I don't like to leave extra long reviews so I'll try to keep it as short as possible. (Well, as short as anilist lets you which is ridiculously long IMO lol)
This one is hard, very hard to describe. First, let me say that I don't particularly like this kinda romance stories, the weird age gap and all that, so why did I end up reading this? Simple, it was recommended too many times when online searching for romance mangas with adult or mature nature (which is typically my go to since I get bored with the usual middle/high school kids love stories) for me to ignore it any longer because of the plot description that didn't call to me.
Due to the nature of the genre of recommendations I was looking into, I expected some sort of sexual, or smut tones to the series, but, spoiler alert!!!!!!!!
It is purely the simple enfatuation or love, of a high school girl with an older man, that gets properly addressed, respected and dealt with by the adult in the situation. Without taking credit from the female protagonist, she is by all means, still "a kid", and it shows. And it is what's great about it, because it makes the old man retrieve his youth back, as we also see her grow and mature into a wonderful girl, whose not perfect by any means, but gets the needed courage to push forward in her life's challenges, despite some taking her longer than others.
The old man, on the other hand, had abandoned all his hopes at taking a shot at life. And seeing her thrive throughout her hardships inspires him to not give up, and retake the much needed courage to confront life aspirations once again!
It's wonderful really, it's 82 chapters of excellent character development, maturity, respectfulness of almost everyone's feelings and just general feel good moments. Don't get me wrong, it has its dramas, ups and down moments, but everything is usually resolved appropriately, like regular human beings would, it's wonderful writing; unlike other series that often make characters take stupid choices just for the sake of being able to extract more juice out of the situation, or milk it, to simplify the expression, people usually either talk things over or try to actively confront them. I even cried over her and her best friend's arguments and relationship in general. It's great.
The art is also pretty good. Characters are beautifully drawn, albeit unrealistic proportions sometimes (protagonist sometimes looks weirdly skinny). Everyone is easily recognized which I appreciate, not all mangakas do a good job with that.
On the side characters, I think I actually like them all, even those I didn't like too much at the beginning, eventually I ended up liking after seeing their stories.
All in all, I really think anyone that needs a breath of fresh air in an otherwise filled with crap genre (age gap) should really give it chance, there's few like this one.
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