It seems like some people liked the start but not the end. For me, it would be the opposite.
I liked the ending. By that, I mean that not only the plot was good at the end, but the storytelling was also good. I could understand the feelings and actions of the characters at a deeper level. Perhaps it was due to the author improving on her storytelling skills.
However, the beginning of the story was rather bland. The plot itself was alright, but the way the story was presented made it difficult for me to connect to the characters. Perhaps the thing I found lacking for the first half of the story was that the process of falling in love wasn't portrayed as well as it could have been. I felt that it lacked depth and felt rather superficial SPOILER ALERT(i.e.: girl falls for her teacher, teacher falls for her - but how? It seems like he just fell for her. It was rather abrupt).
Even the middle part of the story was just mediocre - quite typical. It was interesting, but it was not outstanding enough to make me feel really excited. When I read the little developments in the middle, it's more like "oh, is that so?" kind of feeling, not like "What?! Why did that happen? That's really good!" nor did it make me think along the lines of "that's some really good character development!" because the characters developed the way most do in these kinds of stories (EXCEPT the main girl character at the ENDING ONLY, which is why I like it). This part that I like is AFTER she made her final decision (the plot twist). The story flowed pretty well after the big suspense. However, BEFORE that, it was underdeveloped - especially how she arrived at her final decision. I think this is what some readers disliked, which made the rest of the beautiful ending unenjoyable for them.
If it wasn't for the ending, this manga would be a 7/10 , but because of the ending, it deserves a 7.8/10.
Amusingly, it feels like the opposite of Ao Haru Ride, which had a good beginning in terms of storytelling quality.
(-13)
