You're surely familiar with the set up -- the shy, anxious, unstylish, bullied girl tries to fit in at her new school, and she ends up getting a crush on one of the popular boys who helps her to fit in.

These stories all suffer from the same potential pitfalls: 1. A boring protagonist 2. Failing to convince the audience why the popular boy would be interested in her 3. Spending too much time on the romance and not enough on the girl's own achievements.

I will say Honey Lemon Soda does try to address these problems... eventually... But it does take a while to get there. I also feel like it's a little bit shy of being completely successful at it. I liked that protagonist Uka does definitely grow as a character. But still she's awfully bland. She does manage to achieve some things on her own, but the most important one, that is, getting friends OTHER than her crush, is just too thinly written. I really want to see a character like this be happy having cute friendship moments with her new friends, because that's the most major thing a person like this is lacking. If it does happen in Honey Lemon Soda, it's mostly off screen.

In conclusion, I'd say Honey Lemon Soda is pretty solid, but not amazing.