SUZUKA

I really liket this manga and i would have fallen in love with it if it wasn't for the main female lead, Suzuka.
Because Suzuka is a colossal bitch up until a few chapters before the end where the Characters seemed to have at least matured a bit. And also Yamato is a fucking cuck for putting up with Suzukas antics all the time. I really dont get him, i mean love has to end at some point after having recived enough shit for a lifetime after beeing with her for a few months i mean, come on what the hell is wrong with him.
Other than that it was a pretty fun read.

So I have been reading some romance seinen and shonen manga and decided that I needed something new. In comes Suzuka, with a rating o 8/10 on MAL, which is quite spectacular. TLDR at the bottom.

Story: 7/10

I give it a simple seven, not too shabby but not the best. It starts off with a school scenario and living in a girl's dorm. Ah, the beginning just screams of ecchi and was hinting towards a harem. Nonetheless, as you progress through the story, it starts to be more mature and focused on relationship issues and less of school. I'd definitely say there is a slice of life factor, but it's very minimal. It's not slice of life heavy, like Hibike Euphonium. The ending was great for me because it's the first manga I've read that has such a twist. I didn't expect they would put the plot in, given the situation and atmosphere of the manga and it's characters. I would score it better but the story is basically what you would expect. After reading a few romances, it's easy to find out who ends up with whom.

Art: 9/10

Keep in mind this manga came out more than 10 years ago. The art, given for that time, is beautiful. If you've read Love Hina, you'd know what I mean. Love Hina had really horrendous art, in my opinion but had a great story. The eyes, facial features, expressions, emotions and even the physical traits of the manga have been done nicely. The toning could be a bit better in some scenes but generally it's quite fitting for the theme of the manga. Also, the colour pages were done very beautifully.

Character: 8/10

Every character is unique, as this is also a slice of life story, mind you. Of course they follow a default template but it would be hard to make a new template altogether. I really like the emotional development of each character. It brilliantly caught my attention on how we human beings act and behave in our daily lives. It's so simple, yet hard to capture the moments. You know, the feeling when you fucked up, the feeling of regret. The characters have done well to mimic people in real life, and to some point, it's a bit scary to me.

Enjoyment: 9/10

Hell yeah. My advice, read the synopsis, then read the manga. Don't look into spoilers, don't worry about reddit threads or discussions with friends. You are much better off reading this without knowing and expecting too much. I am a bit let down that the scenes are predictable, but I guess that's not much anyone can do, seeing how a lot of romance mangas bloomed the past decade.

TLDR: 9/10, but on a personal note I'd rate it 10/10. This is a great manga if you have asked yourself, "What is love?"

Now that I finished Suzuka, I could only say one thing: How difficult it was to read this work. For Suzuka, the author decided to write a very difficult story, from beginning to end. At no time can the protagonist have a break, his decisions, the uncertainty of the characters, the complications of life ... Suzuka was certainly a landmark work for kouji. Many elements made me angry in the work, I do not say the story itself, but the way he developed the work.

1 - Story [6/10] - It is worth mentioning, in many points of the work I could say that the author made very interesting decisions that gave value to the work, but some things bothered me so much that I gave a 6 (something like in the average ). The development of certain characters proved to be amateur in some points. In fact, all the moments in which the plot does not involve the MC (yamato) and the FMC (Suzuka), are not very thought out or complex. It is worth mentioning, the conclusions of certain arches of the work are even lazy, or even in a way to be able to prolong the work even more. In addition to the huge problem with some characters in the work, where the author simply did not even decide to develop them, and some were even abandoned. While reading, I felt caught up in the plot between the MC and FMC, where the author wound up until he couldn't get any more. Anyway, some parts really made me happy in the manga, like the ending for example.

2 - Art [8/10] - I always read a manga that I managed to put together good scenarios, and besides, have a beautiful design of the characters. Kouji really knew how to draw the scenarios well, the only point I have to complain about is the lack of creativity of some characters that appear in the work throughout history.

3 - Character [7/10] - I can say that many people hate the protagonist of Suzuka, especially because, he certainly enters the list of characters who make the worst decisions of all, but I can say that I am really surprised with some points of the protagonist: He is not shy, he makes decisions even if they are wrong, he matures over time in history, among other characteristics. The other persoganes are interesting in the work, but they are barely some simply for comedic content, some have not even had an active participation in history, appearing to be only extras. For that factor I think an 8 would be the best that I could give.

