I finished Suzuka after a few days of marathoning and have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is not without its issues; but, the characters and overall growth are enough to make everything come together into a memorable and relatable experience. Needless to say, this review will be spoiler-laden; but, considering this is one of Seo's first mangas, I suspect many people have already completed the story by now.

Characters

Any good slice-of-life or romance manga lives and dies by the characters, and Suzuka delivers an overall interesting and varied cast with two fairly strong leads.

Yamato

The main character is great, though a bit of a trope at times. Yamato starts as a clumsy bumbler and grows a great deal over the course of his relationship. One of the strengths of the characters in this manga is that the characters grow, but not unreasonably or unbelievably. Clumsiness is established early on as one of Akitsuki's character traits, and, even as his athleticism grows over his high school career, he still has the same absentmindedness and physicality when off the track he started with.

The character gets better, changes, but doesn't become a completely different person, making a very believable arc.

Yamato also starts by being unable to handle relationships because he makes all of his decisions around what would make him look the best. He's unable to communicate his challenges, his feelings, and makes self-centered choices for reasons he believes are selfless. Suzuka's personality eventually drives him to develop his own identity more, and that self-confidence is also reflected in how he handles his relationship with her after reconciliation.

Suzuka

The titular tsundere grows and changes as well, but is handled a bit more clumsily. The author has stated that the story was inspired by the idea of breaking up and getting back together again (and what challenges that dynamic presents to a couple).

Unfortunately, until Suzuka has her "aha!" moment near the second half of the story, her treatment of Yamato is off-putting at best and detestable at worst. To add to the issues with this character, learning about her past (being driven by pressure from her parents to succeed without concern for her wants, her loss of her first love, etc) provides some explanation for her abusiveness. But, this line never feels completely drawn and requires a leap in logic of the reader that feels more like making excuses for the character than understanding her.

Finally, unlike Yamato, the evolution of the character if far too abrupt. When she and Yamato decide to date the second time, the character feels like a different person entirely. The change is so abrupt it breaks believability a bit.

I like Suzuka by the end of the series (and taking the whole picture of the character into view); but, it honestly took some effort and consideration that could have been demonstrated a bit more in the story. Considering this is Seo's earlier work, I expect this is probably more refined in some of his later series.

Honoka

At first, I felt Honoka was your standard, boilerplate romance third wheel. Being desperately in love with Yamato at the beginning of the story and being painfully shy about it is a bit cliched, but she did her job as a mirror for us to see the occasional absurdity of unrequited love. Seeing how uncomfortable Honoka's unreturned love could make Yamato helped to ground the reader on the more negative aspects of Yamato's early obsessions with Suzuka.

Honoka grows from this into the cautionary tale later in the series. As she finds her footing with her modeling career, she outgrows Yamato, leaving him behind as he rediscovers his feelings too late. Other characters say that he couldn't tell her his feelings in time because of how he still felt for Suzuka, but that feels too reductionist. It felt like Yamato was starting to really see what he could potentially build with someone else and needed to learn the hard lesson that the world doesn't wait for him to make up his mind.

Yui

Yui was, unfortunately, a very two dimensional character. Starting out as a means to inject doubt of Yamato's intentions, the story seemed to set her up with a potential arc that seemed promising. Her will to help her father run his restaurant and eventually take it over, despite her lack of cooking prowess, seems to be building to an interesting plot that just peters out. The only aspect of her character that the narrative attends to in the end is unrequited love. After Honoka's plot-line, this felt really stale and uninteresting.

What we're left with is a character who comes back just once near the end of the series to say little more than "hi." How'd that restaurant turn out? Did she ever get over Yamato? What were her other skills, dreams, etc? There are no answers to be found.

Yuuka

Yuuka is another character who is exploited primarily to stir plot progression in the form of problems for Yamato. For most of the story, I found her insufferable and started skimming when she showed up drunkenly with Megumi in tow.

That said, the eventual meeting of the minds between her and Yamato on her own relationship troubles was a touching moment and made me feel for the character, however briefly. She still wears patience thin at times; but, she at least feels more human after that peek into her past.

The Track Team (and Yasunobu)

Most of the track team felt like caricatures through most of the series. Miyamoto is occasionally an exception, as his initial interest in Yamato drives him to try and help Yamato figure out how best to utilize his talents. Miki and Yasunobu, on the other hand, feel like expositional sounding boards and comedic relief. I honestly don't know if I'd notice if they were both replaced halfway through the series.

The Relationship

Suzuka and Yamato's relationship feels a bit painful a lot of the time in the first half of the series. Yamato can't seem to do anything right (and or bumbles his way into inexplicable situations) and Suzuka will never cut him a break. I know that this is part of the message- that getting these relationships right can take work, communication, and even trial and error. But, the reader isn't thrown enough bones to stay invested early on. While the series seems to want me to be saddened by the initial breakup of the two, I just felt like I agreed. Yes, it wasn't working, and yes, I was okay with it ending to see where each of them would go on their own.

All that said, the characters' flaws pulled each other out of their comfort zones and drove the growth we see in the second half of the series. Suzuka is nearly obsessed with accomplishment, having that driven into her by her parents. Yamato is a flake who couldn't find any real direction. Yamato, subsequently, provides Suzuka with an example and license to occasionally be self serving. Without his influence, she may never have even questioned what it is she wanted. Conversely, Suzuka provides Yamato with structure and drive to be his best, and ultimately stokes within him a love for his sport he never knew he had.

The Ending and The Message

Reading other people's views on this series shows that there's a lot of controversy about how it ended. Many are saddened that, given the pregnancy and marriage, the two main characters' dreams are unfulfilled. I find this to be a bit of a narrow view.

I took the ending to be a story of real life, and how to make real life beautiful. Suzuka and Yamato didn't end the story unfulfilled. Life did not turn out as they initially planned it; but, ultimately, when they examined their priorities, they cared more about each other and their future family than the former dreams they left behind. That's a very real, very adult conclusion to a story like this.

I feel like Seo even drives this further home with the climactic fight between Yamato and Arima. Arima's dream centered around his sport and his abilities. He and Yamato would never see eye to eye on this, and both are very valid positions. Their priorities were different because they were different people. In a lot of ways, Yamato was the most important person in Arima's life, because his drive became so much more focused when he had a foil. Losing that to family seemed unthinkable to him, even insulting. Seo is making it clear by the contrast that Yamato and Suzuka, despite their work and drive, value each other above their sports.

I like a story that has a happy ending; but, this story had more beauty than that because the characters learned to find happiness in the situations they had and ask themselves what truly was important.

Conclusion

While the story has some clunky parts, primarily around the semi-painful early relationship between Suzuka and Yamato, I felt very invested. Perhaps it's because Suzuka and Yamato's relationship demonstrates that obligation to others' expectations is important but must be balanced. As someone who has struggled with that idea in the past, it was nice to find how the characters struck that balance in their own lives.

I suspect I'll think a lot about Yamato and Suzuka any time my inner voice says something like, "you really should be this" or "everyone expects that." Ignoring that voice entirely leads to self-serving flippancy. However, only ever following it leads to a life devoid of personal meaning. Suzuka and Yamato's story teaches us to try and find that balance in the middle.