Les critiques de livres

jzmcdaisy21125
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
Only read Akuma to Love Song if you like over-the-top melodrama.

On the positive side, it starts off pretty strong by daring to be different. Rather than the typical nice but insecure protagonist, Maria Kawai is so blunt and abrasive she's described as having an "acid tongue." Rather than the usual romance, the first half mostly focuses on Maria's interactions with her class. Of course she ends up making a lot of people mad at her, but eventually she manages to make them understand her in her own way. It gets pretty melodramatic at times, especially with its depiction of their teacher who's beyond terrible to his his students, but it didn't personally bother me.

What killed it for me was the second half, when it changes focus to Maria's various romantic relationships. The melodrama got to be too much for me when there was a plot twist to force Maria and her love interest apart that doesn't actually happen in real life. Everyone treats it so seriously, never really questioning this, but I just found it infuriating because I no longer found the story at all realistic or even plausible. It feels to me very similar to Fushigi Yuugi, where there was some silly melodramatic plot twist to force Miaka and Tamahome apart, except being a fantasy, Fushigi Yuugi had a fantasy world explanation for the silly melodrama. Akuma to Love Song, however, is supposed to take place in the real world. It's also, by the way, a really obvious retcon because actually the thing they're all worried about actually happened before, but absolutely nothing happened as a result.

It also makes it objectively less good because Akuma to Love Song was mostly good in the first place for feeling really different from other shoujo for having a really different type of protagonist. But at this midway point, it mostly becomes the usual love polygon antics, and Maria's character shows less and less, as she's being forced into the role of the shoujo protagonist who's the center of all these love polygons. Such a story wouldn't really work if Maria is allowed to act a hundred percent as she had been, since she's normally so abrasive that it would be really hard for anyone to be in a relationship with her, even if they do understand her. The author might have intended to have a character arc where Maria changes, but if so, it didn't really come off that way to me, as much as just her character was just getting out of character.

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uranx6
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
Story//
Akuma to Love Song is a nice change of pace from the typical shoujo that takes traumatic events and the trauma that follows it and realistically portrays it. Maria's reactions are very realistic and while it was definitely simplified at moments I think it did a better job than most shoujo in delving into this. I will saw I did not like how ( mild spoilers) easy it was for John Cross to be forgiven.

Art//
I'm usually more of a fan of realistic artwork- such as Naoki Urasawa's (Monster) but I loved the character design in this manga. I never find the big eyes art style very pretty but nonetheless Maria was GORGEOUS to me. I also loved the 'sloppy' look they gave to Meguro.

Character//
Maria is a breath of fresh air in the world of shoujo where every female protagonist seems to be idiotic and insecure. She's a great protagonist who always worked through her issues and pushed herself to be great, and while she did get help from the male characters she never solely relied on them. I enjoyed the rest of the main cast/supporting characters as well because I loved how they learned to understand each other and how much their relationship changed from the beginning of the series. The only character I truly wasn't a fan of till the end was Anna and probably John Cross as well as I can never forgive him for his actions.

Overall/Enjoyment:
I thought this was a good series overall and it was very engaging. I binge-read it within 24 hours, and while I wish we got to see more of their future in the end it was a satisfying end. It was interesting to me that the author decided to switch to Yuusuke's perspective in the final chapter- it was a unique and bittersweet decision.
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Skycrafter1
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
The "Devil and her Love Song" is a beautiful story. Although I haven't finished it I am really enjoying the story so far.
The art is beautiful and clean- in my opinion. Especially the main charter Maria.
The charters seem very diverse and interesting. Everyone is very interesting and has there own past.
Although the only thing I can not understand is the intense hatred the teacher has for Maria-I mean come on! really? That teacher is so childish.

The story overall is very interesting and I like how it is a very charter driven story with interesting twist. Everything is slowly reveled to you as you keep reading. The story starts when the main charter Maria comes transfers to the new school. She meets new people but with her sharp tongue easily makes some enemies. The story unfolds from their as Maria is not the type to just sit back and be quiet. (I don't want to ruin the story so I will stop there haha)
I wouldn't recommend this for anyone into action genre- as the story can be kind of slow to people. Although personally loved the story myself and would recommend it in general.

