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REVIEWS

• 

  SoulBlade17

  50/100
  A manga full of tropes and clichés makes for an ultimately underwhelming and forgettable read.

  Please note

  This review is all subjective and my own personal opinion. You do not have to agree with it, nor am I asking you to. I hope that this just helps you get an idea of what the manga I am talking about is like and form a basic and general consensus on it. The ratings I give anime and manga are mostly my personal overall enjoyment. This review may contain some spoilers, but all of them will be hidden using the spoiler tag. There will be some images sourced from the manga, but they should not contain any major spoilers. TL;DR will be at the bottom.

  
  

  Introduction

  

  A girl who hides her true gender enrols in a all boys school, in the theatre department of Getsuryou academy in order to study her passion, acting. There she meets an upperclassman, whose name is Riku, and he soon takes an interest in her.

  
  

  Plot

  Going into this manga, we are quickly introduced to the main protagonist, and her first day at school. It did not want to waste time at all. Hastily we are bombarded with quite a few characters of interest, the main setting, and some major events that happen within the first chapter. This swift beginning can be a lot to take in, and it does not help the reader ease into reading this manga.

  This links in with the pacing of the manga. Whilst it is understandable given the short length, things moved quickly. This is especially seen in the beginning of the manga, but it is not so bad as it goes on. Given the short length, it is important to not waste idle time, but it could have been improved on.

  Moving on, the events that play out in this manga mostly keep a consistent tone and theme, which meant things did not jump from place to place, making it an easier read. It was mostly related to theatre and plays, as well as the characters involved. Theatre is a big part of this manga, so if that is something you like, then perhaps you will enjoy it here. That said, there are not too many moments where we can see a play. Most of it is practise, which I suppose is realistic.

  The development that happened in the plot was, well, either predictable, happened without enough build up or just cheesy. A lot of this manga fell under shoujo tropes, so the development did too. Honestly, I cannot remember much of the developments but the ones I can remember were just pretty unsatisfying.

  __This literally happens in the first chapter.__

  Is it a trope for shoujo manga for something like this to happen so early on? Personally I would have like some build up to the first kiss to make it satisfying but for it to happen like this... all of that was lost. Then again, I do not think I am made for reading these kinds of manga. I suppose this could be fan service for their target audience. I really do not know.

  I also want to talk about the themes present in this manga. It is what got me to read it after all. Gender identity is a key part of the protagonist of the manga, as she has to hide that she is a woman in an all boys school.

  __"If you are not a boy, you will not be able to grow up..."__ __This scene, one of the first shown to the reader, has some dialogue which connects to the key theme of the manga.__

  This theme was one of the most engaging parts of the manga for me. Sadly it was not focused on that much. The romance between Yuki and Riku was pretty much the limelight of the show. I suppose the target audience would be more interested in that, but it was a shame. But for the moments that did delve into this theme, it was not bad to read. Probably not the best execution of it, but certainly not horrible.

  There were also some mystery undertones to the plot, mainly revolving around the true reason as to why Yuki was raised as a man. This stays in the back seat until the later parts of the manga but does get a reveal in the end. It is supposed to be quite significant but without the proper build up, it was pretty anti climatic. The mystery though was not unwelcome, and helped make the manga a little more captivating.

  In the end, I found the plot of this manga to be quite disengaging and forgettable. It just did not have enough to engage me. Maybe, just maybe, for a reader where this ticks all of their boxes, they will find a highly engrossing read.

  
  

  Characters

  __This is the main character Yuki, the story takes place from her perspective.__

  In this trope filled manga, she is a breath of fresh air with her gender bending twist. For me, I find gender bending quite interesting so I naturally found her to be more engaging to read. That said, it did not save her from being a mostly boring character. She was just not that intriguing. I cannot think of much to say about her character.

  __Riku, the second main character, quickly takes an interest into Yuki.__

  Riku is quite possibly the character who falls under tropes the most. His appearance, height, and cool personality all fall under it. He is supposed to be easy to fawn over because of these traits but honestly, because it is so cliché, it was hard for me to do so. He is not unlikable, just too tropey. If you know what the trope he falls under is like, then you pretty much know almost everything there is to know about him. He takes a big romantic interest into Yuki quite quickly. For what reason? None at all it seems. Perhaps you do not really need one...

  __Then there is this guy, Touma.__

  What can I say about him? I think he is describe as an aid or something like that to Yuki. His role is to follow Yuki around, help her and protect her secret. He is the loyal sidekick I suppose. Another trope. He was one of the easiest characters to like, purely because he was nice. I did not mind him for the most part.

  There is also one more character who is somewhat the antagonist, but I will not specifically say who they are with spoilers in mind. They were not a really good villain though, and they were not a villain for long. Their motives were pretty bland and they are too quick to change their character and move on.

  There are some other characters other than the ones I mentioned but I do not think they are worth mentioning. I think this manga could have benefited from having less characters, whilst I was reading the manga I forgot who was who fairly easily.

  The relationships between the characters were okay at best. Nothing special, but it was not bad to stomach. The romance between Riku and Yuki had some time to develop throughout the manga as a big chunk of time was dedicated to it. The development it had was better compared to the other parts of the manga. It was a little engaging.

  One little issue I had was something that happened a little later in the manga. Multiple characters confess their love for Yuki. The characters that do confess their love were unexpected sure, but it did not feel right to have them be in love with Yuki. Soon afterwards their confession was forgotten by everyone. It was pretty cheesy.

  
  

  Art

  The art style is quite reminiscent of what I often see in shoujo manga. It looks like an old art style, which may not to be everyone's taste. It was not for me, I preferred the shoujo art style in Ouran High School Host Club. Still, the art got the job done. Scenes were drawn well enough and were effective to an adequate standard.

  
  

  Conclusion and TL;DR

  As I was reading this manga, I kept asking myself, "is this what cliché shoujo manga is like?" If so, then I cannot see myself enjoying anything like this manga. This manga was not bad, it just was heavily underwhelming and forgettable. It suffered a lot from its many elements falling under tropes and other clichés. I suppose this was made for readers who relish in these kinds of stuff, for people who love the tropes presented in this manga, I could see it being an enjoyable read. Otherwise, I cannot think of many other people I could recommend this to. In the end this was not for me. A summary of this review:

  • It is very quick to thrust the reader into the story, which coupled with fast pacing, can be overwhelming.
  • Most of the plot is around theatre and the characters involved.
  • A lot of the development in the manga was either cheesy, predictable, or without much build up. Ultimately it was not satisfying.
  • The gender bending themes and the mysterious undertone related to it are one of the more engaging parts of the manga.
  • The characters all fell under tropes and were easily forgettable, with okay relationships between each other.
  • The art style, which is a common style for shoujo manga, gets the job done.

  That brings us to the end of the review. If you want to send me feedback on my reviews, please post a comment on this thread. Hopefully you were able to get something out of this review. If you did not like this review, then I apologise for wasting your time.

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