Manga Review: Kimi ni Todoke (Volumes 1-2)

All of us have had that awkward period in our grade school years where we didn’t quite fit in, and were looking for a way to make friends and feel comfortable amidst all that we go through growing up. Kimi ni Todoke starts off portraying this beautifully, but winds up taking these themes to an almost annoying extreme.

The story centers around an awkward girl named Sawako Kuronuma, who is referred to as “Sadako” by her classmates because of her striking resemblance to the character of the same name from the Ringu movie series. Every time she tries to greet people, she comes off looking creepy, and her fellow students are convinced that she is possessed, has ghosts following her around, and can curse people just by having them look into her eyes. She is pained by her loneliness, and the only reprieve from that pain comes in the form of Shota Kazehaya, the most popular and handsome boy in school who also happens to be a downright nice guy, as he treats Sawako like any other person. As she gets to know him and his words help her gain more confidence, she begins to fall for him, unaware that Kazehaya himself has been interested in her for quite some time, and just isn’t able to voice how he feels.

What follows is an endless stream of quirky misunderstandings and awkward situations. While some of them are funny, it becomes fairly repetitive after a while, and I found myself wishing at several points that the characters would just bite the bullet and talk to each other, which would resolve their issues in a matter of seconds. But then we wouldn’t have any story, now would we?

The characters themselves are pretty run-of-the-mill. However, there are a few things about them that seem pretty unrealistic to me. Besides Sawako and Kazehaya, two other girls become Sawako’s friends and wind up being rather protective of her very quickly– too quickly in my opinion. Also, Kazehaya is almost too perfect, his only flaw being that he can’t seem to voice his affections to Sawako. While these things are normal stuff for shoujo manga, it did make me pause a few times and question the validity of their actions.

Another thing that bugged me was the insane amount of text in the manga. During her many freak-out sessions, Sawako has a lot of thoughts running through her head, and every single one is plastered on the pages in tiny font, which can hurt your eyes and make the books more harrowing to read than most other manga. It personally almost took me twice as long as it normally does for me to read manga when I read these two volumes because I had to keep stopping to read all of the little text bubbles.

There is one thing I can’t complain about though, and that is the art. It’s pretty typical art for a shoujo manga, but its very nicely done and the covers of the volumes are sweet and colorful, which give a good indication of the vibe of the story.

Oh yes, the story. The summary I wrote above pretty much sums it up. It seems to me like a pretty standard manga story of awkward teenagers falling in love and dealing with the trials of high school life in both touching and comedic ways. The big difference with Kimi ni Todoke however is that the story constantly beats the message of how horrible Sawako’s life is into the ground.

A lot.

I personally get the feeling that they fell into this trap while trying to set this manga apart from other shoujo manga and by trying to make us really, really sympathetic towards Sawako. It didn’t work. Instead, what we get is an almost fake feeling, as if all of these terrible things cannot possibly be happening to one girl, especially one who is as innocent as Sawako. It’s purely for entertainment value of course, but it was enough to make me roll my eyes more than once.

In the end, Kimi ni Todoke is a very typical and almost boring addition to the world of shoujo manga, served with a big side-order of nagging. It is fairly popular however, so something within it must be working as a product, but personally, I just don’t see it. If you’re a big fan of shoujo, you may find it worth picking up, but even casual shoujo fans will most likely, in my opinion, be irked by the way the story is handled.

Kimi ni Todoke is licensed and distributed by VIZ Media.

ENJOYMENT
It’s hard to enjoy something so irritating

2/5

RECOMMENDATION VALUE
If you’re a hardcore shoujo fan, it might be worth a try. Otherwise, leave it on the shelf.

2/5

REREAD VALUE
I can’t imagine having to tread through this again!

1/5

Purchase Kimi ni Todoke Vol. 1 at RightStuf

Purchase Kimi ni Todoke Vol.2 at RightStuf