Fuuka

This review is spoiler-free, however, I recommend you read the series completely blind. If you hate it, you hate it; if you love it, you love it; but you'll do yourself no benefit trying to understand why others have such strong feelings around it. Figure it out for yourself and come back to compare. Fuuka is a story with a lot of problems. If someone asked me to go through commentating each chapter, we'd probably end up with another CinemaSins clone. Overused tropes here, bizarre characterisation there, lewd filler throughout, and a plotline with so many random elements thrown in that it'sno surprise that people find themselves overwhelmed. However, as rough and ridiculous as the core is, there's an unexpected believability and charm brought out by its honesty. I think it's impossible to talk about this series without mentioning the twist. While I won't spoil it, the before and after might as well be two completely different series. For those of you that read up until that point weekly, keep in mind that this was close to a year in the making. Fuuka sets itself up for future arcs, characters, themes, and solid expectations; before immediately taking the story in the opposite direction. For many readers - especially fans of the mangaka - this was a dividing experience. The first section, while well-written, is fairly stock-standard. It's a light-hearted 'follow your dreams' romance series, with the sort of convenient coincidences that you won't find outside of anime and manga. An average shounen protagonist crosses every chance encounter possible - from celebrities, to online friends, to solutions to obscure problems. Despite this, it's self-aware enough to not constantly push it in the reader's face. Rather, the ridiculous nature of the series is worn on its sleeve, rarely overstaying its welcome. What we're left with is a collection of likeable characters on the road to fulfilling their dreams. And then the series changes direction entirely. I've never enjoyed narrative arcs where hopes are dashed for compromises. You see them coming from a mile away; sign-posted from the beginning and rarely given enough time to build a relationship with the reader. Fuuka portrays no indication. It's abrupt, unexpected, and against most narrative rules I've been taught in writing classes. It's no surprise that people hated it. When a story 180s, yelling "where the HELL did that come from?" is something that I'm certainly not innocent of. Some of my favourite story orientations have been destroyed by illogical, last-second attempts at shock factor or pandering. The reason Fuuka isn't one of those instances is that the following narrative was built around the sudden change. The shock was the point; not the excuse. The overarching plot then follows the same notes, but from a different perspective. If the first 40 chapters are about finding hope, the next hundred are about understanding it. We found hope, but what do we do with it? If it's true that life comes at you fast, what are you going to do about it? I've noticed that a point of contention relates to the series' pacing. It moves abnormally quickly, but that generally only adds to the experience. One of the reasons I was never a fan of Kouji Seo (or drama manga in general) is that, at some point, it gets tedious; tiring. While some people may enjoy dramatic arcs that attempt to split the characters apart, only for them to overcome that challenge; I was never one of them. I always feel that characters do themselves no favours by jumping to conclusions and refusing to communicate. I have little interest in rooting for a protagonist that continues to make the same mistakes, only to forget the lesson they previously learnt in solving them. The pace of Fuuka allows for these situations to resolve in a lifelike way. While there are overarching concerns throughout, the smaller-scale issues work as a stepping stone towards fixing them. It's not all at once, or never at all; it's step by step. This builds a sense of trust that makes the relationships on the romance side feel believable and healthy. Often times, while I may enjoy the end-point, I can't help but think that the effort the characters went through just emphasised why they weren't right for each other. Why love someone that you don't trust? If I'm to complain about anything, it's the final resolutions. Because there are so many characters and mini-lines throughout, often their brief conclusions lack concrete depth. Shelly's arc, for instance, while complete, misses its chance at pay-off. She makes claims about her independence, her final song, and her challenge to those around her; but that plotline contradicts her other backstory: her guiding inspiration. In effect, one of the two narratives has to give in to the other. This is also a frequent occurrence with side-character romance. In an attempt to provide every character with a resolution, many are forced into unnecessary love stories. Makoto's - avoiding spoilers - is perhaps the worst case. His main character arc is genuinely heartwarming, but it's let down by attaching unnecessary additions. Despite this, I rarely found myself caring about these issues. I was always swept away by the hopeful themes, the likeable cast, the interconnected narratives, and the unexpected twists along the way. Would I enjoy it as much on the second read, knowing everything? Probably not, but I feel like I'd still be entirely invested in the emotional believability. I enjoyed it as much reading its entirety today, as I did reading it by release up until chapter 50. Fuuka is rough, ridiculous, and rambunctious; but it's those aspects - collected in a poor attempt at alliteration - that add to the lifelike charm of the series. While it's not for everyone, it'll probably be a read that'll stick with me for a long time.

