Ao Haru Ride

Okay, this manga is just so fantastic. I ended up taking notes as I read it(on my opinion, that is). I must say that I'm upset that mangareader.net only goes up to chapter 13, though. It had such a nice ending chapter, but I want chapter 14!



Plot [From Mangareader.net]
Yoshioka Futaba has a few reasons why she wants to “reset” her image and life as a new high-school student. Because she’s cute, she was ostracized by her female friends in junior high, and because of a misunderstanding, she couldn’t get her feeling across to the one boy she has always liked, Tanaka-kun. Now in high school, she is determined to be as unladylike as possible so that her friends won’t be jealous of her. While living her life this way contentedly, she meets Tanaka-kun again, but he now goes under the name of Mabuchi Kou. He tells her that he felt the same way as she did when they were younger, but now things can never be the same again. Will Futaba be able to continue her love that never even started from three years ago?







Now, I really love the drawing style. I love the story, though the "start fresh in high school" thing got boring after I saw it in more than one manga. Anyway, I must admit that I really love the shading and detail I see in the chapters. I also loved in chapter 6 when Kou and Yoshioka were saying the same thing, the bubbles were layered. So, you see both shout lines from Yoshioka and a regular speech bubble from Kou. It's really nice.

For characters...

Yay! Found a profile for Yoshioka!

Yoshioko is a nice character to have. I enjoy how she had the past of being disliked by the girls in her class and then became friends with a girl who was having the same problem. I also enjoy how she is always thinking about how his neck looks. It's cute. ^.^
She also seems to have the problem of questioning whether she should do something. Like speak up for someone or volunteer for a position. I have the same problem, and usually the coward half of me wins. So, it's nice to see her fight off the coward side enough to do something. ^.^

I suggest anyone interested in learning about Kou drag this to the bar at the top to see its full size!

Kou had a childish touch that was really sweet when he was in middle school. And then his parents divorced and his mother died. He changed his name and seemed to change his personality in general. Even so, his kindness peeks out. I really love that. I mean, I imagine his life was nice up until the ground collapsed from under him. I also love how he held in his problems, not letting anyone know of how he felt. Not letting anyone know about the sadness he had when he learned his mom had cancer. And then he just let it out in chapter 13(nice spot for Mangareader.net to run out of chapters...)

Yuuri

Yuuri is okay. I guess her personality was confusing to me at first. I ended up guessing "Loner who is really sad but doesn't have the guts to be any different." I was really close. She enjoys having friends, so she's not really a loner. Other than that, I don't really have much to say on her. Though, I like how small she is. That adds to the cute look that she had in her first year of high school.

Murao

Murao isn't really introduced. All of a sudden she is there. So, I was confused what exactly she would have a role of. I guessed rival, but then I realized her role wasn't that at all. I actually enjoy her being in the manga. It's a nice touch.

Kaminato

Finally, Kaminato. I really love how he is always talking about how he wouldn't be rude to girls or make them do things. And then with how he is so friendly. Finally, when a few guys say that they thought Kou only got into advanced classes because of his brother(who is a teacher) and Kaminato flipped out, I decided he is definitely one of my fave characters! Actually...at this point, he's the only character I can honestly call a favorite. :P

Fave scene in the manga by far!!!