Suzuka is a romantic drama series that would make soap opera blush with embarrassment.

The story itself is you fairly standard affair with a fish-out-of-water country boy moving to the city and immediately falling in love. Plausible, if not a little over done. Lo and behold, the main protagonist finds himself living near/with said love interest. Because that happens. Nevertheless, I'll bite. I'm a sucker for these cheesy and sappy situations.

I'll give credit where credit is due. Not many Shonen series attempt the level and type of drama Suzuka attempts. Most conflicts in other series are resolved within your standard Sitcom flair where by the end of the chapter, or after the short 4-5 chapter arc and everything returns to the way it was. However, the conflicts in Suzuka last and have long-term consequences. Unfortunately, this impressive feat is hindered by the fact they are brought about by the most unrealistic and infuriating actions of the characters that it's difficult to really feel the emotion. In a sense, the main issue with the series is that it feels as though the author created the conflict, but did not know how to bring it about, so the main character makes the obviously bad decision to instigate a conflict.

The story may be cheesy, but any story can be salvaged by decent characters. Unfortunately, Suzuka does not have this. The main character is infuriating to no end. As previously eluded to, he is an absolute master and picking the wrong thing to do or say to stir conflicts. This would be alright if the character is written as sort of an antagonist, but he is written as your generic 'nice guy', so the actions and personality are constantly in conflict. Not to mention conflicts are often the result of the same issues over and over again, for instance forgetting important dates and time. The main love interest is by no means any better. Her personality is all over the place and at best she is written as a "tsundere" [First instance I have every written, typed, or said tsundere] character, but she falls flat on both accounts.

Despite all of this, I read the entire series. Twice even, though the second time was only recently. Even considering its flaws, of which there were many, Suzuka wasn't all that bad of a series. It's probably due to the year and a half I spent in a small shop 5 days a week watching soaps on the shop owners TV that I think its alright.