Again!!

Time travel has become quite a common device in storytelling that there are several subdivisions of it. Again!! adopts the time travel concept that once interfered, the future becomes unpredictable. Kinichirou Imamura is a solitary high school student who has lived his life avoiding a social life. He accidentally goes back to 3 years in the past and sees this as an opportunity to make new choices for his life. What he doesn't foresee are all the consequences that come along with his decisions. All hardships challenge him and confront his own anti-social personality. I like that not only he gives himself the chance to trythings he never did before, he gives the chance for people to get to know him better. He may be a short tempered loner, but his main attribute is that he is good at reading people's hearts. Imamura may know future facts, but they merely pose as future possibilities due to his lack of action. He learns that being apathetic won't lead him anywhere. Ouendan are cheering squads. Imamura's memory of a remarkable encounter with Usami Yoshiko, the lonely captain of Kobosu Minami High's ouendan club, sparks an avalanche of events which start with him trying to enter the notorious club. One of the really interesting things about the storytelling is the question of how can we positively influence someone. Just as the ouendan tries to motivate the baseball team, Imamura attempts to inspire his new friends. Initially dismayed by how little the ouendan has to offer to a baseball game, he later learns the power and influence that can be given through encouragement. Although matches start and end with the actions of the athletes on the field, they only got there through the assistance of their friends, families, and in this case - the cheers from the bleachers. Albeit he is merely a young individual, his words and actions carry enormous weight to his friends. No man is an island. Even though I love many of the characters, I feel like some of the side characters had odd developments that didn't really fit their personalities. Another complaint is that a few times it feels like the author is writing a bit aimlessly. Maybe lack of planning and the publisher's decisions led her astray. I would divide this manga into three arcs: ouendan arc, drama club arc, and the marathon arc. The first is definitely the strongest. The second starts strange, but it delivers in the end. The third starts awkwardly and slowly grows, but the final volume shifts gears completely and ends everything abruptly. Despite that, I don't regret reading this manga. Is the ending unsatisfactory? Yes, it is disappointing. Could the story be much better? Definitely. But before reading or giving a rating to this manga, ask yourself this: Does a weak ending ruin everything that came before? Or is it just one more flaw in something good?

This manga is simply frustrating, there is no better way to describe it. The story revolves around Imamura Kinichirou, who together with Fujieda Akira suffers an accident that causes them both to wake up 3 years ago, on the day of their high school entrance ceremony. Faced with the situation, Imamura now tries to resolve some past regrets and find Usami Yoshiko, the leader of a certain school club who disappeared shortly after the club closed its activities. The plot is nothing innovative but the characters and situations are quite attractive, who wouldn't want to go back in time and make some different decisions? It's a shamethat the author quickly gets lost in random and unnecessarily long plots, leaving characters like Akira underdeveloped and trying to destroy any charisma that characters like Imamura and Usami have. All the arcs after the first are uninteresting and so full of useless information and dialogue that I would skip a few pages and then reread the entire chapter only to find that nothing I skipped was important. Furthermore, these arcs, when they don't add anything important, introduce themes that don't make sense and for which we will never have an answer because the story ends without answering almost anything. And no, it's not the kind of story that leaves an open ending but leaves clues for the audience to interpret, this story simply ends out of nowhere leaving us with a clear feeling that it has been cancelled. Regarding the characters, I'll stick with the main trio, while Akira is just completely neglected by the author, Imamura and Usami are interesting in their own right, their interaction, although often frustrating, works. But at a certain point the story incorporates the Harem genre into the plot and this ends up burying one of the last things that still gave pleasure in this work. The story is so bad that it even managed to affect my judgment about the art because I objectively know that some pages are beautiful, but it's impossible for me to disassociate myself from how terrible the script it illustrates is. I don't recommend it to anyone, all this story does is intrigue you with a good start and then frustrate you by delivering absolutely nothing in return for the time invested here.

Most of the reviews I've read about this manga complain about the unsatisfactory conclusion of the story. While I agree with this sentiment, I feel as if the story veered off course much earlier. Initially, "Again!!" presents a quite interesting premise, and up until approximately the halfway point, I would have readily rated this manga a 7/10. The clean and crisp artwork, coupled with the straightforwardness of Imamura's character, contributed to a positive reading experience. However, even in the early stages, certain aspects of the story began to detract from its appeal: - The characters occasionally act in ways that deviate from their established personalities, rendering themunrelatable and difficult to understand - Fujieda, initially set up to be a central character, quickly fades into the background, merely following the MC around without contributing meaningfully to the plot - Some characters display irksome traits, such as Usami's unwarranted strictness and involvement in matters that shouldn't concern her, Fujieda's seemingly stupid behavior, and Suzuki's self-worth hinging entirely on external validation Despite these flaws, the first half remains an enjoyable read. My enthusiasm dwindled during the latter part of the manga, however. The most glaring issue is the absence of lasting character development. Any progress made is swiftly forgotten, causing the characters to regress to their former selves. This lack of progress adversely impacts the story's pacing, making it feel sluggish. Last but not least, I found myself losing track of the plot, with certain plot points seemingly appearing out of nowhere. As a result, the story appeared disjointed and lacking cohesion. In light of a promising start that ultimately fell short, I rate this manga a 4/10 in total.