Ao haru ride is the story about a girl who was too cute and as such was ostracized in middle school. This also resulted in her unable to confess to her crush as well. So she changes her image to be more unattractive. So she can more easily get with the girls. But she meets the boy she was in love with back in highschool. Now the story unravels as she decides to become more herself and possibly reignite a love that was never ignited in the first place.

The series is better and underwhelming than i expected. It doesn't have anything that grabs your attention but it is interesting to watch unfold nonetheless. What surprised was how well the love triangle was done. The author did a good job making me want to root for both of the characters. Another thing i enjoyed was the MMC's growth. This series is somewhat known for people relating to the FMC's personal growth (Which means women are really into smelling necks), But i thought the MMC's growth was done really well. You could see him becoming a genuinely better person and i thought the author did an excellent making it not feel forced and natural.

When i watched the anime i wasn't really all that hot on the main love triangle. But the dude really grew on me. He was probably my favorite character in the series by the end of it. The other characters are really good too. Especially the short haired chick. She was adorable. I really liked all her interactions. The black haired chick was pretty nice too. Really every character was generally good to really good. The only character that didn't work was the *relatable* chick for the MMC. She just felt hollow. In fact she kinda pulled down the MMC's backstory too. But overall in terms of character development the author did a good job. Its noticeable but not in your face type. Its enough to be satisfying as well (most of the time).

Despite all the heavy praise im giving this series. This simply did not grab me. Especially in the middle where the dating aspect just felt drawn out. It wasn't bad but in the end it felt pointless. Other issues like the art not being as good. Some of the romantic interactions were wasted (most were good though). Honestly just in general im not impressed with this series. It does some things right but those are the things every series should be doing anyway. In the end the series is satisfying but if you walk you from this series you aren't missing anything.

TLDR: Sadly this isn't the goat romance that someone kept spamming me those words was. It is however pretty fun. 6/10 good time killer. The character development instead of ascending the series into 7/10 really solidified it to a 6/10