The Start of My Story

Great Shoujo. Filled to the brim with cringe and overdone tropes and cliché but it works pretty well. Nothing is overbearingly annoying to a degree that actually hurts the reading experience. I have only one but quite huge nitpick and that was Hachi from chapter 25 onwards, more on that below. But there are 5 other great things to talk about for that one thing. Making this one quick. All characters are enjoyable. The annoying other guy, everyone's friends and even randoms/tools that are one and done. You never have too feel too strong about a character and that is a refreshing approach (apart from Hachiat times from ch25+). The story is the usual shallow school experience. Nothing too innovative but it is fully believeable and fun. The events and flags themselves are enjoyable and you never feel like reading is a drag and that you just want to get to a good part. Everything is just plain solid. Now, as for Hachi from ch25 and onwards. The author tried to forcefully give her fake depth which greatly hurt her character. A huge part of this manga was characters asking "what is love to me" and "how do I want my love life to play out". It did go in a weird direction at times with how open she was but that part was amplified x100 from one second to another after ch24. It came out of nowhere and there was no real development that could cause that change in her. Ch25 somehow pushed her having this idea of "love is free and everyone has to love" -> "I will just enjoy many men loving me". It goes pretty hard and fast and she does, says and thinks many questionable things in a short amount of time. Ch25 heavily leaned into them having some pseudo open relationship- I hated this chapter. Not because of what happens or the open relationship part, but because how it all is forced out of thin air and everyone but one character is just okay with it. That was not them. It was a spineless MC that was clearly hurt and the average emotionally cheating FL from every cheap shoujo ever. It was honest to god cuck-play. The next 2 chapters were able to defuse that idea and the tension it randomly brought but the damage was done.. I was honestly incredibly weirded out. The long distance relationship in these chapters is well done, as is the timeskip. Idk why the author couldn't just stay consistent until the end. To finish things off, the last part of the last chapter has to, for no apparent reason, go back to that open relationship feeling, which she seemingly wants?... and she imagines kissing another guy after her group had a talk about cheating and when cheating actually becomes cheating. It is played off in a "comedic" way involving multiple parties but I honestly felt actual disgust reading this part. Welp. I still just act as if that didn't happen and moved on already. I did love how the author had Mizuno call her out for that in a little extra page. Also, Mizuno was fully forced by the author to play along with her being a bit too open with other guys- which was not true to his established character at all. He was visibly distressed at times and we as reader knew he isn't fully on board but he did let it all happen for some unexplained reason. Must have been the wind. Again, this is 100% just the author trying to add some fake depth to her otherwise pretty shallow and one-dimensional character. She was incredibly naive for a long time and even her liking to flirt/be flirted with (which already was a random escalation of her character in ch25) is okay... I guess? But this went beyond just that into "hey, why don't we try with one more person. Maybe this guy I know? ;)" territory. It was uncomfortable and, as mentioned before, not them. I am happy that it didn't go quite as far as Haru x Kiyo with the "long distance relationship = mind weak and absolutely has to cheat" or Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun with how her relationship with the 2nd guy was treated (says she also loves him romantically but stays with ML, puke). Some saving grace, indeed. I can wholeheartedly recommend this manga to people liking actual shoujo that doesn't follow the terrible formula so many others have been using. It has that one HUGELY MASSIVE glaring problem but others might be able to see past that part. It didn't break the manga as a whole for me personally but it did tank the enjoyment towards the end.