Kimi ni Todoke

I just had to write a review for this story, because even though it's not over yet, I am shocked by how addicted to it I am. The story is pretty simple, and not uncommon: girl has few friends. girl meets popular guy with lots of friends. girl slowly makes friends + develops crush on boy. When I read the summary for this manga, I think I rolled my eyes at the thought of a manga based on the fact that someone looked like a character from a horror movie. How could that be believable at all?

It totally was.

What makes this manga different? It's really hard to put my finger on, but for some reason, even though it's a common story, this author has made it draw me in with the most refreshing characters and most realistic situations I have seen in a long time. Simply put, the characters are honest and real, the situations are believable and cute, not exaggerated and fantasized. At any time when you are reading, you'll put yourself in a place where you can put yourself in the place of a character... Sawako or her friends or even the girl who can't understand what Kazehaya can see in someone like Sawako. As the story continues along, the characters stay true to their roots, while being exciting and fun to read about at the same time.

Also, the author is excellent at writing the romantic side of the story in a way that while it is constantly touched on, but never becomes the sole focus of the plot. It's so exciting to see a romance that isn't focused on the couple, but on a character's journey though the world into romance and school and life in general.

The art is nothing to call home about, but it is nice and cleanly drawn.

I have really high hopes for the rest of the volumes and the conclusion. If the author keeps writing how she has been, I have no worries.

[ STORY | 9 ]
I have yet to come across another manga with the same level of truthfulness and honesty as Kimi ni Todoke. This gem explores the lightness of a high school romance, as well as the problems that come with it.
Readers will definitely swoon and sigh with the characters as they go through the happiest years of their lives. There are times when the characters experience some small misunderstandings and go through some petty fights, but they were incredibly realistic and relatable as well.
Aside from that, we also see the struggles of graduating high school students as they begin to choose their career paths. As I just graduated from high school last year, I found this aspect to be practical, and I related to the characters so much.

[ ART | 9 ]
The art really brings the characters to life. I love how there's a magical feeling in every scene, which is definitely perfect for the high school romance vibe.
The characters are also drawn exceptionally well, and it's easy to distinguish everyone from each other. Their chibi versions are adorable as heck.

[ CHARACTERS | 10 ]
I adored how each character has his/her own strong, unique personality. In particular, we have our main characters, Sawako and Kazehaya.
Sawako's sweet and charming, and it's so easy to relate to her insecurities and anxiety. Readers will want nothing more than to cheer her on!
Kazehaya, on the other hand, is preppy and outgoing. I love how realistically his character was portrayed as well--he's genuinely a nice person, but he knows his flaws and isn't afraid to show them.

[ ENJOYMENT | 8 ]
There were a few storylines I preferred more than others. Ryu and Chizuru's romancic subplot, in particular, was one I needed much more of. I adored Kazehaya and Sawako's innocent love story as well. I wish Ayane's story was less all-over-the-place, though.

[ OVERALL | 9 ]
I didn't feel like I read over a hundred chapters. Reading this manga was a breeze, and I absolutely loved every second of it. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a light story that still makes a lot of sense.

This has got to be my favorite manga... granted I haven't read many, but this manga has you rooting for the main character, who has the most innocent, sweet, and sometimes painfully honest personality... she's a hard worker, a genuine friend, and an admirable person overall.

STORY: This may look like your typical romantic story, but it really isn't. The main char is quite unique, where she basically kinda scares everyone around her cuz of her similarity to the girl from The Ring, but you find yourself totally drawn to her and cheering for her as she grows as an individual... it's a really touching story, not just romantically. For anyone who is even slightly introverted or shy, you can just imagine yourself in her shoes and flourish with her! =)

So not only are you following her through her development as a person, learning to open herself up to others, to make friends, to smile... you then start to follow her romantic story as well as the stories of the people around her, who you also will develop attachments too. Every character has a loveable side, as well as flaws, so it's all very realistic and the dynamics of the story are believable and enjoyable.

