Kimi to Koi ni Ochiru Mahou de

"Fall in Love With You, Just like Magic" is a 6 chapter shoujo, slice of life, romance read about our heroine Ousawa Miko who is a keener for breads, cakes and all things baked, which I personally found a tad mediocre and uninspired. Her journey about discovering her passion, following through on it despite the challenges she faces and the eventual relationships she forges has it's moments which are unexpectedly cute or doki-doki but overall reads like a formulaic shoujo trope. Boy meets girl, boy and girl are neighbours AND working together and dull romance ensues slowly despite the ridiculous amount and intensity of timethey spend together! Art is just OK, a bit pointy and dated. Nothing new or unexpectedly cute about it. It's not annoying or shabby, just terribly simplistic, unoriginal both in art and dialogues and expressions. Direction of plot has potential and is commendable in bits, but not something you'll carry forward with you an hour after. Characters, both lead and secondary seem a little interchangeable. While in the beginning you get a feeling that they'll each have their own story to tell and entertain you with their unique personality quirks, you soon realise the author may have just used them as filler and chooses to keep them in or out of the main story as she whimsically desires, with no thought for how they may affect the main plot. The romance seems thrown in for romance sake; it carries a more naive, loud mouthed shoujo feel than any other genre. While there are the occasional honest and heartwarming moments, they are overshadowed by the raging typical-ness of the story and its overall execution. I had trouble focusing or feeling deeply for any of the characters three chapters in and after a while, just wished the oddly paced story would conclude already. While there is a lot of potential for this story to be cute, in art, feel and dialogues I feel the story can seriously benefit from another artist taking charge and the author working on weaving more novel situations and intricate conversations into the mix, invoking more passionate expressions from the characters and creating a richer tone to engage the readers. I would not recommend this read for seasoned romance audiences but newer shoujo enthusiasts may appreciate the uncomplicated characters and unadorned execution.