Reading shoujo manga, at one point of time, was almost a hobby of mine, something that I enjoyed tremendously. I could read almost anything and everything that the genre had to offer, irrespective of how good, bad (or downright horrible) that piece of work was. The obsession was relatively short lived though, thanks to the gradual loss of interest in the genre. Through the course of pursuing this guilty pleasure activity, I came across works that could be passed off as decent and those which made me feel like I might punch my computer screen in disgust if I read any further.

Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu without a doubt falls rightfully in the latter category for me. Yeah, you get the drift; get ready for the rant.

If I have to sum up this manga in one word, then it is ‘atrocious’. It is your clichéd, run of the mill shoujo story without any substance or sensible development; rather it only keeps getting worse with every chapter. Actually, there’re better stories out there with more or less the same setting and plot but this one is so bad that even calling it ‘mediocre’ is unimaginable, in my case at least. Throw in a bunch of shallow, stereotypical characters of the worst sort and you have the recipe for a horrendous piece that is Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu.

Speaking of the characters, Tsubaki Hibino, frankly speaking, is one of the most infuriating shoujo manga heroines I have come across. She was somewhat likable in the beginning when she actually had a backbone and didn’t let her guards down before the male lead but that façade of her wears off in the blink of an eye when one morning she wakes up and the realization dawns upon her that she is in fact madly in love with Tsubaki Kyouta, the male protagonist of the story and an equally annoying character who appears to suffer from something called the jerk syndrome. He is your clichéd, school’s heartthrob with a nasty personality and yet girls dig him because he is just so hawt! The other characters, if there are any that is, are more or less bystanders. Oh wait. Did I mention Hibino’s sister? She pulled off her role of the ‘bitchy rival’ in this incredible love story pretty well. I will give her that.

The artwork is the only aspect of this manga I can rate a bit high in comparison to everything else it has to offer. There is the typical shoujo feel to it but it is well done nonetheless.

For some reason, this manga is actually admired by many people which comes as a surprise to me. Well, whatever said and done, I am no one to question their taste. But now that I contemplate, I wonder why I even went through the trouble of reading those 13 chapters. Was I that bored and jobless? Possible. That or I, somewhere deep inside me, was wishing for something good to happen in the story, only to be utterly disappointed as it did not even come close to anything that would make me feel optimistic about it. The bottom line is, Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu is by no means worth recommending to anyone who is looking for a decent piece to read. You might pick it up if you wish to pass your time but if you ask me, I would suggest you to look for something else.

-Dissection of the score-
Story: 3 | Art: 6 | Character: 2 | Enjoyment: 2| Overall: 3

[This review is an edited and improvised version of the original review posted on October 16, 2011]