The way she understands and interprets things is really comedic and unique sometimes, and causes quite a bit of mess sometimes. There's never a dull moment in this manga, and it's just a really touching story with awesome characters.

ART: I think the art is something to get used to kinda, but I love the doll versions of people - the artwork can be quite comedic at times. =D The art is drawn so that you just find yourself staring at each page because it just fills your heart with joy, happiness, love, and all those warm gushy feelings. You really get drawn into the art, no page is wasted, and it just sucks you into the story like you're really in it... it's amazing!!

Oh, and if you watched the anime through season 2, I believe the last ep is ~ chapter 42 of the manga, with Kurumi. So, if you need a starting point to continue the story, that'd be it. But I recommend starting from chapter 40......... =)

Okay, up for a second review. This might be long than I thought. Okay, so Kimi ni Todoke is your simple and satisfying manga. Not the best, not the worst.

It may sometimes leave some readers unsatisfied with the misunderstandings happening and revolving around the story, but this is just natural, and on learns to get used to it. The story is simple, and just every girl's life-style, inlove, unable to confess, likes of the different likes. Pretty to think so, that this just show's how every girl like Sawako is trapped in this situation. The Characters may sometimes be uncool because of the misunderstandings happening, still, one learns to accept the fact.. that it's just showing what every person in the real human life would do.

Every event happening here is happening there. A simple life-style manga, you called. The story never goes out of it's simplicity. Simple, yet natural, and complicated, we can bear with it. It's our own life too. As I go back again, some scenes may be unsatisfying and seems to be 'unfair' and drastic, but in the end, like we always do, we get a reward from a punishment we made. And the reward shall be everlasting happiness. The story is just very open for everyone to see what's really hidden inside what our life is now.

This may sound weird, but whatever we are, we always tell ourselves how real and possible this could be. This is everyone's story people, this manga is telling us how idiots we are and just like in a simple, in what we will do in this situation. Better understanding, better learning. :D

-Furei Ren

I've already written a review for this series, but I wrote it when I was tired and not thinking well enough to create very coherent thoughts, so this is me trying again.

You know what? I love this series to pieces, and my love for it only increases each time I read. I've scored all four of the categories Story, Art, Character and Enjoyment fairly high, but only one of them is the reason for my shameless adoration of the manga (and its anime adaptation, but I'm not reviewing that right now), and that would be its characters.

That's not to say that I love all of them. But I can safely say that this series holds some of the most entertaining, interesting and original characters I've ever read about...which is funny, as most of them seem to be based on common archetypes.
We have the shy, misunderstood loner; the popular chick-magnet she falls for; the hyperactive tomboy; the quiet, apathetic guy; the mature and worldly wise girl, and a number of other fairly well-worn character clichés.

And yet it's the way that the characters are developed far beyond what their moulds would initially make them out to be that makes Kimi ni Todoke really shine. They are so much more than what they may initially seem in the first few volumes, and so are the relationships between them.

This being primarily a romance manga (in the technical sense of the word, anyway, but I'll go into that later), character interaction and development of relationships is obviously a very important element, and, due to the brilliance of the characters, it's handled incredibly well. Love - romantic, platonic or an entirely different - is never easy to understand or handle, and the series does a great job of handling that realistically whilst keeping just enough light-hearted fluff and comedy in the equation so as not to let things become melancholy and exhausting.

But still, realistic it is. Sawako and Kazehaya find expressing their feelings difficult to the extent where any chances they have at love are often poorly handled or missed entirely; Ryu and Chizu have such a strong friendship that Ryu's romantic feelings for her are naturally approached with the expected caution; Kurumi is in love with a boy who's never noticed her back (and, unless the plot takes a shocking twist, never will); Ayane finds it difficult to feel true love and isn't sure that she deserves it anyway.
The relationship progression between all of the characters is slow - sometimes painfully so - but it's amazingly rewarding because the next steps feel much, much sweeter as a result.

