KOUYA NO KOI review

Bluesander4
Apr 06, 2021
With romance being always in demand in the recommendations section this oughtta have more reviews. As for me, I think it’s one of the better examples of shoujo romance, and I say that as not a big fan of the genre.

The whole story has a novel (book) feel to it, both in terms of overcomplicated circumstances of the heroes and in quality of writing. Also in sense of meta-reflection – the father of the main heroine is a romance writer and tries to live romance. But you’ll know more of his "writing", when you read this yourself. As for the writing in the manga - it is good: well-paced, clever, full of references and with occasional bouts of fresh air, which is something for a genre milked for so long.

The story is about coming of age. I avoid the term buildungsroman, cause the focus is on the maturing of a woman – the changes in body, first interest in sex, understanding of female role in relationships. We meet the protagonist, when she is 12, completely innocent, shy, but with conflicted impression on love because of her family. She is a good company for a reader – sweet, but not too saccharine, intelligent, curious in her own way and introspective. Her love interest is also a pretty interesting boy – wildish and intelligent, although I feel that it would've been better to know more of him.

The art is very pretty and it supports the story well. There’re moments of sheer brilliance in the “wilderness” frames (one of them you see on the cover). I don’t say much here, but it’s really good, albeit very shoujo – airy backgrounds, pretty and delicate features, huge eyes.

The biggest warning I may give to people is the message for the girls this work carries. I am not sure it won’t rile up the more emancipated western readers (I was bothered in some moments, to be honest). The other slight problem is the ending – the composition of the last volume is, maybe, not ideal.

But these are very high-level problems, as you see. They are standing problems, of course, since the better the work, the higher the standard. Yet this is undoubtedly head above most of the romance crap we’re being thrown anyway. Read it and analyze for yourself – at least there are things to analyze, I tell’ya.
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KOUYA NO KOI
KOUYA NO KOI
Auteur Sakuraba Kazuki
Artiste Takahashi Mako