This manga is really good, I really liked it. It was depth and interesting. The story talks about the MC who quickly joins a musical band. We'll see the musical band growing bigger. Of course you will have to follow their problems as a band. Being a band composed of many persons is very complicated, each person is important, the band have to stay together to perform well and even the personal life can make problems to perform. This manga is not only focused on the music, I usually dont care about musical manga/anime. The only one i have watched is Shigatsu wa Kimi no Uso.It didnt prevent me to really love this manga. Be careful, this is one of the most dramatic manga i have ever read (typical Seo Kouji but in worse...). I absolutely do not recommend to read if your are not good to handle drama and sadness or even frustration. This manga will show you that unfortunately not every drama scenes can be handled and solved, that's why it's one of the most dramatic manga. In this manga, you will mostly see musical world of course, huge friendship, good romance, every good little things in drama (jealousy, anger, frustration, icomprehension, big kick in your balls seriously, sadness...). I recommend do read it until the end and do not be discouraged this the sadness for instance because it worth the read. The worst mistake is to take this thing for a light-hearted romcom as the start seems to make you believe, it's a trap, at your own risks. (BIG SPOILERS TO READ IF YOU HAVE FINISHED FUUKA) Of course, fuuka is a big kick in the balls. Seo, that sneaky *censored* put us in confidence at the start just the make a bigger fall. It was frustrating and my first reflex was to go to the internet to spoil me and see if she was really dead. It was 5 am, i was shocked, i needed to sleep, the sun was beginning to shine here and fuuka was one of the best character that i have ever seen. Totally the opposite of Suzuka. The MC was dragged by fuuka, he couldn't keep the pace with her. The only thing this girl let us was her smile that she kept everytime. She got sacrificed by Seo to continue the plot and to let the real manga begin. It was disgusting and it's sad to say, but to make the rest, it was necessary. Unfortunately, it couldnt have been a secondary character that we dont like, once again it was a trap. The main goal was to enhance the emotions on the rest of the story. I am still mad even 2 months after finishing it and I almost gave up that manga like a bunch of other did. The manga totally changed his direction in 1 poor chapter by using truck kun, the rolling cliche always used in medium/ bad drama... I completely understand the people who felt deceived and gave up at this time, I cant imagine the thing it was to read that in live at the time were the manga was airing. Even if i'm mad, i feel like we needed, in the drama world, a manga like that. That one sly and vicious manga that uses your inner weaknesses only to grab your emotions. Seo did it (honestly, he's the only masochist that can write that after the ultra long NTR and the incomprehensible girl that gives you some murder wishes). Now that it's done, I really no other mangaka will have the same stupid idea. It was like, imagine you do your thing with an unknow girl without any protections, then you notice she gave you the SIDA (bad luck yes). It was really fun to do so but i dont think you will have the idea to do it again with a random girl. It's a bad thing to experience but at least not everything is to throw away. That's the feeling this manga gives me.

Let me start by saying that this is the BEST SHONEN manga I've ever read, and if you look at my list I'm a bit picky on rating. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Story: 9 Art: 10 Character: 9 Enjoyment: 10 Overall: 10Fuuka, to me personally, is a manga that is written well and at the climax, it will surely make you say "It was a great ride". Props to the author, Seo Kouji, for writing this amazing manga. The story is pretty simple, just a plain boy who likes music and wants to create an amazing band, they challenge other bands or other characters. And get new insights about them. But, what I think is good about Fuuka's story is the romance. It isn't forced, isn't heavy, and it makes sense. Unlike Suzuka - the sequel that has heavy and complex drama conflicts, Fuuka's drama is each character's development. And let's continue to the characters. The characters are all likable. They have their own adversities and they try to overcome them. And that's the point of the story. Sometimes, the characters' reasoning seems a bit unrealistic. But in the end, this is a shonen manga, who cares about that. Now, let's address how underrated this manga is. While I was reading it, I was confused. Why is this manga's rating very low. Even though, other mangas that are similar have higher ratings, like Beck [8.67] (music side), Cross Game [8.41] (similar story, but it's about baseball) There are two reasons I could think of : 1. This is very different from Suzuka, and probably other Seo Kouji works. This is more like a shonen and feels very simple. Suzuka feels heavy with all the drama and conflicts. This is light but kinda sad at the same time. 2. People hate tearjerkers (Hate you if you do) Overall, this is an amazing shonen manga. The character development, the stories, and especially the comedy (the comedy is way better than Seo Kouji's other works) everything is amazing. I really enjoyed it. And I would recommend it to anybody who likes romance, other classic shonen, or just people who like music.