4 - Enjoyment [7/10] - That agony you felt, the loss of hope in life, all the difficulties that history has. In some moments of Suzuka, our chest aches with uncertainty, sadness, anger and happiness. I think the kimi no iru machi formula was tested in Suzuka, it was not the best way, sometimes, I feel that there is a child making decisions to generate entertainment in the story, so I think that note is perfect for Suzuka.

Overall - If you are willing to read Suzuka, a story with an incredible but still amateur formula of romance, an art more than acceptable, and an ending that divided people, you will certainly not regret it!

You probably want to look for other review if you want to know more about the story, I saw many average score from review but the overall score made me so curious. Believe it or not, this manga worth every seconds I read it, from chapter 1 until the end.

Story: 9
Art: 10
Character: 10
Enjoyment: 10
Overall: 10

The story if fine, a bit fast on changing the plot, but I don't mind at all. Basically, I like everything about this manga. No perfect character, fine arts. I only took 2 days reading this, it so interesting made me dont want to stop reading it.

I think it more suitable for people who want to read light story, its not a perfect manga but 10/10.

I Believe Suzuka is Masterpiece of a Manga. *Salutes to Kouji Seo*
It's about a Guy named Yamato and his hardships with a Girl Named Suzuka.

~Story
The Story for me was a Class A Romance (... with a bit of Comedy) Story. It starts off very normal but when you reach the later chapters you will see how Good of a Story Suzuka is. Literally a masterpiece!

~Art
The Art is Phenomenal! Whether you are reading it online or Manga (...for me Manga is best) the art is simply phenomenal. Need I say more?

~Character
The downside was the story was completely focused on the two protagonists, so you would really feel bad about the other characters development.

~Enjoyment & Overall
Words Cannot express how heartwarming the story is (...Including how hilarious it is). *Salutes to Kouji Seo*. Bottom line is the Story is definitely re readable and definitely a Kick ass love story! Its a Must READ!

My opinion, its crap story with average art filled with melodramatic high school drama. And if that is what you are looking for great. Everyone has their own opinions, and in mine this is crap. The main story is overly predictable. Which can be fine, if the ride was any good(but it's not). Like much of this genre this story is full nonsense and annoying characters. Obviously, I am not the target audience, but for one reason or another I decided to read this... all of it. Compulsionary habits can be a hell of a motivator. If you using this as an introduction into this type of manga, I advise you look else where. If you are into cheesy romance novels, this will be right up your ally.

Basicly story line is that guy likes this girl but that girl doesnt seem to like the guy even though she does fell something but she doesnt show it.
This manga rly gives you alot of emotions from charracters and its very real life style . There isnt any over cliche situtations etc.
Art is very good , charracters are good and funny.
I know my review might seem sloppy and bad but i rly think that its worth to read this manga if ur lokking for romance and drama this is the best u can get srsly :)

By the way im not english nor american so :)

Bear with my language :)

I wasn’t going to bother writing a review with six other reviews for this manga written; however, after seeing that all the other reviews are a total lovefest without actually attempting to get to the heart of it, I had to do something about it.

Essentially, this entire series is a slice-of-life “love story” about one guy and one girl revolving around track and field in high school. Yamato lives in a womens’ bathhouse with his aunt, who owns it. Suzuka, a star high-jumper, also lives there, right next door. She’s a perfectionist, he’s clumsy, but hard-working. Yada, yada, you see how it goes.

It’s actually a simple singular issue that defines this manga. The creator of this manga, Seo, is a very good story-teller. The artwork is above standard, the issues are complex and hardly betraying of its goals and the characters are sublime if not too badly clichéd. (Although sometimes a few of them look way too alike.) The world around them is magnificently established – once you get 50 chapters in, you feel like your know Tokyo by heart and you feel like you know every room of the bathhouse and the school. Seo turns the clock fantastically and from great angles to always give you a new experience. Plus he has a solid grip of the human body and watching the characters in action almost makes them move to the readers’ eyes. However, there is one matter that every reader should know about before starting this manga and it was something that I wish I had been told before I started it myself

Suzuka is a total bitch.

