Marmalade Boy

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This series is such a classic, and I completely understand why. It's very much a typical shoujo, with all of the same trappings; love triangles; miscommunications; angst; friendships; etc. but I adore shoujo, and most of the cliches, so that was just a plus for me.

My favorite things about this story were definitely the characters, and their relationships (well most of them at least). Specifically the main romance between Miki and Yuu. They have a really great dynamic, and unlike other popular series at the time, the guy isn't a complete jerk, the most he ever does is just playfully tease Miki (which is always ... adorable and relatable). Plus I'm a sucker for the step-sibling trope (Clueless anyone?), and the way it was done here was honestly pretty funny. The parents are so oblivious and selfish, they don't tell their children anything until the last minute, and they somehow never notice that their kids started going out, which wasn't all the subtle. I also just love Miki's best friend Meiko, well except for volume 3, she's such a bad friend in that one, at least she makes up for it later. Otherwise she's pretty great. She's there for Miki through all of the drama, and tries to help her through it, what more could you ask for?

The only things that I didn't like mainly involve the side characters. There's a romance that pops up between two if the main rivals, and I just hated it. In my opinion it was just needless filler, and I wish it wasn't there. I also didn't like how quickly Miki and Yuu fell in love, I wish it would've been more of a slow burn. Same amount of volumes, just cut out the filler plotlines, and put more focus on the two leads slowly starting to like each other, but that's just me.

Overall still a good manga, in case that wasn't obvious lolol. I would like to recommend the live action movie (from 2018), it introduced me to the story, and I think it's pretty good, and fun.

This here is a great manga much better than the anime especially with the flow of the chapter with no unnecessary dramatic moments or filler stuff. It's neatly done in just 40 chapters.
The comdedy, the serioousness, the feels everything was well drawn and written. This is definitely one of the better mangas out there.

The parents were awesome, Our ML and FL are great! I gushed over them a lot and my heart ached for them as well. The supporting characters were so good with their own stories and character growth.
I loved the friendship between Miki and Meiko too. Also best part Arimi and Ginta are ... well made characters who have their own happy endings instead of being annoying mindlessly pining characters.

I do not know why, but I have this guilty pleasure of reading forbidden romances. Forbidden romance between family intrigues me (as long as they are not blood-related that is). That is one of the reasons why I picked up on Marmalade Boy.

Marmalade Boy has exceptional art for an old manga. In fact, it had quite a few beautiful panels.

The plot is quite typical for a forbidden romance manga, but it has a different turn. Instead of a regular step sibling, the two MCs families are living together under a same roof (and we can't forget the fact that their parents swapped spouses). ... The story had a good pace at the beginning where our female protagonist Miki couldn't accept her situation right away and had hard time settling in. Along the way, our main male protoganist Yuu is a bit mysterious who doesn't to express his feelings as much as Miki. Already, I liked the contrast and dynamic between the two characters, and it was a realistic, cute development between the two main characters. The love rivals in this manga also had good roles that successfully developed the relationship between Miki and Yuu, and I did enjoy their individual traits, especially Arimi.

Now here is where I start to be critical. While I really enjoyed the first half of the manga, I didn't enjoy the climax and falling action. I don't want to spoil, but I have to say that the drama was a bit far-fetched and could have been easily solved. The conflict/misunderstanding stretched too far to the point where I was almost laughing at how ridiculous they characters were behaving. I didn't even understand how the MCs reached to their "conclusion" and why they acted in such ways. Maybe I am bit too critical, but that is the only memory I have of this manga, which I finished only two weeks ago.

Overall, I did quite enjoy this manga. I just had several problems at the second half of the manga. The family situation was ridiculous but unique, and the forbidden romance was exciting to read. If you don't mind miscommunication and dramatic misunderstandings, then I would recommend Marmalade Boy. The love between Yuu and Miki is definitely strong no doubt, and their struggles were difficult to overcome... I guess.