I tried reading this many times, and this time I got up to ch17 but I am stopping here...
The art is ugly but the characters are ok (expressions are rich), but seriously, the heroine is too embarrassing and too clueless (not realistic)...
I got a fair bit of laugh out of it and Yoh is sweet. I just couldn't be bother reading it anymore!

I first read this series when I was around 1st or 2nd year
and now I'm in 4th year and I reread the series... it occured to me that other than the beginning, everything else is boring
Especially the ending
The only thing that interested me was the ex-girlfriend issue. I'm quite annoyed with the guy character, what's his again??
I have no idea why girls go gaga about this
Oh well,It's probably because I'm pretty dense
But I really love the drawings so.. thumbs up for that

plot>6
character development > 8
romance > 8
comedy > 9
ending >9

what else do u need pick it up and read it now

The beginning arcs were pretty addicting. I love the heroine a lot because she's honest and pure. She takes the courage to walk into the unknown world of romance and relationships. Give it a shot... at least for the first few volumes.

And I got re-hooked to it all over again. I've been on a re-reading spree. Koukou Debut really is one of my favorites. I think it was how it wasn't too complicated and there weren't love rivals popping up out of nowhere. It didn't involve magic or world catastrophe and it focused on how the relationships of the main couple and their friends grew. Not that manga with magic and catastrophes can't be good too, but I think this series just made me smile...

Art (10%): 7
The art isn't one of the best. The reason why I gave it an 7 instead of a 6 is that although the art isn't very pretty, it shows the expressions of the characters well.

Story (40%): 10
The story is funny and the plot is original (or at least it is done in an original way). I love how funny the story is and how realistic it is (not counting Haruna's strength). Although a lot of the jokes are overplayed, the story overall is funny and a good light read.

Character (40%): 9
Almost all the characters are likable but there isn't a lot of character development. Haruna is unlike most shoujo heroine because she is average looking and strong but very dense. She makes the story interesting and Yoh's reactions to her actions are also amusing to read.

Enjoyment (10%): 9
I enjoyed reading the story but some of the jokes are overplayed (like how strong and masculine Haruna is).

Total Score: 9.2

for starters there is nothing funny in this manga, so forget this is a "romantic-comedy" from the get-go i was annoyed at the fact that 9 out of 10 close ups of Haruna Heroine are of her with huge amazed/surprised eyes realizing yet another thing she's clueless about. the only thing she seems to be aware of is that she knows nothing at all... and it gets old pretty quickly

i love love-triangles or love's where characters are not too sure why they fall for each other, however there always has to be some degree of credibility in the character's feelings. Here, nor Haruna nor Yoh's feelings are credible.
she's never seen even talking to another guy, and whenever she is, she ends up falling head over heals for them [eg. weird random guy, Fumi] so it's not strange she'd fall for the hot guy who coaches her [no merit whatsoever for him]
while Yoh decides on a whim to accept coaching her and then... seems to have fallen for the "i-will-do-my-best side of Haruna but it's still anything but believable.

if you want a funny romance = this is not for you
if you want a heart-wrenching drama = this is not for you

Pao

I posted a (non-intelligent) comment back in 2007, when I first read the series. Then I kept up with the scanlations until it was concluded a year ago.

I went back and re-read the whole series from the beginning last night. Now I can write an intelligent review without my thoughts being overtaken by how much I want to jump down Yoh's pants (not that I still don't want to).

This series is wonderful. It follows the typical shoujo premise very closely of the girl wanting to fall in love etc etc. So some of you might be wondering... geez, not a very original plot, so what is there to like about it?

The characters.

The characters make up the whole series.

We lack the asshole player & cry-every-5-seconds-about-trivial-shit heroine. Yoh is a lady killer and gorgeous as hell (I want down his pants. RIGHT NOW), but he doesn't abuse that by picking up girls every other corner. Haruna is not the "i want to be pretty girl but really pretty in disguise". What I liked about it is that the author portrayed Haruna as a plain-looking girl from the very beginning until the VERY end. There was never a "hey, she's actually a hidden beauty!" aspect to Haruna.

In my opinion, this works best. Haruna is very similar to a lot of girls I know. ;P Just about 99% of girls her age want to be attractive and catch boys' attentions. Don't deny it people - it's true. Some people even go through the extents Haruna does. But when does it EVER end in a "HEY, SHE'S ACTUALLY A BEAUTY!" and then every guy going to pursue that chick?? NEVER. Haruna learns (somehow) to accept herself as she is, and she's not bothered by the fact that there are prettier girls than her. I love Haruna.

