I rarely leave comments but I felt like I had to for this one. I'll go through a few points in regards to its weaknesses and strengths. It is rather long so do bear with me but I wanted to talk about the manga as a whole and not just praised it overwhelmingly or just trash-talking it. (TL;DR at the end available but do try to read from the third paragraph as I highlight some strengths of the manga.) Similar review I read online ----- https://www.theouterhaven.net/2020/06/domestic-na-kanojo-manga-review/
Spoiler Alert!
As most people have said, ending was rather badly done and quite anti-climatic. It's not really about the end itself
Natsuo ends up with Hina
but rather the last events the led up to the ending. For me, I've pretty much knew all along who he's gonna end up with and I have no problem with that. With that said, I felt that the story should've been brought back to
! Hina
and their rekindled relationship to justify the ending more. It makes sense that people would be mad that
! practically a lot of character & story development was done when Natsuo and Rui were together. Even as it was about to reach the end, the story was still about Natsuo and Rui. If the author had done a better job to redirect the reader's line of thought back to Hina rather than just use the 'how much she sacrificed and protected from the shadows' card.
I'm sure there's many things to discuss about the ending but that's the gist of it. Some other comments have also made good points about the ending despite it being delivered in a hateful manner lmao.
Other than that, the cliche stuff, the fan service, usage of explicit scene, blah blah blah. Most people treat it as a bad thing in manga and it's true that it's not the best thing to put in a manga but it's not like the usage of it was so bad that it undermines all the other aspects of the manga. I personally think it's a given that those scenes and events will happen due to the nature of the manga itself. If you read enough manga in general, both good and bad, this manga would seem like one where it is suitable to use those cliche or fan service stuff. All in moderation ofc, which I think was achieve.
Now, onto the abundance of sub-plots. Some said that sub-plots were brought up all of a sudden and then vanished without bringing an end to it. I think this can be reflected on our growing/teenage to adult stage. Characters were introduced here and there, different hobbies/ activities are discovered, different conflicts between different characters, difficulty in conforming to society, finance problem, depression. It shows what teenagers in that stage, maturing into society but still unsure of oneself, "using that freedom to do soul searching" as said in the manga, it shows what they go through. I'm sure most people can relate to some part of the manga. It's not a depiction of perfection or how something should happen. It's how would different people see things in a different way and how would struggling people find ways to deal with their imperfections. People commented about inability to control emotions and how some events seem stupid but in reality those things might just happen too.
Character development as well as different aspects to society was rather well done imo. Like how we tend to get roped into addiction such as drugs, how society could not view homosexuality as a norm, how we dwell on our past trauma, suicide, self-harm, prostitution, forbidden love. Those parts of the manga really shines through and it really shows how nothing is perfect and how we cope with the consequences and reality of society.
In the end, it isn't a chick flick or a super cheesy manga, no extremely cool male lead, no romance that stays perfect throughout the story. You get the point. Sure, the manga ends badly in terms of ending, the pacing goes off in a few parts but is it bad enough to dismiss the other good aspects I mentioned? Not at all. Instead of groaning about the imperfections, try to enjoy it and not let yourself get blindsided from the good parts.
TL;DR : It's a good read but do not create expectations of your own and expect them to go a certain way. Also, do not read if you're only a fan of romance manga/ flicks. It is more of a teenage drama and should be enjoy as such with an open mind. Also, artwork is fantastic and amazing.
(+7)
(-220)