So, to wrap up: is this series perfect? No, not at all! Sometimes the pacing is a little inconsistent - potentially deeper storylines are occasionally rushed, whilst some of the more tedious ones are dragged out to a ridiculous extent. At points, the chibi forms of the characters are overused, killing what may have previously been a serious or emotional scene and creating severe mood whiplash. The love bubbles everywhere are very pretty, but sometimes they only serve to make an already cute scene almost too sickly-sweet. And it's slow moving, very slow moving, to a point where things are *horrendously* frustrating at times (although I wouldn't call this a flaw persay, since it does mean we get a lot of relationship development; still, if you don't have a lot of patience and you aren't prepared to really commit to a series, then maybe this isn't for you).

And yet these flaws all fall into insignificance, because I can safely say that I would far rather put up with those and spend time with characters I can't help but love to pieces than, well, not.

Kimi ni Todoke is a romance manga, and yet it is about so much more than that; it's about friendship, it's about overcoming social difficulties, it's about moving on after times have been rough, it's about being true to yourself, it's about loving and caring and hurting and growing up and learning and being honest and so much more that comes with being alive. It's funny and cute and sometimes sad, and no, it's not perfection. It's probably nowhere near as amazing as I think it to be.

But as far as high school dramas go, it's one of the best out there. And I'd advise anyone who wants to read something that will make them smile and giggle and feel things to pick it up, because it's well worth a shot.

*Review contains spoilers*

Story 9/10
I think, at least in my experience, that it is rare to find a literary work where you can actually follow people's life for a long period of time and remain interested until the end. What I loved about this manga is that we saw the whole process of Sawako knowing the others, they all becoming friends, beginning relationships, falling in love, struggling in their relationships, Sawako finally being able to express herself without fears and how each characters' life path likely concludes. I think this manga will be very interesting to people that like slice of life style. I read the manga after watching the anime, because the story is so well told and developed that I really needed to see what happened next. The manga did not disappoint, and actually gets a higher score than the anime because of the many details we didn't get to see in the anime, as usually happens with adaptations (however, I must say, I think Kimi Ni Todoke is one of the most faithful adaptation to its original source that I have ever seen! you can literally start the manga where the anime left off and you wouldn't be missing anything at all..I had to double check myself though). You know, this manga might not have the most original script, but the story is so consistently well presented, that it does seem unique within is genre.

Art 10/10
So, I haven't read much manga, but I found the drawings in this manga to be absolutely beautiful and captivating. I usually prefer anime than manga because the drawings are more realistic, however, in this manga, if you could add soundtrack, and voices, it would feel totally like watching an anime.

Characters 10/10
I have never seen a show or movie, or read a book where ALL characters were so likable and would make you interested into knowing more about them. In this manga, none of the characters feel like secondary or extra as they all have clear roles. I really really liked the strong characters developments we see happening with ALL of the characters. In the anime, and beginning of the manga, Sawako was so frustrating and exasperating, but by the end of it (manga) she is a completely different person. None of the "villains" (Kurumi or Kento) feel like villains at all and they actually also have many positive inputs and development. Yano is another character whose journey was beautifully put. Well, all of them really! and I hope that someday we can get to read about Ruy's and Chizu's wedding, whether Pin and Yano get together and what happens to Kento and Kurumi (we all know Sawako and Shouta will be a item forever, so not that curious about them).

Enjoyment 9/10
This part is not getting a 10 because yes, as much as I loved this manga and the characters development, Sawako was very annoying at the beginning and I couldn't deal with her most of the times.

Overall 8/10
This might not be fair to the mangaka, but I am giving this a 9 because a 10 to me means something insanely good, mind-blowingly out of this world, and Kimi Ni Todoke is not that. However, I really really enjoyed this manga and would recommend it to people, especially if you have seen the anime. I have been engaged with this material for a while, haven't I? so that means it is really good!

I've been reading the manga for a few years now and not much has happened in the story from when I first started reading it. I love Sawako with her awkwardness and Kazehaya with his cheerful attitude but I just find this manga so .... slooow. It moves at the pace of a snail, no even slower than that.

