As much as I loved FuriFura (a lot!!), it didn't get a 10/10 from me. I'll get to its weak points in a bit, but first let me praise it:
* [The Good](.) *
The characters (3/4 of them, at least...)
FuriFura is about the relationships of four characters: Yuna, Akari, Rio and Kazuomi.
Yuna is a sweet girl, the perfect "pure" type for a shoujo heroine. Daydreaming, she thinks she'll find a fairytale prince (spoiler-ish: she does??), but along the way she finds... a friend!!
Akari is her complete opposite. Grounded, more mature. But still nice in her own way.
The two become friends very quickly and their friendship is one of the best parts of the story.
Rio is ~~a prince~~ Akari's *step*brother and this is actually important for the plot (lol). They move in Yuna's apartment building and become her new neighbours and friends. And yes, naturally, Yuna falls in love with him.
These 3 characters are what moves the plot of the story and what keeps it so interesting. They're not the only MCs, but to me, all 3 of them were evenly written and had enough "screentime". They also had enough character development, something that sadly, the fourth and last MC didn't have... but I'm getting ahead of myself
The Romance (1/2 of it, anyway...)
img40%(https://i.imgur.com/QuKXHDx.png) img40%(https://i.imgur.com/skmIv5Q.png)
As a character-driven story and especially focused on the romantic aspect (also dramatic), FuriFura definitely delivers. Yuna likes Rio, who likes Akari (yeah I know!!), who likes Kazuomi.
I know the face you made when I said Rio likes Akari, but let me explain: Rio and Akari knew each other from middle school before their parents got married and they became stepsiblings. He had feelings for Akari for a very long time, and the day he decided to tell her unfortunately happened to be the day their parents called both of them to tell them about their new family affair.
So Rio had no choice but to shut those feelings away inside his heart and accept his new "sister".
Akari doesn't seem to notice this (and if she did, she would pretend she didn't suspect a thing) and she worked really hard for everyone to see her and Rio as "real" siblings. Along the way, she meets with Kazuomi, who is Yuna's childhood friend and one of her new neighbours. She soon falls in love with his carefree, spontaneous way of living.
Yuna finds out about Rio's feelings for Akari and Akari's feelings for Kazuomi, and as the good friend and great person she is, she supports her friend and acts like a confidant to her crush. She actually feels sorry for him too and is very empathetic with the whole situation, which just made me like her more as a character.
When Rio finds out about Yuna's feelings for him, at first he feels sorry for her because he doesn't feel the same way and there he was talking about his stepsister and his crush on her to the girl that likes him. The story has a big amount of angst and drama and a lot of character growth, every character has their moment to shine. ~~Except for Kazuomi~~
Every couple ends up together. This might be a spoiler, but I'm not telling you how-when it happens, plus: I think it's good to know. Some manga don't make the couples end up together and, quite honestly, that's bullshit. So this is a plus!
The couples' moments are cute and romantic, it feels good to see them finally get together. At least for one of them, they get together at the right moment and we get to see them actually together enough times.
The Friendships
Naturally, the girls became best friends while the boys also became best friends. They're all friends with each other and with other characters, but their main bro/sis is them. Sometimes a manga has great friendship building but lacks in the romance department, other times it's the opposite. This one is one of those that has a great balance between those.
With all that said, let me get to the part that is not exactly "bad", but not as great as what I previously mentioned.
[The Not-So-Good](.)
It all comes down to Kazuomi...
Kazuomi is Yuna's childhood friend who quickly becomes friends with Rio and Akari. In the beginning of the story (and for quite some time), he had ZERO conflicts. He had zero development. He was just the cool guy who seemed carefree and spontaneous, the guy who we'd pair up with Akari so we could have two couples instead of just one.
And really, my main complaint is because Io Sakisaka took way too long to start developing Kazuomi. He seemed like a pretty cardboard cutout of a character, not much of a "real" person. But then a little over halfway through, we finally got to see his side of things. And honestly... it was kind of underwhelming.
The reasons that "stop" him from pursuing Akari are dumb. His conflicts with his family, while real, aren't resolved in a realistic way. The only friend he talks with extensively is Rio, and while I understand that a friendship of the same gender as you is different (and sometimes "better") than a friendship of the opposite gender, it's like he's not friends with Yuna >at all<. He never goes to her for advice, confides in her, listens to her side of the story... nothing at all.
It's like his only friend is Rio. Then how come he was presented as Yuna's childhood friend??
In his romantic part of the story, it's like Akari does all the "work" for them to be together. He doesn't pull his weight, even when there's plenty of evidence that they both like each other and should be together. It's to the point that his rival has to tell him: "you either make a move or I will".
And that's when he FINALLY gets up his butt and goes after her. After an indecent amount of chapters.
While Kazu-kun isn't my favorite character of all 4 and anything involving him could have been better worked with, I still loved this story and I still think it's a good read. Hence, 9 stars out of 10.