I've never, ever been a Shoujo Girl. To me, it was all the same; unrealistic, over-the-top and generally ridiculous. But, being a bit of a hopeless romantic, I dip my toes in genre every now and again. I've found a lot of gems, and even more garbage. When searching for something new to watch or read, it is always so great to find something that is EXACTLY what you were looking for. Tonari no Kaibutsu-Kun is everything I've ever wanted from a shoujo manga.

-Story- 10
In the cookie-cutter world of shoujo, Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun is refreshingly different. The super-nerdy girl and the violent but kind-hearted guy are two characters who would normally just pushed to the side as friends to the main character. But here they get a chance to shine. What I love most about this story is how realistic it feels. You can really understand the main characters and they are much more relatable than the standard shoujo pair. It also deals with deeper emotions like how everybody wants to feel like they belong. Not everybody falls in love on the spot. Sometimes it takes some internal battling and self-revelations to realize what you really want. Change is not only good, but sometimes necessary to make you happy. Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun touches on all of these ties them up in a extremely sweet and supremely funny story.

-Art- 9
There is not much to say about the art really. It is very good, but nothing spectacular or ground-breaking. It is clean and pleasant to look at. It has that more realistic look (that I am so very fond of), so no googly eyes that take up 5/6 of the face or vaguely infantile proportions.

-Characters- 10,
All of the characters are pretty likable, even the egotistic, elitist, snobby, rich- boy has his merits. There will always be someone you love/ grow to like. There is also a good variety of character types, so you never feel like all 37 main characters are the same, despite their slightly different hairstyles.

-Enjoyment- 10
Tonari is nothing if not enjoyable. It's a bit addicting to read, I pushed aside my mountain of essays just to keep reading (I regret nothing). I can't understand how you couldn't like it, even if was only a little. The emotions are genuine, and the jokes are actually funny. The characters are very lovable and you will attach to one quickly. The art is great and the pacing is appropriate. What more could you want?

-Overall- 9.5
I would recommend this to anyone who just wants a good story, be you an manga fan or not.