I love the secondary characters of this manga though. Chizuru and Ryu pairing up is something I've been waiting for for so long now and it seems that it may be happening soon! As other reviewers have said, I think that their relationship is more realistic than any of the others in the story. I cant wait for their story, let's hope it doesnt take another 77 chapters to get there :D

I read this manga just after finishing "Ao Haru Ride," so I have something to immediately compare it to, and I want to say that this one was much, much better. Even though it's frustrating and slow at times, like high school love, it's still extremely refreshing and heart warming.

One of the main things that I enjoyed about the series was the lack of fan service and the focus on friendships along with romance. It isn't your average "shy unpopular girl and experienced popular boy fall for each other" story, specifically because the main character is a bit more than just shy. Because of her inability to interact with others and her constant overthinking and distancing, I came to believe that Sawako must have serious social anxiety. This makes the fact that she is able to form lasting bonds with people and break out of her shell exciting and sweet for the audience. She goes on an extreme mental journey where she learns to believe in herself and trust her peers, so we see more than just a crush altering her life.

I personally liked all of the characters and the ways they changed. As I said before, Sawako is quiet and innocent, but she's also strong from the beginning. Even though everyone was scared of her, she wouldn't stop trying to befriend them, and Kazehaya saw that. Kazehaya initially seems like the perfect hottie who is inherently nice and approachable, but he's also selfish and completely at a loss when it comes to being in a relationship. We get to see Ayane change from someone who sees no value in herself and is in abusive relationships just to pass time to someone who studies and works hard and gets nervous around someone she likes. Ryu stays quiet and balanced throughout the whole series, but we see his bottled up romantic feelings finally overflow through his bold actions with the one he likes. Chizuru is the only character that doesn't really makes sense to me, since she goes her whole life seeing a character as family and then sees him romantically out of nowhere. Nevertheless, she's still a supportive and air-headed character that provides comic relief and becomes more in touch with her feelings as the story progresses. Pin is hilarious and it's great that we get to see his relationships with his students develop and his true teaching abilities surface.

I really like the art, but I didn't when I watched the anime like five years ago, so it depends on your personal style preferences.

The main thing that I didn't like was how upsetting their misunderstandings and behavior were. I found myself screaming at the pages when the characters would just assume something and make the relationships they were developing take ten steps back in terms of progress. They have trouble expressing their feelings and being clear, which is true of teenagers in real life, so at least it makes sense. I personally didn't have an issue with how slow their relationships moved. It made each romantic moment between them more special since I had been waiting for them for quite a bit.

Ultimately, the story is light-hearted and fun. The audience sees teenagers fumble through their first relationships and then get hit in the face by the iron wall of college and their futures. They mature and change for the better, while also measuring their own worth and effort. I highly recommend it!

Kimi ni Todoke was one of the first shoujo manga series that I read when I first gained a strong passion for anime and manga. So I couldn't really hold such a strong opinion of it when reading, or watching it.

However, coming back to it now, and going over it once again, I never got to see just how amazing this series really is.



Story: 8

I won't say it is a perfect story. However, I haven't really seen anything like it through my years of reading manga and watching anime. A girl known for being creepy when it comes to her appearance and behavior, is suddenly thrown into situations beyond her ability, at first. Making friends, beginning conversations, people thanking her instead of apologizing and running off... all because of the popular boy in class, Kazehaya.
It shows realistic emotions, realistic love.... it isn't super flashy, or way out there in terms of the story. It's slow, yes, but it is a bit of a breath of fresh air compared to fast paced, in your face shoujo manga.



Art: 10

The art style for Kimi ni Todoke was, and still is to this very day, my favorite art style. It is easier for the eyes to look at, and it isn't so exaggerated and huge. Most shoujo manga have girls with large eyes and unrealistic expressions. Kimi ni Todoke is more soft, with real expressions. I don't have anything negative to say about it, really.



Characters: 9

Like the story, I won't sit here and say that the characters were absolutely perfect. But they were well done. Character development was nice and slow, at a proper pace. They weren't all indecisive and useless, they all had their own ways of figuring things out, and knew what they wanted to do.