Now, for some people, maybe even most, that’s ok. They find it appealing or cute in some way, especially when she drops her barriers and seems cute. But for the majority of the time, she treats Yamato like dirt. And I’m not talking in a normal tsundere way. There are many times when she’s outright cruel and vindictive, stubborn beyond belief and hardly appreciative of what Yamato goes through just to win her affections. It got to the point where I was literally pissed at her, but there was nothing I could do because I was already so far and I wanted to know how it ended. But the readers must know this going in and hopefully I at least warn some people so they know what they’re getting in to. I didn’t end up hating Suzuka in the end, but I was close, because I knew… I absolutely knew… that Suzuka didn’t deserve Yamato, not by a mile. Yet, he remained blind, even when she treated him so horribly. She had no excuse and the author never gave us one.

All in all, this is a good manga, especially if you’re in the mood to find someone to despise. And while it could be spoiling, the romance is still quite good with several original moments. This is a recommendation… but a recommendation with a warning.

Suzuka is ... well to put it in simple terms it's absolutely great!! I seriously recommend this manga to anyone that's new to romance manga or any veteran as well. I will say that at first I didn't like this manga I couldn't get into any of the characters or anything and I strongly felt like "A Town where you live" was truly better. However, that was three years and I can't believe that my opinion changed. Suzuka was better the second time for me. I started to feel like my bias harsh. Futhermore, Suzuka wasn't just good because I read it a second time. It was good because I was able to enjoy the dynamic and back n' forth relationship between Yamato and Suzuka. I'm gonna lie it was fun to see Yamato fail at all his attempts to make up with Suzuka, but I got a sincere happy feeling once they did make up. Highlighting that couples fight and make up but as long as they forgive each other, reconcile, and truly love each other then nothing else matters. At first I didn't like Yasunobu's character cause I thought that his character was only centered around getting Yamato in trouble. This wasn't the case. In fact, he often tried to gudie Yamato and help him with any trouble he faced when Suzuka and him had problems. Some of advice was kinda on the joking side but he earnestly listened to Yamato along the way. Without spoiling to much again I highly recommend Suzuka!!

I was not realy going to write a review because i am not really good at this and my grammer is not the greatest, but this manga left me with kind of a strange feeling afterwards so here it is. I tried my best hope you find it helpful.

Short version.

The good:
- The art is nice
- The girls are al really wel drawn and cute
- The emotional moments really hit you and pay off.
- I really enjoyed the later part of the series and the ending.

The Bad:
- The characters can be really annoying and do stupid stuff.
- The reason for conflict gets repetive after a while.
- The first half of the series is slow and pissed me of at times.

The summary and longer version wil be down below.

The story
When i first started reading this manga i got pissed off at the way characters where acting and treating the main character. I honestly felt bad for him. The jokes felt forced and cliché. This is a manga from 2007 so maybe it was the norm back then, but now they don ’t really hold up.
Later on in the story it gets much better.
The story felt like it did not have many ideas because the reason for conflict always felt the same. If you are not bothered by such a thing then there is no problem.
I did not enjoy this manga in the beginning the main character/girl was a b*tch, but the emotional moments where really nice and that is what kept me going in the end. I gues i have weird tastes sometimes.
But all of that is gone by the later half of the story. I got really sucked in and invested in the characters.

The art
There is not much to say about the art other than it is nice. It has plenty fanservice moments if you are in to that kind of thing.
The character design is easy to look at and aside from 2 characters it was easy to distinguish them from each other.

Enjoyment
In the beginning i did not enjoy this manga at all. But later on that changed, I really started enjoying this manga and kept on reading. And before i knew it it was over.
There is a sequel to this manga, but honestly i don’t know if i wanna read it.
Right now i’m talking pretty highly of this manga, but the only reason for that is because i liked the ending so much. If i take the early parts into account for my scoring it is not that great honestly.
So to summarize. A manga that takes some time to get into but is worth it in the end. If you don’t have patience i recomend you stay away from this manga as far as possible.
But if you don’t mind then go ahead and enjoy, just be warned.

Okay. Going through the current reviews for this manga, and reading some of them, I honestly think that this manga gets more flak than it deserves. I mean, I get that manga is a very opinionated thing, but if you don't like it, it's simple, don't read it. And while I respect that you want to finish the manga to find out how the story ends, if you're flipping your table over and hurting yourself in the process, why?

