What we have here is a very good story about fairly average characters, and the strength of the second part of that leading statement is what truly separates this work from most of the other school-life / romance mangas out there. Where most mangas in this category center on characters that would for one reason or another be circled in most of the yearbooks for their respective schools, the main characters of this story stand out because they would most likely be soon forgotten by all but their closest friends. The guy is not the feared delinquint and the girl is not the silver haired beauty... He is the quiet loaner always with the sketch book but never making eyec ontact. She is the energetic skinny chick who seems to be friends with the really hot girls. Let me put it this way, He is the comet, who for most of his existence has gone completely unnoticed until completely against his personal wishes gets sucked into the orbit of some of the most popular girls in school.

What's most interesting is that these are characters that most of us knew in high school, but most likely didn't at all aspire to be. The personality flaws of the MCs are significant, but not insurmountable. His crippling shyness has given him a long history of being bullied, but most of his tormentors have left him behind for more interesting challenges; but she has been hanging around her popular friends too long and the mean spirited sense of humour she has picked up as well as her natural stubbornness makes her hard to get along with. It's these main characters that seem so realistic and relatable yet unusual in the world of Manga for their reality that get such a high score from me. The character design artwork emphasizes this. She, the titular Nagatoro, contrasts from her contrasts from her posse by being the shortest and skinniest, with straight limp and dark hair. But her compact frame carries a lot of athetic energy: a regular (if not a leader) on the swim team, and clearly (although not explicitly stated) has spent much of her youth in some dojo or another and would be able to hold her own within her weight class at a combat sport tournament. We learn, that there is a kind heart that beats (fairly deeply buried) under the cruely humoured exterior she has learned to put on, and that kind heart has been reveiling itself as the volumes tick off. Much of her teasing of him goes to the point of trying to pull him out of his self imposed shell, but she learns quickly that like with a hermit crab, you can only tug so hard before real injury gets done. By the end of the second volume their relationship is developed enough that she is even standing up for him against her friends when they cross the line, much to her surprise.

I probably spoiled a bit there, but as far as story, this has more in common with a variety of publications being a slow burn romance building story arc. It shares a lot of plot outline with, say, ToraDora!, B-gata H-kei, or even more so Teasing Master Takagi-san. It is nicely done, with plenty of tension, some foreshadowing, and even some surprises, both good and harsh, to keep things interesting yet moving along. To contrast with some of the older reviews, I see this as not so much of a Dom/Sub relationship story... it seems to be developing more depth and complexity than that, as he starts to come out of his shell and gain some agency over their relationship. And I have definitely seen some character development, but it doesn't become noticeable until about the third volume.

Anyway, I look forward to more in this series. There is definitely more coming beyond the five volumes we have so far, but how much is anyones guess, is suppose. I hope for at least 12 volumes, but I see the potential for a much longer running series (Kiss X Sis is still going after all).