loved Asuka, as simple as that. If he went on with Asuka, he would have been hurting both himself and Asuka if he kept going out with her even though he had feelings for Eba. (That's how affairs happen) He was just being true to his feelings.

So yesterday, I caught up to the last chapter released of this series (currently 145) and I have to say I'm quite... eeeh... disappointed I guess. Incoming spoilers.

The whole series starts of great by putting up the story's setting and introducing the most important characters. Then some twists and turns and we see the relationship between the characters. All is good and even though I'm not a big fan of Eba at this point, and raged a bit myself, everything is all fine and good. Then everything becomes a mess. Eba decides to cut off all contact with Haruto, and somehow Haruto ends up going to Tokyo. Now the Hiroshima cast is left behind and we are introduced to a new cast of characters.

Now that in itself isn't bad, but my main problem is probably in Haruto as a character. Just how are he able to change his feelings like that? Let's say all the feelings of love he has had has been real. Going from Kanzaki to Eba is understandable, as he has made more memories with her than Kanzaki anyhow, and there is a connection between Eba and Haruto from the past (which I think the title is reffering too? "The town where you live"). Then he suddenly doesn't have any feelings for Eba anymore and moves on, and decides to date Asuka. Alright nice. In the last few chapters, he used about 5 seconds to decide that he didn't love Asuka anymore and liked Eba after all. <-- What? And while the characters personalities does somehow develop, many are just simple 180 degree personality switches. Nanami went from a cool, collected and "sane" person to a clutz. Eba went from a clutz and what to a calm and collected person (Though there are fallbacks to her original personality) Asuka's stomach... whatever happened to it? Oh and Haruto. He's indecisive and kind of naïve, but in the middle, it looks like he's really giving what he is doing real good thought, and while the difference in personality is sudden, I think it went for the better. Then bam everything went back to the shit :D

Sorry it's a bit of a ramble. Let me try to write something that's kinda more informative:

While the initial story and setting was great, the series has derailed way too much from its original motive. The series should probably have ended after Haruto and Yuzuki ended up together and her family problems were resolved. Because that was the reason she came to Hiroshima, because Haruto said to come at the summer festival some years ago. When the story moves to Tokyo, the plot just isn't there anymore. There are too many weird contradictions in the personality of the characters, and when their college life begins, the hiroshima cast is brought back just like that. While I guess it's a great thing that they got back in the story, the execution was poor. There were no prelude to the time skip, and nothing that indicated that all of them would come and enroll in the same university. Haruto's feelings is a mess, and I think a romance shouldn't have a male lead like this, because he is, most likely, using Asuka as a "stress-reliever". He did say at one point that he geniunely(if I spelled that right) loved Asuka, and that they would be together tens of years later. But somehow that's all forgotten and he's back with Eba again. Feelings changes, and I don't have a problem with them changing, but here, it's way too sudden, making it seem improbable and awkward. And if you're going to look at it as a probable thing, then it's just that Haruto is a shallow jerk :D

Well, I think I began rambling a bit again, but I really think this series could be a lot more interesting and fun to read, but Seo's twists in the story and generally how he presents it just really doesn't click for me. Added with the fact that the plot derailed, and the male lead is just jumping back and forth, it just isn't worth it imho.

Hopefully this is somewhat helpful, and anyway, it's completely up to you how to feel about this series. I'm not an Eba fan, so that could, of course, be one reason as of why I don't like this, but if you want to see an Eba end, please also just look at what Haruto really is doing as well as how the series is presented. I think you'll understand the general lacks of this manga. All in all I can say that Haruto as a male lead sucks and shouldn't end up with anyone. None of the girls deserve to fall in love with him. It's just cruel for them, because in the end, Haruto is a jerk.

~CXu

ps. HOW THE HELL DID HE FIGURE THAT DUMPING ASUKA WAS A GOOD IDEA?

Basically is like this:
Haruto "the main character" starts dating Eba.
Then Eba breaks up with him just because some weird dude says, he loves her and he doesn't have much time left.
Haruto go to Tokyo just to chase after Eba.
Become friends with Eba's boyfriend "note: he didn't no he was the one dating Eba atm"
After a while the dude dies and Haruto confront Eba saying that he still loves her.
Eba then says they can never be together blablabla.

Haruto starts dating Asuka a pretty chill and likable chick for 2 yrs.
Then one day Eba comes back and claims that she still loves
[him too much freaking drama from 1 cocksucker].
Then after sometime they starts hanging out.
Back to his hometown together with Eba "Asuka couldn't go for some retarded Seo reason"and his old friends.
Chillingout with Eba who claims she fucked up her legs so can't go to where the others are going and ask Haruto to stays with her "note: there was actually nothing wrong with her, just her wanting time alone with Haruto".
Them almost kissing and bam!! Asuka somehow enters.

Haruto then tells Asuka there is someone else.
Guess who that someone is ~drum rollssssssss~
The one and only fan favorite EEEEEEEEEEEEbaaaaaa!!!.

So basically Asuka was just a replacement? lol.
And people seriously telling me that this guy is a great romance story teller.
Worst of all they actually love how Seo pulled Eba and Mr. Shitty main character back together.