
a review by Chlorox

a review by Chlorox
This ongoing romance manga follows Machida Yuki, a female manager of the boy's basketball club, who just wants to get through high school and focus on academics. However, high school heart-throb and star of the basketball team, Naruse Shou, interrupts her plans with his attempts to get her to go out with him. Machida struggles with her feelings and awkwardness with Naruse's calm, straightforward approach. Naruse struggles with getting Machida to come out of her shell and lighten up. The story follows Machida in the young couple's lives throughout high school and into college as they both mature and try to navigate the ins and outs of love.
The manga features stunning art, charming and relatable characters, great pacing, humor, and a love story that would make anyone jealous.
The characters for this manga are one of the best things about it. Though the story tends to only focus on Machida and Naruse, it does occasionally spend time to talk about Machida's friend and her relationship struggles, as well as a boy who ends up causing a slight love triangle. The main character, Machida, is highly relatable and actually competent (she is much more appealing for a western audience). Tsundere Naruse gives off a calm and stoic demeanor, but occasionally reveals his lovable, sweet, mischievous teen-boy side. Their relationship feels really well-paced, but can sometimes lean on the slow side. In the end though, their relationship with each other is very sweet and surprisingly mature. The characters always figure out how to resolve their issues and there is little to none of the unnecessary drama that is so characteristic of romance manga. The story puts a lot of emphasis on their growth and maturity as they get older. Its extremely satisfying watching the characters evolve and learn as they grow, both in their personalities and in their relationship.
As mentioned the pacing is really well done, both story-wise and relationship-wise. The story starts out in Machida's 2nd or 3rd year of high school and, so far, is into her 2nd year of university. Never does the manga feel like it is too slow or too fast.
There are elements of humor and comic relief, but it is not the focus of the manga. Instead humorous elements are perfectly placed to help keep the mood lighter.
The art is also incredibly well done, better than some of the most famous romance manga. It has beautiful readability, flow, linework, and great screen-toning. The mangaka definitely has a lot of skill and it shows.
This manga does include sexual elements and scenes that are definitely not appropriate for a pg-13 or younger audience, but there is little to no cursing.
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