Senryuu Shoujo

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One of the best romance/slice-of-life I've read in a bit! It's the same author of Mayonaka Heart Tune so of course I knew it was going to be good, but not THIS good.

I've completed this series and... I'm giving it a 10. Yeah, yeah, it's glaze (not sorry) and it's probably recency bias but I just can't help it. It's so wholesome and I just love it so damn much. main things I love about the series is that it's also relatable in many ways (not the crazy ones) and it's really wholesome (like diabetic). I love the relationship and character progression too. The ... jokes are also funny as hell and they never fail to make me laugh.

The art of this manga is absolutely amazing. Igarashi is a very talented artist. Seeing the progression over the course of it's run is very impressive.

The last parts of this manga definitely brought the score up crazy for me, and I'm guessing it's because it appealed to my emotional side.

VERY minor spoiler(?): Yes, I'm talking about graduation. They graduate high school at the end, but this is probably not a surprise (hopefully) as it's a moderately common thing in manga, especially ones in the high school setting.

Some people may complain about how this is "dragged out" or just "boring everyday things". Trust me, I've seen people complain about that. And may be correct! Maybe for them, stories like these aren't enjoyable. But for me, they are.

Parts of the manga like enjoying precious time with friends, spending time with the people you love, creating new memories, day to day shenanigans and conversations. Just enjoying life as it is. The little things. They're such amazing things, and to me, they mean everything. But time keeps going on and none of those happy moments will last forever. What may be a normal everyday occurrence will eventually be done or experienced for the last time, and you probably won't even notice. (Because of that, I tend to enjoy slow-burn romances).

But I already noticed that, and reading this series made me even sadder. When I think about losing these cherished moments, I feel an indescribable sadness . I love the people around me and I love the time I spend with them. It won't last forever, but I hope to keep making happy memories so I can look back and smile.

It's not that deep probably and I'm just going emo so ignore my yapping (unless you like to read my yapping for some reason?) so just PLEASE read it and enjoy the fluffiness and comedy!

cute, drama free SOL rom-com. I like how the author mixes up 4koma with the more traditional manga format, depending on the scenes, since I'm generally now a huge fan of 4koma manga.

There are indeed similarities to komi-san, and even goes a bit into harem territory, which was pretty much pointless here. But in comparison to komi-san, which kind of lost its identity and recently does not know what it wants to be (gag manga?), this manga kept its flavors. Though similarly, there were some characters that were a bit pointless, and totally could have been left out. Moreover, it has to be said, this ... manga does not really delve into the whole 'communication disorder' thing, and more or less accepts things as they are and characters do not try to 'fix' their situation (nanako/kino), and their shtick is generally accepted.

It bothered me a bit that often chapters seemed like a hard 'reset' on the story, and often did not continue upon the previous chapters. But I guess that's to be expected with the 4koma 'genre'.
Definitely recommended, if this is your thing.

TL:DR

A cute, wholesome romance with excellent chemistry between the main pair that's unfortunately held back by needless distractions and a dragging second half. I can only recommend this if you want the doki doki and can tolerate love triangles (repeatedly).

Story: 4/10

Not to talk about here, they do all the traditional romance manga stuff. Nothing too unique, it's the characters and their interactions who make the heart of the content here.

It's unexpectedly funny for a romance. Most romcoms I read focuses more on the rom than the com but this one manages to balance both. the humour is alright usually but sometimes it really is ... gut-busting. This is one of the few manga I can say actually made me laugh out loud.

Thank god, it's not a manga that ends immediately after the main couple get together, we get to see them actually do things!

The characters don't actually do anything like a literature club after the first few chapters but that's fine, their antics are much more entertaining.

Lack of any real sense of progress as the two main characters are pretty much already dating, going everywhere together, always hanging out together alone, talking. We also know right from the start that both characters are in love with each other. So what happens is that nothing fundamentally changes until the very end where they suddenly get together.