Enjoyment: 10

I never not enjoyed reading the manga, or watching the anime. I always had a smile on my face, and I always got so excited seeing Kazehaya and Sawako together. The reactions they had for one another was so real, so authentic, it felt like someone could experience the same emotions shown throughout the series.



Overall: 9

I highly recommend this series. It is simple, and easy to look at. It is romance between two unlikely people, going through the struggles of self acceptance, high school, and enjoying the company of Maru-chan.

Kimi ni Todoke is probably one of the best from this shoujo, romcom genre. It's funny, it's likable, every character is somebody to root for. Nobody feels like a device for story progression, and everything is so natural. The conflicts the characters face are 100% realistic and understandable and really helps establish that not everything is all sunshine and happiness like other romance animes/mangas may portray. It's not overly sappy or annoying, nor is it too slow like other mangas may seem.

Overall, this is one of my favorite mangas, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to everybody. I hoped to see a bit more of Kazehaya and Sawako in the end, but the ending we got was enough for my content.

"Reaching you", no other words could have been the best title for this manga.

Kimi ni Todoke, when you look at its cover, seems like generic Shoujo romance manga with obvious development and obvious characters. Even some of actual fans of this manga seem to think that is a case. However, not much people notices how much shoujo cliche that Kimi ni Todoke broke in order to become one of the current most popular shoujo manga in Japan. It has so many appeal points for anyone who is not experienced with female-targetting series and it also hooked me up instantly. This review will be mostly about why Kimi ni Todoke is successful, why Kimi ni Todoke is one of the best shoujo manga to the date.

The story starts with a single girl called Kuronuma Sawako. One key point about this character is that she is 'not normal'. Most of shoujo story deals with 'ordinary girl' with 'ordinary appearances' who experiences 'unusual situation' and 'unusual love', and later ends with becoming 'special person'. In this way, target population, 'ORDINARY female readers' can fantasize the events relation to themselves, and that's how shoujo story worked.

In Kimi ni Todoke, Sawako is 'unusual girl' with 'unusual appearance' who experiences 'ordinary situation' and 'ordinary love'. If you look at chapter 1 and the most recent chapters, you will find that Sawako's appearance never ever changed from the start. The only thing changed was her attitude and way to express her emotion. Thus, she was 'SPECIAL' and 'BEAUTIFUL' from the start of this series. Not just that, she is extremely good at studying, good at sports, good at teaching, only flaw point that she has seems to be her lack of personality, shyness and hikikomori-ness. This is complete antithesis of general shoujo heroine, and this constructs most of refreshing point that Kimi ni Todoke uses to appear viewers.

Let's go more deep inside Sawako's character development. Even though she is beauty who is basically good at everything, she is extremely shy and always with various rumours involving exorcism (...). She does not know how to communicate. She is way too pure and naive, definitely lacks some general social skills and way to express her feelings, which is already apparent in the various start of the series. As series develops, we find these hindering properties starts to be minimized, 'WITHOUT' diminishing some of appeal points comes from those elements. Sawako's appealing personality hasn't changed, but her 'attitude' is the major thing that changed. It adds a layer of realism and to herione and we can easily sympathise and adore her, unlike other major heroines in shoujo series who are mostly like Harem leads in shonen manga; indecisive and thoughtless.

However, if there is a reason why Kimi ni Todoke also appeals to Male viewers, Kazehaya Shouta is much definite reason for it. Situation that character confronts are... just unbearably cute and honest. It is 'VERY REAL', except Sawako's introvert personality. He is, compare to Kuronoma, very ordinary. If we exclude the fact that he is the most popular guy in the school, his reaction to ongoing romance and situation is extremely realistic, ordinary and even cute for male-standard. The way he blushes and react to Sawako is as if seeing ourselves in love there. Unlike most of shoujo male leads who always seems to be in rivalry or usual indecisiveness, Kazehaya Shouta's love interest is a single person from the start to the end, Sawako. It is also true for vice versa, Sawako's love interest was never a person other than Shouta. This makes things clear why Kimi ni Todoke is appealing. This is a manga about 'pure love', which was pretty rare in recent shoujo. And author is constructing this pure love in most interesting, effective and enjoyable way by creating characters that breaks the cliche and situations where characters react 'differently' compare to other manga.