Time for the review.
About the story. I think that yes, it is pretty cliche. Just a high school guy coming to another city with hopes and dreams and just happens to live next door to the girl he likes... Yeah. I'm not going to say it's a revolutionary manga or something. But what I honestly really like about this manga (I read the manga and didn't watch the anime; personally I like manga better b/c you can fast read the cheesy parts of the story.) was that the main character went through heaven and hell in order to get with the girl he liked. What I mean is that this guy did so much, so much, to try and win over her heart, suffering and losing in the process. I'm not going to say how, and you may say that in that said process, it's cliche, but I liked it. (Once again, opinionated.) I've read quite a lot of this kind of manga imo, (romance, drama) and i think this manga doesn't quite get what it deserves.

About the art. Personally, the artwork and character design is what seals the deal. I mean yes, the character design is a little generic, (as with all manga/anime) the drawing and artwork is miles above anything else I've read from this time period that which this was first published. (circa 2004.) I love Seo Kouji's drawing style (read Kimi Machi), and he represents the character's emotions very well. And while I didn't really like anime/manga girls with short hair, later on, I grew to like Suzuka's character design.

Character...
Character is the *hands down* most important part of a romance manga. (maybe the story in there as well.) once again, what I loved about this manga, was Yamato's perseverance, not only in his sports and stuff, but how he went through so much to get with Suzuka. It's really cool, and once you read it, I hope that you understand.
Okay, about Suzuka. Many people will say she's a bitch, and yeah, I get where they're coming from. Strangely enough though, when I was reading this manga, I didn't exactly get the bitchy vibe from her. Yes, I get that she gave Yamato a hard time, but when her ______ got __ by a _______, you can understand why she doesn't exactly want to get in another relationship. Somewhat. In any case, Suzuka is rarely seen being a bitch to anyone but Yamato, and as her own relatives commented- 'she only shows her moody side to people she likes'-, I think this moody, over-the-top tsundere is kind of a twist on the overly cliche romance manga where the girl falls in love with the guy just like that. I mean, if when Yamato first asked Suzuka out and confessed, and she accepted, that would just be like any other manga.
The other characters in the manga are kinda generic, from the archetypal pervert/wingman friend, to the friend of the girl you like who gives you advice on your love life. But that's just stuff you need for a romance manga.

Overall, if you didn't read this thing at all, understand that I respect what others think of the manga, but honestly... Don't listen to the others who tell you this manga is a piece of shit. Cause it's not. I really, really, REALLY liked this manga. Overally overall, if you've got time to kill, (I read this manga in 2 weeks or so) why not take a look at this manga? It's really nice to read about the struggles that Yamato goes through, the shit he puts up with to get with his dream girl, whom, is slightly annoying at first, but whom you WILL learn to love yourself.

Oh yeah, and before I forget, the subplot of sports and stuff, it really accelerates the overall story and gives purpose to many of the things the characters do. I mean, in other romances, you see the guy, and the girl, pretty much ALWAYS in high school... And that's it. There's no subplot or anything. And once you read about Yamato's determination and why he joined the track team and why he strives to get better; you can only read about it. (Yes, it is unrealistic, how good he is.) Anyways, I digress.

You have to read this manga. Give it a try.

Okay. It's 2020 and I've just finished reading this manga for the past few days. I started reading this back around 2008 I think but didn't have the time back then to finish it totally.

This is about 1 out of 3 or less Romance mangas I've read in my whole life. I usually hate stories in such genres because they are so predictable and so cliche. For me, this manga is totally worth the read. To be honest, I'm writing this review with a very heavy heart after finishing reading it. Aside from wanting more, I just simply hated the way story went since chapter 1... and this hate I think is not the bad kind of hate.

If you really want your emotions to be tested--if you want to cry, be sad, laugh, angry all at the same time, this can be the manga for you. And when I said that "I hated the story"--what I actually mean is I hated how it was so realistic. How it could have happened to me in real life. And how different it is from your usual love story formula everywhere. It was definitely worth my time reading it.

The only issue why I'm not really giving it an overall perfect score is because of the time skips and sudden change of character personalities at the latter part of the story. I don't know if this is because of the Author's deadlines or something back when it was still not finished but I think the story could have been stretched a little more to show more character developments and show more back stories for each character.

Anyway. I don't really feel fulfilled with what happened in this story but this is because of how beautiful it was. I'll be rereading it again for the 3rd time right after this review.