Unnecessary romantic rivals, who introduce pointless drama. Yes rivals, plural, the author thought it was a great idea to do the same plot three damn times. There was literally no chance of them getting together or Eiji even being conflicted about this, we already know the main pair is in love from the start so there is no tension that something might change. Now, in the manga's defence, the first two rivals are real characters who actually contribute something and are somewhat entertaining but the last is just annoying. For one, nearly every girl Eiji knows being in love with him since childhood is very silly, but it's also a waste that could be spent on developing the other, more interesting characters. Second, no matter how well written the rivals and their character arcs are, it just gets tiring to have the same thing over and over again.

Another sign of the author running out of ideas is the sudden influx of fanservice nearing the end of the manga. It really does feel like the author is desperately trying to hold readers attention

A related issue is that the manga drags on for a while, I understand that the author wants a long serialisation but this didn't need 180 chapters.

Art: who can say?/10

Very good character art, cute. Great reaction art too

Primarily 4koma but lots of normal panels too.

Character: 8/10

Nanako is an innocent cinnamon role. Eiji is the same-old dense, nice guy protagonist. However, I appreciate that he actually did used to be a delinquent, and there are semi-frequent call backs to it, he's allowed to be intimidating or say delinquent-type things rather than being totally glossed over, the author never forgets their character's quirks. They're not very complex characters, but you're here for heart warming cuteness and they delivery.

The chemistry between our two leads is brilliant, their banter, their day to day conversation. Honestly, their relationship is something so genuine that I can't help but smile. The side characters know that they're perfect for each other and I whole-heartedly agree.

To the author's considerable credit, Nanako's fantasy anime disability (namely, communicating only in senryuu) is consistent throughout the entire manga. The author really does write all her lines in 5-7-5, barring a few romance-related exceptions. It's quite impressive, I can't speak moon language yet but I wish I could read it the way it was intended too. The dialogue is so natural despite this, that it doesn't become irritating or a gimmick. Actually, Can I consider this manga epic poetry considering how many senryuu had to be written?

Really all the characters are great and just plain fun to read. Their dynamic is perfect.

The president is an unlucky loser and slightly crazy in the best of ways. She receives hints of her own plotline in that she's an author and a romance near the end. Unfortunately, the heavy focus on the romance drama in the latter half of the manga means there's not enough time to real flesh any of it out.

Kino and Tao, they're together because they're inseparable. They don't show up too much, but they're entertaining and are a nice little addition to the cast. They get to chat together, have little asides of their own. It's nice to have a few chapters that focuses on someone else for a while.

Now the superfluous love rivals, sigh.

Koto starts out as the teasing older-sister type, pretty entertaining. I enjoyed every time she showed up because she was so funny, until the author made her also fall in love with Eiji. Then she became another pining maiden. It's a shame, she's the only character who actually got to grow up through out the manga too! However, I feel that Koto's romance arc is the best written out of the three attempts, you really get the feels here.

Komachi shows up out of nowhere, as character from Eiji's past that we've never seen. Fortunately, she's actually endearing and is allowed to become more of her own character. her gimmick, being a fake delinquent is played well and the gap between the bookworm she is and the badass she tries to be lead to a great many laughs. Again, her arc is relatively well written, the author takes steps to differentiate it from Koto's as well.

The last one rival is… yeah I forgot her name. Not I will not look it up, she's not really important. In fact, she's so unimportant the author forgot to write her any real conclusion. Eiji basically doesn't acknowledge her existence the entire time. Why does she exist? This isn't a bit, i really just don't remember anything about her.

Overall: 7/10

Very enjoyable, despite my misgivings about the repetitive plot, I loved the characters here. Yes, even (most of) the love rivals. Everyone is just so well written and fun. I hate love triangles, and i hate when romcoms decide everyone loves the male MC but it's forgivable as there is enough to differentiate the rivals and their arcs to make it tolerable if you find the characters entertaining, and i do.

Unfortunately, this isn't something that can be said for everyone, three love triangles in a row (sometimes simultaneously) is something I just can't recommend to most people.