----UPDATE---
*SPOLILERS AHEAD*
I finished the manga and I can say while going threw the manga I had mixed feelings. The part were I felt that manga went downhill was the intro of *Spoilers* Maria's father-who had raped her mother when she was ONLY 14 YEARS OLD! I mean, it was an interesting part but how they introduced him a sympathetic character-COME ON! The only victim is Maria and her mother! The main romance also seemed very lacking-and Maria's charter stared to change. Instead of being the wild, open-minded, strong character she WAS. Then when she and Shin officially becomes an item her personality does a complete 180.
She is always thinking of Shin...her thought can be compressed into these small statement all having to do with Shin. "Oh I hope Shin likes my outfit" "I love Shin!" "I hope Shin and I can sing together again.."
What happened to the independent character from the beginning? Even in the manga there is a scene where a guy from a record company tells her that her singing seems like "She is always singing to one person"...and you that person is *DING DING DING* Shin! Romance is not suppose to cripple a person so much they lose all the personality and fire they had before-she should have ended up with one of the other two guys-I think. Especially Yusuke).

I know for the update I might seem like I am being spiteful but I would have to say it's because I had such high hopes for it (It was beginning one of my favorites-not anymore because of the second half). I did not buy the main romance (ruining a great charter in my opinion) and was a complete let down.
I was still able to enjoy the manga (Just no longer one of my favorites). And what I stated before about it not having a lot of action above remains the same.
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ponytaorponyboy13
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
"You corrupt other people" (summary at end)

In all the manga I have read I have yet to find another Maria. No heroine I have read about has ever been called or known as arrogant and 'the devil," and not because she's mischievous. She is complex. In her own words, "I can only be myself." She's the part of you you keep hidden inside. Out of reach from anyone because you're afraid they won't accept. At least in my opinion. She just wants to be saved, to feel worthy of being saved. She doesn't understand kindness or friendship and to someone like her, it feels like suffocating.


"To me, Kawai-san is like a mirror. A mirror that reflects all the bad parts about you. A devil like mirror that contaminates your heart."

Meguro notices her, not because of her beauty, though she is known for it. But because of her 'darkness.' He sees to her core sometimes, to the part she doesn't know she has. He likes her for everything she is, even the part of her others hate.

Yuusuke, he's the one that has the "Lovely Transformation" down to as science. I could honestly say that he's the character most curious about her. He believes that underneath the 'beautiful devil' her true intentions will resurface. He wants to know her, probably because she's the one that saw through his cheerful mask...

Something that caught my attention about the characters was that they all served a purpose for the story. All throughout, even in the parts they were just in the background. This manga has a lot of antagonists, and if were to ask Maria, she'd say she was one of them. What makes it so unique was that all the people feel emotions besides love in this manga. There's love, not much but some. But you could taste the hatred. throughout the manga you'll see a glimpse of most of their minds and what they feel is hidden behind the mask they wear.

The art was lovely. Maria was drawn beautifully and her expressions and posture, everything she does, matches her elegant character perfectly. Like with all the other characters. I have to say it, but if you can make tears look 3D and the characters expression give you goosebumps, for me that wins you point. Not all points but more than most.

In life, to really succeed and be true to yourself and the person you want to become, you need honest people that push you. Everyday they change you and help mold you into the person you'll be tomorrow. If you have someone like that, or you are someone like that, you'll enjoy meeting Maria Kawai and her "friends."

I know it's just a manga. Most of the time I read just for fun, but sometimes along with the fun you get a glimpse at life.

