*Spoilers*

I'm not sure if this review will be helpful to people who want to know if they should read this, rather this was just my thoughts on the series as a whole.

So before I go into the problems with it, I want to explain some of the things that I had found good about the series.

The plot:
The plot is rather simple, however that is not necessarily a bad thing. Manga often have a simple plot, and that is not bad. It is rather how the story/plot is executed. And I have heard people say the plot is cliche, but so is the plot to Hunger Games, yet it is popular. So once again, it is not the degree of cliche or simple, but rather the execution. And I will get into that soon.

The Positives (ig, idk what to title this part):
When I had initially picked up this series about a student-teacher relationship, I had thought that it was going to be really bad, sort of like how incest manga have me often questioning the author's morals. However I was pleasantly surprised. The author was somehow able to take a concept, often seen as horrible, and make it ok. (I mean, teacher-student relationships they are actually really bad, but while reading the manga it didn't make me feel like it was wrong.) One thing it did well that I think help aid it's ok-ness, was that it was not an immediate relationship. Too often in these type of manga does the teacher immediately take an interest in the student whether that resulted in flirting or what not. However because of that it always felt as though the teacher was being a creep, or it gave off predator vibes. Luckily in this manga, that did not happen. And the sparks were much slower. With the teacher (Satsuki) questioning his qualifications to be a teacher when he began feeling emotions for Suzume (his student). Which I feel is very important to note. Because if you are a teacher who developes feelings for a student, and you don't question yourself, then I would NOT want my children around you. In reality, the relationship progressing should not have happened, because, ew, it's a teacher hitting on a student. However, this is a manga, so of course it had to, or else why would the book have been written in the first place. And I believe that the progression of it was good on the author's part. It was slow, helping it feel a bit more real, and it quickly had me rooting for Satsuki and Suzume to have a happy ending. The two of them even had their ups and downs, with Satsuki even once lying to her about how he felt because he knew that his feelings might hurt her in the long run. But I feel that after that, the manga began a slow downfall.

The Problems I had with it:
First of all, I really disliked Mamura and Suzume being together, it just felt so forced and unnecessary. It had been pretty shoved in, since Mamura before that had never been touched upon, other than that he hated girls. Which by the way, felt so....stupid? Idk, when I had initially read that I immediately disliked him and felt that he would be the average tsundere boy. I couldn't help but feel that the author was trying to avoid a 'creepy' ending with the teacher and student together, so she instead forced the two students together. And especially after the author had built most of the story around Satsuki and Suzume, it just felt like I was, as a reader, being cheated out of the emotional ending that the author had initially set up. Like, now that my feelings were all invested in these two characters, the author was just going to throw all of it out of the window to get the ending that wasn't creepy? Idk, it just didn't feel right. Like the whole point was that even though they were a student and teacher, that they could over come this emotional hurdle. One point that I would like to bring up, would be when Suzume's uncle tells Satsuki that he needs to end his relationship with Suzume, because to her, it's an emotional teenage crush, while to him, an adult, who's already gone through highschool and college, it's much bigger. As he, an experienced adult in both the work and relationship world, could easily end up hurting her. And I think that this is a very important point. Because, yes, with their relationship, who knows what emotional turmoil Suzume could go though, since she is still a developing teen. And I think the author may have used this as an excuse to not have Suzume and Satsuki end up together, and instead have her be with Mamura. However, I believe it had the opposite effect. With the uncle's point and explanation, yes, it showed why adults should not take advantage of young teenagers' emotions, but it also could've been used as a hurdle that Suzume and Satsuki would have to overcome, helping cement their relationship. And we later even learn that Satsuki is serious about her, and is willing to do whatever he needs to have her, as he does not want to hurt her. So yeah with the ending, it felt similar to when an author kills off a good character. They just kinda take your emotions, stomp on them a few times, light them on fire, and then chuck them out a window. And usually a character is killed for a reason pertaining to the plot, like progressing it or helping the protagonist have some emotional baggage. Except in this case, it felt like the character had been killed off for no good reason, other than to not make the author look bad if they had been kept alive.

In terms of characters, I can't say much because It's been a while since I read the manga (which in part is why I have not been referencing too many specifics in the book) but I just remember that most of the characters were a bit too bland for my taste. Overall, the manga was good up until a certain point *cough* Mamura *cough* and I'm disappointed in the ending. I think that even if Suzume had not ended up with Satsuki, that Mamura and her could've been a good match if done correctly. However it was not, and instead was rushed and forced. So I mean, I'm a bit iffy on this manga. I enjoyed it for a certain time, and read it all within 2 days simply because I was intrigued to see what would happen. Anyways, sorry for rambling, and thanks for coming to my Ted talk.