For imperfect people

There's an episode of an old 90s cartoon called Rugrats where the grandpa character is putting his infant grandson to bed. However, the grandpa is in such a hurry that he's doing everything as quickly as possible. When it's time for the bed time story he flips through a picture book and rambles: "Once upon a time there was a rabbit who had no friends then he found some friends and they all lived happily ever after the end." That's kind of what this manga is like. The first chapter or two hints at some intrigue. The protagonist meets a strange girl who acts blissfully ignorant ofher own torment at the hands of bullies. Teachers warn him to stay away from her. He meets up with her late at night where she starts defacing her old middle school, a place she was miserable. She is literally painting over her own trauma. The protagonist's own insecurities are what pulled him into her orbit, and now he's starting to fall for her. The title is "For Imperfect People" Doesn't that sound like a great set up for an adolescent psychological thriller? Maybe a bittesrweet tragedy steeped in melancholia? Or an amazing story of perseverance? Well it's not. Instead nothing really happens. The girl is bullied, then she's not bullied, and they all live happily ever after. The end.

A short but sweet manga, that managed to pack a suprising amount of characterization and character development into it's 12 chapters. I definitely reccomend giving it a read, especially if you enjoy character-based stories. The main girl has a suprising amount of depth and feels quite realistic, which is something you don't often see with 'quirky female lead' characters; especially in romance series. She has agency outside of her relationship with the main character, and isn't written as though she is 'for' him, but for herself. The artstyle is so cute--I added it to my list because of the cover art, which is so colourful and dynamic Ijust had to give it a try! Lots of pretty panels, and consistent in the character models and style. I particularly liked how the darker haired characters would sometimes have a lineless gradient style for the back of their hair, it looked so pretty.