A Devil and Her Love Song

My problem with this manga is how much I expected from it and how it ended up to be a huge disappointment. I really enjoyed the first part of the manga (though there were some hard-to-believe situations, specially when it comes to the teacher's behaviour), but at some point it just started to make no sense. From now on there will me some mayor spoilers so pls stop reading if you don't want to see them. (The conclusion is free of spoilers.) I think you can resume this story as "look, these people are going through difficult situations, look how they'll change and how theylearn how to be better ppl" but failing in the way of doing this. I just don't understand how the mangaka was able to ruin her characters so much. I mean, at first we were presented to a girl who makes a really interesting protagonist, completely different from your typical-shoujo manga heroine, who is not afraid to speak her mind and clearly have a lot of issues that will develop throughout the story. But then, she falls in love, and all of that just goes away and instead we have ye again a super plain protagonist. I'm not saying that her stopping to be a cold-hearted bitch is a bad thing, I think that it'd have been a really good development only if it had been well-executed. As of the male lead role -Megu-, at first I really liked how the character was written and the interactions they both had, but at some point -when that other girl from the music school appears- he just starts to make a lot of stupid decisions, and even though I can understand that everyone can do stupid things when they're put in a situation they've never been before, for me his way of doing things wasn't believable at all and it ended up being a big turn-off for me. Also, I really don't understand how you can introduce this background story that it's so important for the plot and for the characters' development, just to resolve it in that simple way. I mean, are you trying to convince me that a teenage girl, after she remembers all of a sudden about her mom committing suicide in front of her and the reasons that led her to do that, got to find a way out of that pain in just one fucking chapter? This was the most important part of the story and we deserved to see how Maria recovers with the help of everyone around her, and it's not something that you can resolve in just a few pannels. But the thing that really messed up the story for me was how the father issue was dealt with. I mean, he raped your mother and caused all of this despair upon your family and just like that you're able to talk to him and it only takes you a few chapters to act as if it were normal for him to meet your family and be okay with him saying that he loved your mother??????? And you're also okay with him going to your grandparents house and you even support that, bitch whatttT????? Even your friend (the kouhai) has the balls to say "hey i would like if you and him get along " BITCH WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ASKING YOUR FRIEND TO DO?????? But what pisses me off even more is her response to him, as if the things he's saying make a lot of sense. The way this part of the story is written, how they don't give the importance that it needs to has, and how they just portrait this guy as if he's not that bad as a person, when he raped a 14 YEAR-OLD, RUINED HER LIFE and it just looks as it's not that great of a deal for anybody? I mean, if you were to deal with this kind of serious topic and you were trying to make the readers empathize with that man you could have written it in so many different ways, but not this one, where the decisions and the way the characters act doesn't make any sense whatsoever. SPOILERS FINISH HERE Conclusion: Though the story and the characters weren't exactly my cup of tea (gosh, even the ending of the manga was a disappointment) I have to say that the art was beautiful and I really loved Maria and Megu's designs. Also, I think that if you're looking for a dramatic shoujo manga to read this wouldn't be me first recommendation, since there a lot mangas out there with better storytelling, BUT it was entertaining enough to keep me reading through 90 chapters just because I really wanted to know how it ended, so I have to give it some points for that.

This story really reminds me of Usagi Drop, just for the way that the ending butchers my enjoyment fo the entire series. Without going into to much of spoiler territory, though this is about the last arcs, I won't mention character's names. However, by the end of the manga, the amount of rape apologists themes and excuses is very insulting and disheartening. I can't tell you how I felt in the last arcs, as it was like a punch to the gut and to the heart. It was like a betrayal. If you are a victim of sexual abuse I would skip this story, at leastdon't read the last few chapters as the things that are excused and accepted are just so disgusting. They even makes us go through why we should forgive the rapist, and the reasons they came up with are not good. It is very difficult to read. Everyone deals with trauma differently, but this was dealt with no care and more consideration and sympathy for the rapist than the actual victim of the rape. I can't explain how disappointing this is. I don't know why the author inserted this in besides shock value, and that is very hurtful especially since I really enjoyed this manga for majority of the run.

I didn't have the highest expectations when I started reading this manga, but I was already completely hooked after the first chapter. The characters are not some flat boring stereotypes, I found all of them interesting, even the ones I disliked. For the first 50 chapters or so, I thought this was one of them best mangas I ever read.. Unfortunately after that there was a few things that made me seriously pissed off. First I was slightly annoyed at how Maria's personality changes, without spoiling too much, I think she gets too caught up in her feelings and become less independent, which I founda bit annoying. But what really ruined it for me was something that happened around chapter 70, it made me so angry I went from reading the manga constantly, to ignoring it for weeks.. I did consider giving it a lower score, but up until that point I would have given this manga a 10.. I would still recommed it, because it was so great up until this point. The art is beautiful and most importantly, the characters were easy to tell apart :P. I think in a lot of mangas the characters look exactly the same, this wasn't the case here. I would say, try reading the first chapter, if this manga is for you, you will know after reading that one chapter. :)