Hiyokoi

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Another reread of a manga that I read back in High-School... let's get right into the review.

Story; Hiyori Nishiyama, an extremely tiny and anxiously shy girl starts school a year later than everyone in her grade else because of hospitalization. When she finally musters up a like bit of courage to come back, she ends up hiding under the teachers desk during her introduction and getting interrupted by the extremely tall extravert Yuushin Hirose. The two are the exact opposites in every aspect, but like the saying goes... "opposites attract", and it this case it was for the best of reasons. Watch the students mature, ... discover what it's like to truly love someone and how to cherish every moment you can with the people around you. Art; The illustration style suited the manga for the time it game out. There seemed to be improvements with the illustrations as well after the second or third volume. Characters; I remembering loving Hiyori back in High-School. The weak and timid girl with an amazing group of friends, somehow gets the most popular guy in school to fall in love with her. Rereading this now... I still LIKE her, but the fact that she had SO LITTLE CONFIDENCE at the most random of times kinda pissed me off and made me feel "Uggghhh, this again for the 60th time this series". I'm always going to like the sweet/fluffy female character, but it would've been nice if at some point she was able to stray away from her fears.

Overall, I'm happy I reread this series. I watched the anime adaptations (which were more like OVAs or ONAs) and thought I should give this a go again.
This was a good series a few years ago (especially when I was in High-School), but it didn't again well. Thankfully the male lead was a gentleman all the way through, every side character (even the teachers) had a happy ending... BUT what happened to our main couple besides starting their dream job??? Promised marriage??? Children??? Did they move in together???

If you're looking for High-School Romance Manga, I would highly suggest:
- Horimiya
- Fruits Basket (romance, fantasy, supernatural and MUCH MORE)
- Kimi ni Todoke
- Strobe Edge
- Kitchen Princess (Cooking and lost love??? Helllooooo)
- Ohayou, Ibarahime (age is High-School students, but not much of a school setting)
- Ore Monogatari!!

This manga is something. I mean that both in the good and bad ways, there's the moments where I can really feel something insanely well rounded and polished for a shojo manga and then there's the moments where I simply want to skip chapters due to being unable to follow the story or having some major plot points not revealed to the characters even though they were revealed to us.

To avoid spoilers I won't go too in depth but there are various scenes where it feels like it's setting up the conflict with multiple layers and it seemingly forgets about it. Along with that the ... main character doesn't FEEL like she changes, though it pushes the narrative that it does, her actions may change or vary a little bit but in the end she still feels like the same character from when she was 20 chapters in.

The other problem I have is less to do with this manga specifically and more shojo manga, they rarely show any vulnerable emotion from the male MC. I get it being directed towards young girls so maybe Im just not the audience.

Besides all that, the characters are great, Ritsuka is by far my favorite and a lot of them have genuine defining character changes and aren't confined to a single quirk that defines them, though some background characters are.

The plot is great, they have some early foreshadowing and plot elements that affect the later parts greatly and all in all its pretty damn good.

*Review contains spoilers*

Story 6/10
This story doesn't have anything particularly too interesting or out of the ordinary. Nothing really major or surprising happens, it is not a life changing manga, however, I liked this story. It is a cute and light romance to follow, a very easy and enjoyable read. I really liked the main character's size difference as I think this is something very relatable to for people all ages. The manga had it funny moments (like whenever Yuushin would have to squat in order to be able to hug or kiss Hiyori). I did find somethings like extra, unnecessary and annoying (such as Hiyori ... being extremely shy and self-conscious with Yuushin, the whole drama between Ritsuka and Hiyori; still can't believe long life friends would simply treat each other like that instead of talking things over, although I did find Ritsuka feelings understandable. Also Akiho wanting to kill herself and wanting to make Hiyori break up with Yuushin for no reason since she liked Kisaki? I really don't see why this character was added in such a somber way.)
Side note: so it seems Hiyori had a major accident that put her out of school for a very long time but other than the first day of school it was never mentioned again? not even a question by someone? like, nobody was interested into knowing what happened or even if she had any permanent consequences after the accident? she did not feel the need to talk about it, ever? So, you are telling me Hiyori is alive by a miracle but not even a finger was hanging in a weird angle, not a limp, no therapy?

Art 6/10
Art looked OK to me, I have seen better, I have seen worse. It wasn't painful in the eyes or too beautiful to handle.

Characters 7/10
Hiyori: so...where to begin? I must say I didn't find her super annoying or stupid or anything like that. I think she is likable. However, I did find her excessive shyness and self-consciousness around Yuushin too much (note the word excessive?). How is it possible Hiyorin and Yuushin dated for a whole year but she still felt uncomfortable kissing or holding hands? and, how is it possible Hiyori is so clumsy that she keeps tripping on herself? In my opinion, this was overdone throughout the story. To me, Hiyori is the least interesting of all characters.
Yuushin: He, on the other hand, saves the manga! I found Yuusin charming and for once I could understand the lead male being so popular, not just because he is the lead, but because he was actually funny, goofy, friendly and pretty much did as he pleased without really thinking about looking good or interesting to other people. He wasn't idolized or presented as unattainable. He is basically someone you would like to be friends with. This guy is soooo patient with Hiyori (dating someone you can't hold hands with, kiss or even compliment without it getting awkward or being an issue?). I think it was cute how Yuushin was as inexperienced as Hiyori in love despite being so popular.
I really liked the other characters, specially Ritsuka and Kou. Richan was very energetic and Kou was so sarcastic that I found him too amusing. At times I wasn't sure about their pairing, with Ritsuka going the extra mile for him and Kou barely following, but I preferred them over having a whole love triangle further develop with Yuushi-Hiyori-Kou. I also found funny these little hints people would make regarding Natsuki being homosexual, when she in fact was not but never tried to clarify so or seemed bothered by it, and when she does find a boyfriend, he seems to be on the very sensitive side (contrary to her).

Enjoyment 7/10
Again, I like reading and this was a cute story to invest time on. I am actually going to miss reading this. Life changing? No. Entertaining? Yes. I didn't feel like dropping it at any point.

Overall 6/10