Fuuka… What a fucking journey… I didn’t know anything about this manga, before I started reading it. I saw some clip from the anime, and Fuuka Akitsuki immediately caught my eye. I heard the anime adaptation kind of butchered the manga, so I thought I’d read the story first. What a good call. I never imagined a romance manga could be this epic, even though the romance genre isn’t the main story line, it was still really strong. No other show, manga, or any other medium was able to make me tear up from happiness, while having chills go down my spine. Art At first, Ididn’t really like it. I thought the main protagonist Yuu Haruna looked more like a girl, and it wasn’t really that special compared to some other works that were out at the time. However, I quickly got used to it, and even though it’s a simple looking art style, it gets the job done well. Some concert scenes might feel a bit repetitive after a while, it uses the same premise of a wide shot of the band, and then either disgusted or completely blown away facial expressions of the audience. But when a show is somehow special, the manga delivers big time. In the most important concert of the manga, you feel like you’re there, the hype and excitement completely takes you over, and it makes you forget that you’re not at a concert, you’re just sitting in a chair, staring at a book. Story It’s a complete journey of an upcoming band portraying the excitement and hardships you have to get over, if you want your dreams come true. It’s a story about strong will, patience, resilience, tragedy and love (love for music or your significant other). It brings up a really nice philosophical message. Even though a lot of things aren’t going your way, it’s important to not dwell on the past and look forward. If you really love something, you can’t just give up once something doesn’t go your way. And even if it doesn’t work out at the end, you have to focus on the good you’ve experienced on your way. It was also pretty progressive, putting in a homosexual character and a few really powerful women. Although I’m personally not a huge fan of these tropes if I feel like they’re forced, but this manga was a huge exception. All of these characters felt natural, and fit perfectly in the story. The story had a few “asspulls”, which I will review later in the *spoilers* section, just letting you know. And one thing I hated about this manga, were some of the ecchi scenes. It felt really fucking forced sometimes. You know those types were the protagonist trips on nothing and somehow falls face first into some girl’s boobs. These moments just pulled me out of the experience and were completely unnecessary. Luckily, they weren’t as frequent as in other shows I’ve watched or read, so I’ll let it slide. The romance aspect had a nice progressive flow, and felt really satisfying. Characters At first, Yuu Haruna felt like another useless and annoying character. However, the character development he went through was so fucking beautiful to witness. And even though I said he felt annoying at the start, it was extremely refreshing to finally see a guy who isn’t an asshole when it comes to picking a girl. He is loyal, and considerate, and just because of that, the romance aspect was so fun to read through. And don’t worry, even though I said he’s loyal, it won’t spoil anything to you, because even if you think you know who’s he gonna pick, it still makes you tense and hopeful. I also really liked Mikasa for no reason (: Fuuka was just overall loveable character, no need to say more. The other supporting characters all had their personality, and it never felt like they acted against it just for the sake of the plot. Overall Having chapters just 18-20 pages long was probably the best decision the author could have made. Every chapter was either ending on a cliffhanger, or it was a nicely wrapped satisfying ending to an arc, which made you really want to read more. “Come on, I can do another one, the next chapter is short, it won’t take a lot of time.” You think to yourself, but then you realize it’s 2AM and you have to work tomorrow. The flow this manga has is just phenomenal. This, the story, philosophical message, tears, epic journey, and likeable characters wrapped up together gives you the manga Fuuka. A manga which will most probably stick with me for a long time. And for that reason, it gets a 10/10 from me. It’s not perfect ofc, but the enjoyment from reading it, is just way too great, and it overshines all the little mistakes. Now I’m gonna watch the adaptation, and I feel like I’m gonna be really disappointed, but who knows. After that, I’m definitely reading the other side stories, and I hope to feel the same enjoyment. *SPOILER SEGMENT* *SERIOUSLY, DON’T READ THIS UNLESS YOU’VE READ THE WHOLE STORY* The reason I love Mikasa’s character is because he’s not a wimpy girlish homosexual character. He’s really cool, and If I was gay and read this manga, I’d feel like I have to be proud of who I’m. However, the plot twist where he gets together with his female teacher, revealing he’s actually bi, felt like a huge asspull. We didn’t get a lot of information on Mikasa’s thoughts during the series, so I feel like it could happen IRL, but pull something like this without any foreshadowing just felt unnecessary. Especially when it had literally no impact on the story. Another asspull was the last arc. It felt a little too extreme that a business female would go that far to destroy a minor band, just because they caused a little trouble at their concert. It feels even more extreme when you realize that Funbook actually didn’t suffer from it at all, if they still won the competition. Also, the Fuuka’s double wasn’t really my cup of tea. It made me feel nostalgic and sad, yes, but the explanation of why she did it felt once again, a bit extreme to me. Another one was Fuuka Aoi blaming herself for Akitsuki’s death. And the last asspull, “The legends”. Somehow, every single person that works with Fallen Moon or Blue Wells is a legendary something. First the Hedgehogs, the president of the company, then the music engineer, then her best pupil, and last but not least, out of nowhere appears the legendary Pa team, which was under their noses the whole time. But as I’ve said in the review, these are just mistakes, that are overshadowed by the enjoyment I’ve head reading this. At the end I’d like to express my thoughts on Fuuka’s death. The aspect of having to get over a loss of your partner, that was present surprisingly throughout most of the manga just gave it an extra depth. The grieving process Yuu had to go through felt really natural, and him realizing it doesn’t feel right to ever love someone else than his dead girlfriend was truly saddening, because I knew he deserved to be happy. Finally, after a while he realizes that he does deserve to be happy, and that he can’t live a full life if he stays hooked up on the past. As I’ve said, this whole storyline gave the story a lot of depth, and I can’t express how much I loved it (even though I was sad as fuck when she died, it really feels weird to say that I’m happy she did). *END OF SPOILERS* Yep, I’d definitely recommend this manga to anyone who loves romance or music. I’ll probably remember this manga for the rest of my life.