Summary: The story is about Maria, who is notorious and known by students all over the place. Upon getting expelled from a top school because of "violence against a teacher," Maria transfers to a new low grade school. She doesn't make friends easily. Better said, she doesn't care for it and they don't care for her. Most of them, they all feel that Maria looks down on them. The other half, are jealous of her looks. Being picked on and pranks, she takes them all with an aloof personality, saying, "It seems that I'm hated." She is honest and speaks her mind, all the time. Everyone hates her, or do they? Can anyone get close enough to find out her truth?
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TheElfiestElf10
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
My problem with this manga is how much I expected from it and how it ended up to be a huge disappointment. I really enjoyed the first part of the manga (though there were some hard-to-believe situations, specially when it comes to the teacher's behaviour), but at some point it just started to make no sense. From now on there will me some mayor spoilers so pls stop reading if you don't want to see them. (The conclusion is free of spoilers.)

I think you can resume this story as "look, these people are going through difficult situations, look how they'll change and how they learn how to be better ppl" but failing in the way of doing this. I just don't understand how the mangaka was able to ruin her characters so much. I mean, at first we were presented to a girl who makes a really interesting protagonist, completely different from your typical-shoujo manga heroine, who is not afraid to speak her mind and clearly have a lot of issues that will develop throughout the story. But then, she falls in love, and all of that just goes away and instead we have ye again a super plain protagonist. I'm not saying that her stopping to be a cold-hearted bitch is a bad thing, I think that it'd have been a really good development only if it had been well-executed.
As of the male lead role -Megu-, at first I really liked how the character was written and the interactions they both had, but at some point -when that other girl from the music school appears- he just starts to make a lot of stupid decisions, and even though I can understand that everyone can do stupid things when they're put in a situation they've never been before, for me his way of doing things wasn't believable at all and it ended up being a big turn-off for me.

Also, I really don't understand how you can introduce this background story that it's so important for the plot and for the characters' development, just to resolve it in that simple way. I mean, are you trying to convince me that a teenage girl, after she remembers all of a sudden about her mom committing suicide in front of her and the reasons that led her to do that, got to find a way out of that pain in just one fucking chapter?
This was the most important part of the story and we deserved to see how Maria recovers with the help of everyone around her, and it's not something that you can resolve in just a few pannels.

But the thing that really messed up the story for me was how the father issue was dealt with. I mean, he raped your mother and caused all of this despair upon your family and just like that you're able to talk to him and it only takes you a few chapters to act as if it were normal for him to meet your family and be okay with him saying that he loved your mother??????? And you're also okay with him going to your grandparents house and you even support that, bitch whatttT????? Even your friend (the kouhai) has the balls to say "hey i would like if you and him get along " BITCH WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU ASKING YOUR FRIEND TO DO?????? But what pisses me off even more is her response to him, as if the things he's saying make a lot of sense.

The way this part of the story is written, how they don't give the importance that it needs to has, and how they just portrait this guy as if he's not that bad as a person, when he raped a 14 YEAR-OLD, RUINED HER LIFE and it just looks as it's not that great of a deal for anybody?
I mean, if you were to deal with this kind of serious topic and you were trying to make the readers empathize with that man you could have written it in so many different ways, but not this one, where the decisions and the way the characters act doesn't make any sense whatsoever.

SPOILERS FINISH HERE

Conclusion: Though the story and the characters weren't exactly my cup of tea (gosh, even the ending of the manga was a disappointment) I have to say that the art was beautiful and I really loved Maria and Megu's designs. Also, I think that if you're looking for a dramatic shoujo manga to read this wouldn't be me first recommendation, since there a lot mangas out there with better storytelling, BUT it was entertaining enough to keep me reading through 90 chapters just because I really wanted to know how it ended, so I have to give it some points for that.
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kr1ny11
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
The main reason why I like this manga was because of the heroine. I find her brutal honesty and straightforward feelings to be super refreshing. It's also pretty funny at times when she tries to "act nice."

The supporting character's were pretty unique personality wise, and they seem to stick with me-- I find myself to like these characters more as I go on.

So, the main story is based around a song- a pretty popular one at that- "Amazing Grace." The lyrics match up to certain aspects of the story, it doesn't come to you right away because it's not a perfect match, but i believe it gives this manga a certain feeling and mood that works well alongside it-- pretty powerful at that. I like the feel to this song, albeit at moments it seemed a bit awkward and out of place . It's a good kind of unique.