Yoh, as I said, doesn't abuse the fact he's hot-looking. There's a BAWWWW emo cliche sob backstory to him with the beads chick, but even then, there are many things I love about him. He's gorgeous eye-candy, but his personality really gets to me. I actually adore guys that are like Yoh, and are shy to feelings like him - guys who constantly go off on you saying how much they love you (oh, do I hate when people abuse that word!) tend to become clingy and tiring and problematic - or maybe I just haven't had good luck with guys. But I just think that the fact that Yoh treasures a relationship is a good sign that it will PROBABLY last.

But Yoh isn't out to date to most attractive girl around. He likes Haruna because of who she is, not because of how she looks like. They make such a sweet couple. Their relationship is so great and it's one I strive to have myself. I envy Haruna and Yoh's relationship. Even when shit happens, they came overcome it in a mature way - I only wish all shoujo were like this! They're so open and honest to each other. I loved Haruna's maturity during the Kurihara arc. She's right; all of us strive so much to run away from the past that haunts us, when in reality, doing that will make it haunt us more. We need to face it head-on and accept the past, and grow stronger from that. This is something not many people realize, but in reality, they all do the same thing Yoh did with Kurihara initially. I'm not going to hold it against him or say he's an idiot, because that's a typical human reaction, but I'm glad Haruna was there to help him out. That is why I love that girl.

I like the aspect of "love" portrayed here - haha, it's so true, kisses and sex aren't just to be toyed around with!

One of the things that really kind of bugged me about Yoh is that for about half the series, I was thinking it seemed like he didn't really like Haruna. I could tell very much Haruna was crazy about him, but there wasn't much to support him actually liking her. It wasn't until volume 6 that I kind of felt he did love her in a FEW instances (very few), but even after, he goes back to his regular stance and this time I'm left wondering... Okay, well, HOW MUCH does he love her? There wasn't anything coupley about them at all (save a few instances)!

In the later volumes it becomes much more clear, and that was great, but I was just bothered by this the first few volumes. Even after awhile too. I mean, you can't be dating someone for over a year and still be shy. At least later on, when Haruna manages to break down Yoh's defenses, he starts expressing his feelings more clearly and though still shy, he's more forward about things. Yoh really developed a lot as a character.

Yoh and Haruna are refreshing shoujo leads. I love both of them.

As for the side characters... I'll just make it super brief. They had their moments, and my favourites were Asaoka and Mami of the side characters (they actually would make a great couple). Fumi was too dense for my liking (seriously), although he's such a sweetie. Asa... oh geez, don't even get me started. First she's a bitch cuntrag to Haruna and steals her man, then she mooches off her, then she acts like a spoiled brat with Fumi, then she fucking COCKBLOCKS YOH. That was the LAST STRAW FOR ME. I will NEVER forgive her for being such a cockblocker.

I HATE YOU ASA. Her personality is disgusting! Fumi should have dumped her 50 years ago.

Er... yep, that's my new review.

Where is my follow-up sequel to the sequel? I swear I read on ANN months back there was a follow-up to Enren Debut.

Oh, and why didn't they ever smex? That damn author cock teased all of us in about 50 chapters... TSK. They better had in the second Enren Debut chapter.

ADD UP: IN VOLUME 11 CHAPTER 43, PAGE 100... WHEN YOH CRIES. AHHHH that just pierced my heart. Holy MOTHERFUCKING JESUS FUCKING CHRIST (forgive my language), that is SO. DAMN. HOT.

^ This is what I mean about turning into an ultra fangirl.

EEEEEP.

My heart just died.

DEEP BREATH DUBBY DEEP BREATH...

*dies*

... Last updated on April 3rd, 2010, 11:39am

I actually liked this shoujo (I think?). I do believe that just after the main couple gets together the story becomes a little dragged. I had to stop reading for some months untill I felt like reading it again. And then, the story just slides away and gets so fast some points of the plot end before they begin (really, the 3 kouhai that just disaspear forever and just go back for no good reason).
But I don't think that some other people are complainig are that bad. For exemple, the main character being so obsessed about how looks. When everything starts she doesn't know what realy love but sure as hell want to try it out. So, she just reads teen mags to know what she has to do for love to spring out in her life, and based on those mags, she thinks that it all resumes to getting picked up (which I personally consider nonsense, but there ARE some girls that do believe in that sort of thing..). What I think is irritating thing about Haruna it's that throught the volumes she's just shown as a girlfriend. Her entire life becomes her relationship and there's no futher develepmont of the character. And eventhought Yoh has hes breakthroughts, it just really shallow ~~~
In the end, there seams like there's a lot of stuff missing but since the whole story is so shallow the entire time it doesn't make that much difference... The whole reason why you keep reading is the lightheartedness of the story.

i like this manga!
veryy much!
it's unique... really! in a way it's also like those typical shoujo
but the writer is so good... she manage to make it different(unique as i said)
and the guy sometimes looks like L that's why i really like it!!!
so cool..
i havent read the ending yet... but i'm almost there..
and i really SO don't want this to end yet... grrr!