**Put in a bit, and to you this manga will be fun and cute at first, then drop off into a bit of a boring, confused funk, followed by, of all things, a violently dramatic final arc.
Put in a lot, and Masami Tsuda's work will reveal itself a deceivingly-simple, earnest, absorbing, intense tale, sometimes hilarious, often endearing, and downright beautiful.
And yes, Maho goes for a guy a decade or two her senior.**
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KARESHI Kanojyo no Jijo, or, His and Her Circumstances, is a manga following a number of girls and guys just new to high school--egoistic, anxious, blustery, full of potential, and lost...not to mention all of them crammed with hormones (the majority of which is provided by Hideaki Asaba)--down the paths they take towards the rest of their adult lives, supported by friends, family, and, over time, lovers.
It's not really for everyone.
As I hope the tl;dr version above demonstrates, Masami Tsuda's manga series (The series, in terms of her career) demands something. You won't get this impression with the first, oh, three volumes, really. The art is cute, charming, and although at times just too gorgeous--look at those lips, dammit--it does what it ought to... 'Intro, gimmick, joke, joke, angst, angst, chase scene, confession, kiss: Ah, love. Oh, life.' It's just nice.
And yet... the same could not be said of Tsuda's style in the latter half of the twenty-one--volume series. Recalling this about a few months after marathoning the last ten or so volumes, albeit after a long, long break, I'd say that Kare Kano (as it's popularly and very conveniently nicknamed) is... Well, I wouldn't really call it a novel made of pictures or a live-action film put on paper; I couldn't. Despite all its waily melodrama, this, friends, is real life in ink.
You'll have to trust me on this. Towards the end, Tsuda, as a manga-ka, just turns it up to Max Level. She draws well-rounded characters situated in a three-dimensional world, recalling reality with a style that's still 'anime,' still simplistic, still pretty, and always all her own.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. To be simply simple: Kare Kano begins as a high-school love story, but wends its way through a number of other romantic episodes (and a school play!?) to a drama that examines forgiveness, fatherhood, and the nature of living fully. It loses none of its original juvenile-type storytelling (soap operas, anyone?) yet manages all the while to push its own boundaries. This piece of work blooms. It grows into something Big.
All in all (congratulations on getting to this point!), if the art style's evolution is any indication, readers should expect a pleasant ride that will quickly turn into a little roller-coaster of a tale...which may well make your stomach drop and swoop as well as the real thing would, depending on how much is invested. It's up to you.
As a final note, let me say that the two-volume sidestory mid-way through is abso-freaking-lutely amazing, no ifs, ands, or buts. YIN AND YANNGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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