The mood gets to be a little on the sad and serious side with the romance, but it also feels surprisingly beautiful and pure. At least I found certain parts touching. The romance is not all sad, and there are scatter traces of happiness linked in between. But it is filled with what I like to call "slight sadness." Cute?

The manga focuses on "change," like the change in oneself and the change in others. I found it intriguing for this reason, on how certain influences can affect and "change" others. The way they show these aspects are kind of clever to me.

Overall, it's a great read, an excellent way to spend your time, and I've loved it thus far.
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vaberella1
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
Going in, the story seems solid, characters seem to be typical shoujo but with a slight twist as our MC (Maria) has extreme awareness to people's true feelings, so it causes scenarios where characters actually need to face their flaws. personally for me, it's halfway through which starts going downhill from there. Below I'm going to write one without spoilers and one with that actually detail what's very wrong with the direction the manga goes in (again this is my opinion but I feel as if it's misleading and is looked past).

NO SPOILERS EXPLANATION:
Maria's past is slowly introduced to the audience and it makes absolutely no sense. Her past has very serious connotations but is essentially solved because the author uses friendship and forgiveness. The characters also become very obsessive over Maria where it's creepy and wouldn't be acceptable past a manga/fictional standpoint.


//
WITH SPOILERS EXPLANATION:
With Maria's past, it's eventually revealed that her mom was a r*pe victim. Her mom was 14 when it happened, with the perpetuator at 20 years old. The father was found not guilty, and was supporting Maria financially behind the scenes. Knowing this, Maria forgives her mother's r*pist and even brings the r*pist together with her mom's parents to become a family. Not only that, the father is actually a priest and is taking care of orphaned children. It's insane to me that a child r*pist was forgiven, and actually had the audacity to say he fell in love with Maria's mother as well (they exchanged letters bc Maria's mom didn't want him to forget what he had done to her, but through the communication he "fell in love"). This is the biggest issue with the manga for me and I feel as though I should rate this lower because of it. There's also 3 boys essentially in Maria's life that all like her, but 2 of them are super obsessive, push themselves onto her constantly, or gets insanely jealous that other males are there to support her.

SUMMARY:
Overall, it is my two cents, but I feel as though the truth about Maria's past and what unfolds later down the story is too messed up for a shoujo manga or just a story in general. Shoujo targets females 18 and under, and it sets a bad precedent that everything that happens in the story is acceptable, similar to how in Maid Sama where almost every episode our MC girl almost gets sexually assaulted but is played off with comedic animation or because our MC male is attractive.
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Sallachi13
Apr 03, 2021
Akuma to Love Song review
"Devil and Her Love Song" 's a refreshing shoujo manga because it escapes the usual stereotypes you can find in this genre. The main character, Maria Kawai, is quite original for a shoujo heroine. She's brutally honest, has no tact whatsoever, and is usually so serious she tends to be scary. She also seems harsh and rude. She was expelled from the exclusive St. Katrina's school (she claims it's because she beat up her teacher) and ends up in a regular high school where her bad reputation precedes her.

That's the surface, but this manga obviously invites the readers to dig a little deeper in their characters. The really insteresting aspect of Maria is her apparently lack of understanding of how the world works... She's actually so transparent, that she fails to act acordingly to what's socially acceptable. And just as layered as she is, you'll find that the other main characters are equally complex: a guy called Yuusuke who seems nice and cheerful but seems to hide a different character beneath; Megumu, the rude, antisocial loner who, despite himself, can't help but get tangled with Maria... At least in the first two volumes, you only catch a glimpse of the true characters hiding beneath the exterior, and this proves to be very interesting: nothing is that obvious nor predictable, as it often happens in this sort of stories.

This is not your average "bad girl/boy who is actually nice" plot. I'm curious to see where the story will go, but be warned that this (at least for now) is a character driven plot. There's not much going on in matters of action or conflict. So far is mostly about showing the true nature of its characters, and that is done in a beautiful way, with gorgeous art to boost. It's a very enjoyable read and promises even more entertainment in what's to come.
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Akuma to Love Song
Akuma to Love Song
Auteur Toumori, Miyoshi
Artiste --