Senryuu Shoujo

We have seen many romantic comedy take place in high school, and we will have even more of them in the future. The question is, why such a concept is never out of style, which could be answered that ~~the authors are simply obsessed with high school. Wake up, Japan.~~ the period is the time for growing up, physically and psychologically, not to mention that the once little boy or girl is under preparation for stepping into adulthood. Love, in such time, is serious enough to last, but there are still traces of innocence, which makes it beautiful, because people, having been through that chapter of their life, couldn’t once again obtain such experience. It is also known that love, for better or worse, has the ability to change people in a way that no other force and motivation could, so having a relationship in high school is believed to play an important part of one’s development.

Similar to any work with similar background, Senryuu Shoujo is a wholesome, character-driven romance at the gate of high school, to the point of blandness and repetition, if cynically put. The art is decent, many heart-warming and fun moments, and after having watched the anime adaptation, I had believed it would continue for a little while longer. However, the author definitely went too far. The second year was a wasteful period, as new characters were introduced without any significant contribution to the development of the whole. They just simply stood there, and cuteness couldn’t do the salvation. There was also a character meant to be the third wheel, but I don’t get it, why the author had to complicate something straight-forward like the romance of the protagonists. As a result, their love story had got unnecessarily stretched, and the end came at the speed of light. I mean, their interactions should have taken more of the spotlight, and after having spent time together, the end of the first educational year would be perfect for the conclusive step forward.

About those at the starting line, they could be the replacement of those newbies without any difficulty, if not to say that they still have a lot of hidden potential. The sister figure could be a good catalyst, even though she wouldn’t have to be a lover, as I always feel her story is never complete. The president was taken away stage time with those incompetent new-comers, which could have been her own arcs, as well as romantic development. Cmon, she deserves to have her share, you know. Et cetera…

188 chapters… We all know that every author wants to have their creation serialised for a fair amount of time, but there are things more interesting to read than the excessive second half. I had a good read, but the manga could have been more concise, and the overproduced chapters really dragged the series down.