Suzuka is a fulfilling romance manga, at the first glance it might seem to be a harem filled with cliches, but it isn't have patience with it. It's one of the best romance manga I have ever read. The characters are as normal as ever and you can find yourself fast in their situations. And one of the strong points of this manga is the fact that it doesn't exaggerate situations and the relationships to try and get some witty humor, which makes it easy to relate to it. The same thing goes for their struggles the characters go through, it isn't exaggerated and sometimes it might be very subtle with what they are thinking or feeling. But don't worry there's plenty of humor for everyone to enjoy. And the fact that the last 60 chapters could get me teary eyes is amazing, since not even IS or Good Ending managed to do that for me. You will cry, you will laugh, you will feel good and determined after reading this manga, it's an overall almost perfect manga, that you'd wish to see more of the charismatic characters and their stories.

I originally was gonna give Suzuka an Overall of 8, because it's really good, but I thought about it for a second and realized that it was very enjoyable, and for me, it deserved a 9. It's a great romance, and pretty realistic as well. You can relate in some ways, espicially if you have been in a relationship, and you can tell that events like the ones in the story happen in real life. There are a few ups and downs, but when you look at the whole series, you can enjoy the progress the plot made and how it developed to the end.

Spoilers Incoming.

Despite all of Suzuka's flaws, and there are a lot of them, there is something about this manga that leaves you wanting more. After 17 volumes, however, I found myself unsatisfied, wondering if I wasted my time and money giving this manga a shot.

What did Suzuka get right: There are some genuinely good scenes of romance in this manga, from confessions to kisses and reconciliations. Suzuka is an inherently interesting love interest, despite the flaws in her progression. Finally, some of the track arcs were entertaining and gave me a sense of what it could be like to be a bigshot on a highschool track team.

What did Suzuka get wrong: This is going to be longer. One of my biggest complaints is the way the author introduces new love rivals solely for the purpose of creating drama. This is a common complaint in romance mangas but Suzuka suffers from it more than others. It seems like MC cannot sneeze without making a girl fall head of heals in love with him, and as soon as things are cooling down, God calls in one of his harem members to heat it back up. The unrealistic way that MC has every girl vying for his love definitely made the story more unenjoyable and less believable for me. Especially in the later books, it baffled me the way these girls appeared for the sole purpose of making drama, and disappeared the moment they were no longer needed. However, in a way these girls were necessary because of the second issue...

Suzuka promises more than it delivers in turns of character development and plot resolution. Suzuka had issues getting over her senpai's death, but gives up on him after meeting MC and initially struggling with it. However, she still pulls away from MC in the end and has epic moodswings targeted at him. Is there some underlying issue that comes out late in the manga that explains all this? Is Suzuka still harboring feels of love for her dead senpai? No, you never hear about it again. Is there any resolution or development at all? Not really. We don't really get a good explanation for why Suzuka acts the way she does except that she is a selfish person and has issues getting along with MC. In the end, there is no grand apology or epic make up, or confession of love. Things just sort of work themselves out in the same way they always were. Even the track arc is unresolved. We never get to see Yamato race against his rival or compete in the IS event. At the end of the day, the manga felt less like an overarching story and more like a SOL heavy character study.

Overall, I am rating Suzuka a 7 because that is how I felt about it when reading it. Theres no denying that while going through the chapters, I was interested in how MC's relationship with Suzuka would develop. The art was lacking at some points, but not enjoy to be un enjoyable. Lack of character and story progression / resolution keeps this romance manga from reaching the same heights as similar ones like GE in my opinion. At the end, you may feel unfulfilled, but the journey was entertaining none the less.

Right, I have a certain ethic, and that is to read a manga series in it's entirety before writing a review. But the problem is, I don't think I'll be able to finish reading the damn thing before having to punch my screen in with my fist. Something I have no intent on doing because to be honest, this computer cost me quite a lot.
Quick Synopsis: Country guy moves in to his aunt's bathhouse/girl's boarding house in Tokyo so he can go to the high school over there. Of course he has to help, sometimes resulting in quite unfortunate situations (the usual ecchi "slips" shall we say), which doesn't help his popularity much. He scouts the school a bit and sees a vision: a beautiful girl doing a high-jump, and falls in love. Well guess what? She also lives at the boarding-house and hates him from the get-go. Enter perverted childhood friend (boy) and other childhood friend (girl) who has had a crush on him for years. MC tries to get the main female character (Suzuka), who it turns out is a level 100 tsundere who constantly puts him down when he tries to seduce her. School life ensues.