Another key point is, that 'pure romance' is NOT the only enjoyable plot point it has. In has relatively few sub characters and all of them represents one of the key themes that act as strong point of Kimi ni Todoke. Sawako's relationship with her new friends, Chizuru, Yano and Sanada is never set aside from the plot. She is not only reaching to Shouta, but also her friends. It is interesting how Sawako, Chizuru and Yano is very different from each other, yet became best friends to each other. Even though they all have different personality, one thing they share is that they are all kind. They respect each other and they share each others thought. There has never been a serious fight between each other other than misunderstandings. Thus, viewers can enjoy this manga really relaxed, without worrying about some crazy development or accidents we normally see in other shoujo manga. Whenever I read Kimi ni Todoke, always have smile on my face, never annoyed by character what-so-ever.

It is true that Kimi ni Todoke has relatively slow story development compare to other shoujo series. It 'does' seem a bit too slow sometimes, which I can't really describe in this review due to spoiler issues. However, the way to negate that issue was already established from the start, it's Sawako's personality. The story is about pure romance and friends ship, but ultimately about Sawako's character development. Even though it is slow, we can see how Sawako is changing, compare to the start of the series, how she is more active, how she can express her thoughts and feelings more AND, how her personality has always been positive, kind and pure.

Art, is brilliant. Honestly, art was one of the major reason why I started this series. Compare to usual Shoujo manga with huuuuuge eyes, long eyelids, male character with triangle shaped head, extremely cold and tall and, most of all, never ever showing any realistic expression on their face. Art style of Kimi ni Todoke is acceptable for any readers, due to its sense of realism in terms of character's expressions. It is also beautifully drawn without those usual shoujo-style exaggeration I mentioned above, too; it has its own charm and uniqueness.

It is apparent that many people, including me, enjoys this series. Others, who don't, ask us 'Why?'. I can easily answer it. It has a pure story of realistic love. We were tired of reading stories like those from White Album or Strawberry 100%. When other shoujo series puts unrealistic fantasies into the story makes intresting, Kimi ni Todoke tells story of 'ordinary love' between friends, classmates and family and does its best attempt of it.

Kimi ni Todoke, is about unusual but naive girl who faces ordinary situation and ordinary love. That enough is already reason why it is, and will be one of the most unique and well-written shoujo I've seen.

In this story, I enjoyed it a lot more although it was really long. When
I mean really long, I mean that it took forever for any relationship between the two main characters to take place. But what kept me reading this story is that I can relate almost 100% with the main character at the beginning of the story. She had no friends. She was really lonely. Everyone was mistaking her for something she wasn't. That in my life, is also how you would describe it. I think this story is good for those like me, who are lonely and have close to no friends in thise world. So far, it's great :)

The story is simple; awkward girl meets a little less awkward boy and they fall in love. But the girl is so socially awkward that its just hilarious.

Seriously though, the story is great. Sawako gaining friends and learning about other people is a pretty good core, but learning about everyone and what their troubles is one of the best things here. The romance is great, I love how diverse and different each relationshipdynamic is and yet how, they all just 'clicked'. 9/10 for story.

I'm not the best in terms of judging art, but i really love how it's drawn. It's clear and well-drawn, with some amazing details every once in a while. All the
characters were all very diverse as well, and you could easily tell them all apart. 10/10 for the art.

OK, so we have a main cast consisting of the MC(Sawako), the loveinterest(Kazehaya), the tomboy friend(Chizu), the bitchy friend(Ayane), the one that everybody knows(Ryu), the teacher(Pin), the blonde male loverival(Kent) and the alpha bitch(Kurumi).

