Domestic na Kanojo is finally over, after it's been dragged for so long and beaten to death it finally can rest in peace.
Art
While the backgrounds weren't masterpieces, the characters's design made up for it, in most cases at least.They were expressive, sometimes making for some good comedic moments. There was also a nice variety in clothes which made it feel more realistic. What really matters, at least in my opinion, is that Sasuga really shines when it comes to drawing the naked body. Even after everything that happened i can still appreciate the way she draws tits. If you only want to experience that, read the ".1" chapters, the numbers may differ just look for the ".".
The whole story could be separated in two parts high school and college.
High schoolWhile it was trashy, it was at it's peak, it was entertaining to follow Natsuo, Rui and Hina trough their predicaments, something dramatic happened every few chapters, most of the time topping it off it a twist of a twist, you didn't really had the option to catch a break. While it sounds bad, it didn't feel forced, at least to some degree; you just went along with the ride, sometimes complaining about the decisions they did. On the other hand, most of the time, the drama was cheesy, the plot always moved in the worst way possible to create stupid situations of the cast.
The themes were somewhat interesting, nothing groundbreaking but they served their purpose of making the cast grow, most of the time being connected to love, some examples being unrequited love, breakup.
In this part, the main cast gets the most development. Rui going from someone lost in life, not knowing what to do with it or what true love was, finds her calling while discovering feelings she didn't realise she had. Hina struggled with her love life, her being in her twenties without a relationship, but she finally found someone that she loves. And in the end, Natsuo, the main character, he shares the struggles the two sisters have, he overcomes them while pursuing his dream.
College
From this point the series just went downhill. Story wise, it started feeling dragged on. The drama, the quirk that i once enjoyed became a chore. More and more characters whose only role was to create drama appeared, best example is the drama troupe. The literature club in high school had a role beyond being just there to create drama, after the arcs of each character were done they didn't just disappear, they still had a role after their respective arcs ended. Compared to that, the drama troupe was the opposite, characters after characters from it were introduced, took part in the events that unfolded, then just disappeared only to appear once or twice, depending on how relevant they were. On the other hand we got the "
villains". Once we moved to adulthood, the manga started focusing more on mature topics like sex work, drugs, abusive relationships, suicide, racism, just to name a few. With them the need for the bad guy arisen, did they have anything interesting about them?, were they more than plot devices to either "develop" the main cast or move the plot?; sadly no, after they got what was coming to them they either disappeared completely or had another appearance for their last dramatic moment.
Arcs that had no real purpose started appearing, they seemed that were helping the characters learn and grow, but in the long run the changes didn't stuck, they were back to where they were in the beginning.
The ending, was the definition of a bad ending. It ignored character development, struggles that the characters had. The reasoning behind just made it more laughable. Everything that happened, all 276 chapters, just thrown out the window. It feels like it all had regressed back to the beginning.
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I realised that I could never "beat" you.
I'll remember this line for a long time, as one of the most stupid reason for giving up. Hello old Rui, i guess.
I had low expectations for it ever since Tanabe's arc. Story became uninteresting and the characters just competed to see who had the most brain cells missing. But the ending destroyed my expectations. Natsuo realising that he had a powerful love towards Hina was the best joke of this year; after going to America, because his ex had problems, accepting her love, having a child with her, he realises that in reality Hina was the love of her life because she was in life/death situation.Don't waste your time, the story and characters just get worse as time goes on, sometimes it feels like the author wants to send a message rather than having a good story. If I had to suggest reading it, stop after high school ended. I still consider that, this series should've ended at that point.
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