And this is where I start having problems: the fact that this (obviously demented) MC keeps trying to go for Suzuka, when he knows that there's a very high chance that a really kind and loving girl is just a footstep away. Now I know many of you reading this are extreme fans of the tsundere type, but after having dated one for three years (slightly less hardcore than Suzuka though), I can assure you that unless you like being put down constantly, it's not worth it. To be perfectly honest, in all the characters (side characters included), the only person I'd be ready to root for would be the nice, loving childhood friend. But then again, what do I know, my tastes in women are my own I suppose.

Anyway, let's wrap this up before I rant any more. The art is possibly the best thing here, so I'm giving it a 9; the characters, weeeell, I have nothing else to say but 5 (the couple good characters are trying to compensate for the many shitty ones); story, 3 no other comment; enjoyment 4, so overall, I'll be nice enough and give it a 5, keeping in mind I haven't really read it, but ultimately know how it's going to end, and it's sounding far too damn familiar.

Either way, if you like seeing masochistic guys go after lvl 100 tsunderes, totally ignore the only potential being that would really love him for what he is and not what he can become with some considerable effort, then finally ruin both their lives and most of the nice girls high school life, then feel free to read this manga. Just don't say I was the one who suggested it.

On that note, cheerio and thanks for reading this long rant of a review.

OK this is my 3rd reviews in this month. I don't think that I have improved since last 2 reviews, but i hope you all can bear with it...Ok I'll talk about my first impression about this manga first. I have read the first few chapters first and...What can I say is: 'Wow, this is definitely a manga that I'm looking for!' And as you can see, I give 9 to this manga. I don't sure if you want to hear about this, but I actually finished this manga in only 2 days! I writes this review immediately after i finished the manga because I’m really, really love it and I can't wait to recommend to all of you!

Well I'll starts with the story first. One word to describe it, very well! Every praise has its very own reasons, and I didn't praise it blindly. Before I continue with it, I have a small advice to -16 children...DON'T READ THIS MANGA; you are still too young to read it! If you insist to read it, read it for your own discretion. OK, enough with it. The story is bit mature, it involve many nudity scenes and some sex in it. I pretty love it anyway though... What I'm really like about the story is the romance in it. Although it can't be great as Titanic, but sometimes it can bring tears out of you (In my case, no!). Not only that, sometimes it may make you really pissed off! This may seems like a negative comment, but unfortunately, it is wrong. That 'pissed off' feelings will bring you even want to know what will happening next! I don't want to bother about the spoilers so read it yourself. 'Prides come before a fall'. And you know what I meant. The reason I didn't give the story full marks is the plot is repetitive. It dint really affect the storyline but somehow it pissed me off! Read the manga carefully and you know what i meant by it. If you don't know what I mean after reads it, just simply ask me. Oh, the story is pretty hilarious, too!

OK the manga will be judged based on the artwork besides the story. It will be useless to have a great story but weak artwork (I know many of you will oppose my opinion but... well to put it simply, this is my style) to tell you, I really like the artworks of this manga! The mangaka have put lot of efforts in it! They have detailed background, and great face expressions (The smile of Suzuka always moves my heart...No! I don't have any 2D girl’s complex!)! What I really want to say is, they have some Slam Dunk styles in when the characters in the SD mode (SDs or super deformed characters are a common image found in manga). I can't say I hate it, though.

The characters you ask? Great! They have put a lot of efforts in character designing! I really like it! But for some reasons, I can't give full marks to it. Nothing to be described though, sorry.

I'm pretty sure that I have told you that i have read the manga in only 2 days. So I give it 10 foe enjoyment without hesitate! As I say, you will really wants to know what will happen next throughout the story, in other word, suspense! This feeling is enough for me to give it 10.

Overall results for this manga are 9. Recommended for all manga lovers. Is you wants to read it, simply go to www.onemanga.com . Don't worry, it is a safe sites and very user-friendly!

In my opinion "Suzuka" is one of the best romance mangas out there in the market. It is definitely the best romantic manga I've read thus far largely due to the great artwork and character development (I know a lot of critics will argue with me on this one).

The plot of the story starts out just like many other manga, boy meets girl in an all female populated location similar to Love Hina. However after a few chapters, the similarities between this and most other "traditional" romantic mangas end. Another thing that I like about the plot of this title is that Akitsuki Yamato (the male protagonist and lead character) is the one who is exerting the effort to get close to Asahina Suzuka (the lead female character), this is something that reminds me of my own high school endeavors to capture the heart of my first girlfriend. Anyway aside from the similarities between this story and my own, the real reason why I like the way Akitsuki is the one who exerted the effort to get close to Asahina is that it is more realistic compared to most other romantic comedies where a hot chic would fall in love to a complete nobody, I mean come on am I the only one who thinks this sort of thing is totally unrealistic?

