Although this manga is shoujo it is like shounen sports game where the protagonist tries hard and meet stronger rivals then suddenly an useless epiphany or team support makes her reach semi final only to loose in the finals which keeps on dragging their original dream, this is hindering the progress in its romantic plot. Will the heroine never realize feeling of love for taich. Its lame to one point with draggy explanations and flashbacks, it makes it all the more frustrating during a serious match.

his grandfather's death through his rejection of what was/is his favorite game. It's not guilt, it's not "wallowing in [his own] melodrama." Is it that difficult to believe that Arata's mourning for his grandfather manifests itself in this manner? It's a very human response, people deal with grief in different ways, this isn't a huge suspension of disbelief.

I would argue that when the flashback ends you feel that the "emotional upheaval" of the flashback chapter feels "cheated" because you have extremely high expectations for ten-year-olds. The flashback's function is to show the contrast of Arata past and present, as well as to show the initial meeting of the three characters, to lay out the foundations of their motivations. The present is where the emotional growth will really begin as they struggle to the top. Frankly, it's refreshing to see that the characters' actions and reactions are realistic. My issues with Chihaya as the heroine aside, I do think you're a little too personally hung up on her outer 'beautification'..

I do agree that there are a lot of panels in which Taichi is gazing at Chihaya - but not always in the 'I like you' way, sometimes in admiration, sometimes in encouragement. What I like about Taichi and Chihaya is that they DO have a relationship beyond the 'potential romantic couple' angle - they're friends who support each other and each other's passion for the game, so it isn't as annoying and infantile as you're making it out to be. (Case in point: look at most other shoujo mangas and compare with this one.)

Yes, maybe the whole deal behind Arata purging kurata from his life is an overdone plot device; but 'painful', no. It WOULD be painful if it was dragged on and on and on... but it's resolved when Chihaya and Taichi visit him. This calls back to the bond forged between them in the earlier chapters, and it also points out that Arata obviously loves kurata. He didn't reject kurata because he blamed the game for making him miss his grandfather's death, but because it served as a reminder of the grandfather who is no longer there, who was a powerful influence on him for liking the game in the first place. Kurata became a painful association and distancing himself from that association is a realistic response, I think. An emotional response, too, which are sometimes both logical and illogical (as in logical to that person, but appears illogical to others). Arata being able to enjoy the game again is symbolic of him moving on.

To get it out of the way, the first chapters were well written and in no way indicative of the rest. They contain flashbacks to Chihaya’s childhood when she discovers the game of kurata and friends to last her a lifetime. It is heartfelt and significant because she gains a purpose for her own and steps out of her sister’s shadow, never mind serious implications that Chihaya has kurata because she doesn’t have anything else. Only her two new friends shortly move away, leaving Chihaya to deal with loss.

No matter though, because when the flashback ends she is reunited with both of them, and the emotional upheaval then becomes cheated. Chihaya from a ten-year-old has grown into a beautiful teen, just as unkempt and spirited and oblivious and utterly tactless. After all those years not only did she not gain any emotional maturity, but she has actually regressed when lessons learned just the other chapter turn effectively worthless. By the way, if Chihaya didn’t give a button how pretty she was, then why bother mentioning it? Hint I can be beautiful too but I don’t really care and I don’t wear fashionable clothing and make-up but if I do I would totally look hot hint.

What happens after is painfully overdone. Okay Taichi we get that you have a crush on Chihaya but must you blush while gazing at her every five panels? And did the other guy seriously quit playing kurata because his grandfather died while he competed? I have a word for people like that, but my mother tells me to substitute it with ‘self-centered egomaniacs’. That’s not guilt; that’s wallowing in your own melodrama. That kind of shit is acceptable if he wasn’t this wisdom before age type, but as earlier chapters pushed in that direction … arg.

It can be considered realistic. Does that make him likable? No. The shit he does still isn't acceptable. The fact that Chihayafuru doesn't call him out is what makes me see red--it doesn't acknowledge that its character is still wallowing in his own melodrama. It is contrived plot. It is contrived emotion, since the tension was entirely fabricated.

I felt cheated out of my own emotional reactions. There's a huge problem when the story does something to make us and the heroine cry and then undoes it a few pages later. Give her new friends. Show her that she has to move on. Anything but what it did.

So okay, my problem with the beauty thing is that it perpetuates the myth that women have to look "naturally' beautiful. News flash: no woman can look beautiful without trying to or without caring about how she looks. The myth allows men to demand women to look nice without trying, and then condemn those who puts on too much make-up or undergoes cosmetic surgery.

Re: Taichi, I have not followed it until the point that you are talking about. I don't see it in what little I did read, but then again, I had no reason to. And I don't like to compare manga like that, because that's like saying this manga is a little bit better than all those horrible manga.