i dislike most shoujo, but this is an exception, because it has none of the inane tropes of a typical shoujo romance. for one, the male lead is neither perfect nor an abusive jerk who makes you wonder why anyone would fall in love with him; he has a temper, is lazy, curmudgeonly, and likes to tease people, but he also cares a lot about people close to him, and goes to bat for them. but the female lead is what makes this really special. teru is no shrinking violet, she's not dumb and cutesy, and she takes action when it's needed. she, too, isn't perfect, but the plot does not rest on stupid mistakes and constant miscommunication. oh yes, there is an actual plot; the romance doesn't carry this all by itself. in fact the romance is very slow in some ways; don't expect there to be lots of kissing and smoopy stuff; i'm on chapter 44 and there's not been any of that. it is very romantic nonetheless; it's all in the growth of the relationship and how the characters relate to each other, and how they deal with some serious adversity that's thrown at them. i cannot stress enough how impressive the female lead is; how she thinks things through even if initially she reacts badly. and to top it all off, the manga is also funny, and the humour balances well with the sometimes very serious and sad parts, which is hard to achieve.
good plot, great characters, nice art (not very flowery, yay) -- i am not gonna rate it yet because it's still ongoing, but if it continues this way, i don't see why i wouldn't give it a 10; i got emotionally invested when reading this (which is rare for me), and went to grab every raw i could find after i got done with the scanlated chapters; read it all in one sitting (now my butt hurts). definitely gonna buy it too. awesome job by motomi kyousuke; we need more mangaka like him/her.
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