As the story unfolds, the characters face challenges which I believe many teenagers face such as peer pressure and dealing with their own feelings. I particularly like the part where the anime version left off because that's where things really get complicated for the characters and it's interesting to see what they will do next.

As for the characters, there is a mix of good and bad characters in the story. I particularly like Asahina Suzuka because I believe that she does not fall on any particular female anime stereotype (although I know that many people who read the manga and seen the anime are not quite fond of her). She displays a personality that I don't think I've encountered in any other character thus far and she personifies the complexities of the female mind. This is why remains one of my favorite anime characters to date.

The artwork of this manga is increible. the attention to detail is unbelievable and I like the way the characters' expressions are shown, plus I also like the large arsenal of clothes each character posses (this is something many mangas don't have, characters who have more than 1 set of clothes)

Overall Suzuka combines great artwork, great story and great characters. This is definitely a must read.

The drama in this series isn't well-done in the slightest, characters instantly end up contradicting themselves instantly after saying or doing something. Anyway, onto the review:

Story (1/10):
There's something I must get out of the way before criticizing the story aspect of the show; I understand that writing a quality, well-written romance is difficult. I mean, a good portion of authors working with the romance aspect of any series tend to believe that melodrama = realistic, well written romance. Anyway, the problem I faced with the series is that...it has absolutely no idea what it wants. The series on one hand introduces various concepts and themes it wants to drive forward, including moving forward, competition and the aim to succeed...the list goes on and on. Yet what if I tell you that by the end of the series, it ENDS UP CONTRADICTING EACH AND EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE CONCEPTS. Not only that, but the series has what I consider to this day, the single worst ending I've ever seen to any romance manga. It was sexist, ugly, and absolutely pathetic; I'm no feminist, but God did it tick me off. The story also suffers from major pacing problems, due to the fact that the author has no idea what the heck he wanted to do with the story. I mean, seriously, in the middle of a character arc, somehow they end up going to the beach (ecchi scenes galore) and there's still time for the author to place melodrama! There's nothing good about the story; I was relieved when it was over.

Art (5/10):
The art is another aspect that needs to be commented on; I don't really mind art, I mean, if other aspects were enough to compensate, who cares what it looks like?
Yet the art, despite being this series strong point, wasn't even average; it was mediocre at best, and just bearable to look at. Over the course of the series, the manga's artwork steadily declines in appearance, making the series look worse and worse as the series continued. One would expect, being a comparatively long romance manga with sport aspects all over it, that the races would at least be well drawn; unfortunately, the artist seems to have thought otherwise, placing all his focus on cheap ecchi scenes that contributed nothing to the experience unless you're actually into that kind of stuff.

Character (1/10): The worst aspect of this show. The characters are annoying, weak and completely melodramatic and over the top. This shouldn't be a problem if the manga didn't take itself seriously. Problem? It was one hundred percent dead serious when it was being melodramatic, especially in the later half of the series. The characters are poorly written, badly developed, and completely unlikable to the extent of hating. The love "triangle" that forms in the series turned out to be completely annoying to the point where on numerous occasions I felt like screaming at the characters due to them completely changing personalities off the drop of a hat and them not speaking to each other for long periods of the series, an alarm bell when it comes to romance series. The characters never learn from their mistakes, repeating the same bloody mistakes again and again to the point that on one occasion I almost ended flipping the desk my computer was on. An um, really painful experience I don't want to do again (I hurt my leg real bad because of it). So yeah, really, REALLY unlikable characters.

Enjoyment (1/10):
I was raging really, REALLY hard over the course of the series. I was annoyed at the characters, annoyed at the melodrama, and really, REALLY, annoyed at the ending.

Overall (2/10):
There is almost nothing pleasant about this abomination. I'm going to stay away from anything else this writer is going to write, they clearly have no idea what they're doing.

At first i thought this was going to be like any ordinary romance manga. In a way it is but every single chapter is good and it gets better the more you read it.

The story is really good because it has twists that i would have never guessed what would have ever happened.

Overall the story is really good. The art is one of the best.I enjoyed the whole entire manga. It made me cry laugh and sometimes pissed off. This manga has everything a romance manga should have. Overall this is one of my favorite mangas of all time