I just love this ♥
To be honest I had my doubts at first, I'm not a big fan of Nakamura-sensei's art (I tried reading Junjou Romantica a few times but the art always put me off - though to be honest the characters did too) but Sekaiichi Hatsukoi's plot seemed fairly interesting so I gave it go. And I have to say her art has improved a lot since her older works, it's a lot cleaner and the characters' limbs seem to be more proportional now.
Yes, overall it is quite cliche; most of the ukes have the typical small stature & huge eyes (there's only 1 exception), the semes are possesive & pushy, and there are loads of silly misunderstandings (I'm mainly talking about the incident between Onodera & Takano in their student days - to be honest I think it should've been something a bit more convincing to warrant Onodera's reaction).
Although, that's all part of the reason why I adore this manga so much. I don't see anything wrong with stereotypical BL if it's entertaining, and my gosh this really is.
There's loads of comedy throughout, although it doesn't overshadow the romance at all. There are also some moments that can wrench your heart (the main one consists of Takano & Yokozawa having a certain discussion - I can almost guarantee that if you didn't like Yokozawa from the start, after that scene, you'll absolutely love the poor guy). Then to top it all of, there's also a lot of sex scenes (literally almost every chapter!).
I just adore stories that have multiple relationships (in fact the Warui Koto Shitai series is my second favourite manga of all time -- so if you haven't read that yet, then seriously go check it out: http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=11462 Ahh, Towa & Mikado are just so scrumptious! And there's the hot Shinonome too...) Anyway, I really like being able to read about different couples that are all in the same universe, and I love seeing how events in their relationships overlap. So I think that's one of the major reasons why I enjoy this manga so much.
Plus I like almost all the characters, so obviously that helps. The only ones I don't particularly care for are Yoshino & Hatori. -- Not just because of the non-con in the associated novel, but I just find them boring. Hatori is quite dull & Yoshino is far too stupid to even be considered cute. Though I suppose if you like Misaki from JR then you may like him too.
Apart from them, the other 3 couples are really adorable ^__^
I am including Yokozawa & Kirishima too, even though they don't make many appearances in the manga so far, I still think they have a wonderful relationship.
I know some people dislike tsundere characters but I think they're cute, so I especially love Onodera. Yeah he can be frustrating at times since he's so hesitant, but to be fair I don't think it's that easy for someone to dive head-first into a homosexual relationship, especially if it's with your boss/first-love-who-accidentally-broke-your-heart!
I also really like the setting of this too, as it isn't just an office-based romance or high-school themed story. In fact, I think the manga editing aspect of this makes it really interesting. Unlike other manga with a similar setup, this actually focuses a lot on the editing & publishing industries, which makes this pretty special as it goes into so much detail. Plus what I really like is how Nakamura-sensei can make jokes about the industry and when she describes a process (for instance, submitting the storyboard) there are often little snippets along the lines of, "this is how mangaka are meant to behave, but bad mangaka do this instead", and she sort of jokes around like that. (I couldn't be bothered to find an actual quote, so I'm not sure if my example made any sense, but if you read it then you'll probably understand what I'm getting at).
Even though this review is meant to be of the manga itself, I just want to recommend the anime to anyone who hasn't seen it yet, as the seiyuu are all amazing! I'm always a bit skeptical about watching anime after reading the manga, as I tend to imagine what the characters sound like while I'm reading, then when I get around to watching the anime adaptation I usually end up disappointed. But with this, the seiyuu all fit their roles perfectly, and really become the characters. Plus they just have such lovely voices ♥
So while Sekaiichi Hatsukoi doesn't have the most gripping of plots, I still think it's wonderfully entertaining and always leaves me with a warm fuzzy feeling and goofy grin. So if you're like me and just want something with minimum drama (no ridiculously complicated love-dodecahedrons thankfully!!) and lots of smut, then give this a go ^__^
(I also strongly recommend that you read the Yokozawa Takafumi no Baai novels as well -- they are brilliant! Plus the movie adaptation of YTNB has been announced, so that is definitely not to be missed!♥)