I really loved Sawako. She is a pretty great main character and her character development was done subletely, but it was there, and when you look back at older chapters, you really can see how much she's changed, even if not in major areas, considering what the manga is all about its pretty great.

Kazehaya is honestly hilarious. Thats just my opinion. He is not really a funny guy, he is just hilarious in some situations. His relationship with Sawako is probably my favorite thing aboyt he whole manga. I really liked him, though after chapter 60-ish he starts to act a bit weird, and it kinda bothers me.

Chizu and Ayane are both amazing, they a re so different and i love it. Chizu has her problems with Ryu and Toru while Ayane tries to learn and love herself and fall in love.

Ryu is the silent one that is forgetful and always tired. He has a close friendship with Kazehaya and Chizu and is alwayd there for them. He is the one that is always honest and who provides a lot of comic relief. I really love Ryu, as well as his relationship with everyone in the show.

Pin is just one huge-ass troll. Either he is the most annoying on the planet or he gives some really great advice that really helps everyone out. I like him though. He's funny.

Ok, so i hate Kent in the anime BUT since im reviewing the manga where he gets a lot more character development and screentime, i have to say he is way to nice for his own good. He is kinda stupid(the blonde stereotype i guess) but on the other hand, he always helps people and really means it. I love him, he is such a little sweetheart, even though he can be kinda asshole-y sometimes without meaing to.

KURUMI! She is my favorite character. She is a bitch, manipulative, confident, hardworking and ambitious, and she is just wonderful. I love her development. I love her silent support and the way she accepted things and started becoming friends with Sawako.
9/10 on characters

I enjoyed this very much and im looking forward to teh next chapter now that im finally caught up on it. I would definantly recomend Kimi ni todoke. I love it so much, its probably my favorite shojo right after OHSHC. 10/10

It's funny how when you start to read a manga, and you start to smile, and kind of "tingle" inside. You become engrossed in it, and all of a sudden it's worn out and raggedy, but you don't want to get a new one because this it has become a classic to you. That's how much i love this manga.

Kimi ni Todoke isn't the average shoujo. Sawako isn't a brain dead pretty girl crushing on the most popular guy in school. No. she's just a sweet girl, who seeks understanding from her classmates. The first ever person to give her that is Kazehaya. Kazehaya isn't head over heels for her. At first he is just interested. He sees that she is always helping others indirectly, and he likes that about her. Over time, he gets to know her, and starts to like EVERYTHING about. This slowly blossoms into love.

Sawako respects, and worships Kazehaya. He helped her come out of her shyness and make friends that she is willing to do anything for. She goes through a lot with them, none of it being overly dramatic or unrealistic. Of course, she spends some time with Kazehaya and treasures the simple but special moments that they spend together. This, too, blossoms into love.

This manga is totally original. Everything is written beautifully, and nothing is rushed. After about 3 chapters, this manga became one of my favorites.

The art isn't anything spectacular. It is not bad, either. It's simple and cute, like the story.

The characters are something special, though, that you will never forget. Sawako is sweet and shy. She volunteers for things that no one else wants to d, just so someone unwilling won't be forced. She treasures small things, like friendship because they are new to her.
Kazehaya is optimistic, friendly, and loved by all. He is the first one to befriend Sawako. Early in the story, he develops a crush on Sawako. He defends her from rumors, without it having to be front page news, unlike all the other guys we usually see. He is kind to Sawako always.
Chizuru and Ayane are the Dynamic Duo. you never see one without the other. They quickly welcome Sawako and accept her, finding her sweet and cute. Chizuru is athletic, but a bit dense. Ayane is sensible and mature. They are Sawako's best friends.
Ryuu is also Sawako's friend. He doesn't talk much, but they get along together well. when you see these friends interacting with each other you'll smile.

The enjoyment was high, seeing as I was always enjoying every second, just watching Sawako open up, and hang out with friends for the first. time. Sawako is the sweetest friend ever, and I felt as if I knew her.

Overall, this manga was amazing. It wasn't over the top, didn't have a lot of comedy, but it had heart warming scenes that we take for granted.