Edit 3: I just reread this series, binged it in the middle of night and it's now 9am. Fuck me, this is still such an excellent 10/10 series. Incredible incredible work. I haven't read any of her other things, even though it's been over 13 years since I was blown away by this one. if anyone knows a story she wrote that hits this hard, please tell me.
I read this back in December last year, so I'll keep this short as I probably don't enough to go in detail (also, I have a cold).
I find most shoujo mildly entertaining at best. There are some good comedies out there but the drama in the ones i've read are often mediocre. [EDIT 2: It's 2024, I'm reading a 11.5 year old review and there's a larger selection of shoujo and I no longer hold this view. This still may be the best of all-time, though]
This series is in my top 3 shoujo (alongside Oresama Teacher). In fact, it may be my favourite. It's simply amazing. I love these type of stories that deal with insecurities ad damaged people. I love seeing how they heal, how often they encounter the catalyst by pure chance. Keito's innocence was completely believable too.
Another thing. The time-skip in this series was done extremely well. I would've liked to see more of what happened during those years but...yah, it was well done.
I originally rated this 8.8. I'm bumping this up a bit though. It's one of the few series i actually feel like re-reading.
I never read Hana Yori Dango, sounded kinda interesting but ultimately cliche. After reading this though (same mangaka) I've got to get round to that. [edit 3: still haven't 😛 not sure if i ever will]
EDIT 1: I'm bumping this up to a 10. Really, when I think 'great shoujo' this is the first one that comes to mind as the others I've read are either incomplete or inferior but this kept the quality up the whole way through.
