Rhapsody in Heaven

We know Minami Kanan is good at drawing hot bishomen and even hotter intimate scenes. Well she does so exceedingly well in Kyouso, which is one of its top redeeming features. What's not so hot is the fact that the heroine is denied a concrete personality, as are the two supporting cast members. While the romance between the leads is clearly steamy, it's thouroughly hormonal, with neither character specifying clearly what they like about the other. The storyline is average, while it starts creating suspense about Aoi Suzuki, it doesn't deliver as much drama or mystery as you might expect. Some of the dialogues delivered bythe villianous Student Council President seem enjoyable, or maybe that was just in the scanlation! There are sporadic moments of laugh out loud humor including some pool scenes and those between Tsukasa and her guidance counselor. Not enough attention was payed to classroom activity considering 3 of the 4 major players attend the same class. Also, if you're going to read this one expecting some spectacular swim scenes, I wouldn't get too hopeful. Most of the pool activity is restricted to make out sessions for our cute couple. Though you won't hear me complain about that one! I think if more background information and story arcs were created around each character, this might have been a good manga, but right now, it's really just a delicious read for shoujo fans which takes place in an exciting and moderately novel setting. EDIT: On finally completing the series (Thank you scanlators!), I have to say, this story has one of the least annoying male leads of all of Kanan's longer works. He never bullies and/or sexually harasses his girlfriend, and I'm a bit surprised at the level of smut achievable without those actions in Kanan sama's universe! Also, now that all three volumes are complete, you'll enjoy the short and concise story arcs, there are a few which have their dramatic and touching moments. Art develops more over the course of the story and Aoi manages to make you sigh contentedly in most of the chapters. I don't think it's right to anticipate more from this title, so if you're looking for doki doki smut and a dashing and charming hero, yes, you came to the right story. If not, you're better off researching other of Minami Kanan's works. Also, the side story at the end of volume 3 , Noa's Reason, gives us a peek into her world and humanizes the antagonist a little. A little on the simple minded side, but it's a good read.