Kanojo ga Kare ni Ochiru Wake

Story -------- Yet another collection of one-shots, so I'll try to give my thoughts for each respective chapter. [chapter 1] 7.25/10 I gotta say, this was pretty enjoyable. The combination of a overly aggressive male lead and helpless female lead was a pleasure to read. It had a rather mature feel despite taking place in your typical high school. I respect the mangaka for writing a story that was able to mold a unorthodox relationship into a solid romance. [chapter 2] 7.25/10 Using something silly like an umbrella for a plot device sounded really silly and far'fetched. However, it did work for this story. Again, we have an aggressive male vyingfor the passive female's attention in your typical high school setting. The ending/conflict resolution made light of the "drama" plot line and made it seem a tad nonsensical. [chapter 3] 7.5/10 *clap, clap, clap* Without spoiling the premise of the plot, I really enjoyed the mangaka's spin on the typical confession romance, it was terrific. The characters are your day to day high school kids but most of the story transpired outside of school. It was a "open ending" but you can pretty much figure out the general idea the mangaka had in mind. [chapter 4] 7.25/10 Typical childhood friends story here. This one starts off with a bang and you would think that the romance starts developing right from the start. It doesn't but actually goes on a roller coaster ride before beginning to settle down at the end. This chapter probably contained the most character development and the story benefited greatly from it. Art 7.5/10 -------------- Aesthetically pleasing and satisfying overall. Designs for characters had variety and weren't simple copy and paste techniques for each chapter. The males were handsome, females were attractive and supporting characters were good enough to stand out from obvious background fodder. The art style was consistent for all of the one-shots and matched the shoujo-like atmosphere. Characters 7/10 --------------------- In short, the main characters from each story weren't anything most manga readers haven't seen before. While they weren't copies of each other, they did share similarities. The males of each one-shot were the aggressive, cool and mature kind while the females were passive, emotionally unsure and got swept along by the males. Given the fact that the females served as our narrators, their growth and development was the main focus. If the males had any developing emotions it was pretty much done "off-screen". Enjoyment/Overall 7.5/10 ----------------------------------- The mature atmosphere despite being based around obvious high school kids worked out really well. I wouldn't go as far as to say that each one-shot was a hidden gem/masterpiece but they were definitely enjoyable. If you need your daily dose of shoujo, romance and or comedy with a decently written story line, then I would recommend this series.