[HayashiTakara]

Originally Posted by Sol Falling

Sorry, but are you kidding me? :P This manga is about as uncliche as you can get.

You've got your 'social outcast schoolgirl protagonist' definition wrong: the correct line is 'poor unpopular girl who no one likes, except the super hot main love interest'. It's practically the complete opposite in this case: bullies don't stand a chance against her, and Yukina is pretty much the one person Shigure cannot stand (even now, they're on pretty rough terms with each other).

Sorry but personality aside she's still socially inept. The fact that everyone "hates" her is enough to drop her in that category.

As for Shigure, what 'trouble baggage' are you referring to? The only person he's remotely unpleasant towards is Yukina, and that's because she's blackmailing him. Emotional issues? :P I'd have to laugh out loud if anyone tried classifying his petty obsession over being a perfect 'nice guy' and having everybody like him as a serious emotional issue. Why is Shigure going to win at the end? Its not because he's the badboy jerk whom women fall all over themselves chasing, but in fact because he's an immature brat whose relationship would symbolize him getting over himself.

Sorry if some guy makes a game out of how many girls he's rejected is going to have some underlying emotional issues. The "I'm popular but don't know real love" theme has been played to death as well. He's a dick on the inside and a nice guy on the outside, that within itself is a person with issues.

He's a selfish egomaniac, why? we don't know yet, it could be that's how he is, or it could be due to some emotional scarring.

Saying Akira's the genuine nice guy who's loved Yukina from the beginning is also pretty funny. If you haven't noticed, Akira's character has been pretty much explicitly structured as 'a child trying to be seen as a man'. Akira a loving 'nice guy'? :P More like a baby trying to turn his childhood security blanket into a lover. To put it frankly, neither of the male leads are anywhere near the standard shoujo bishounen.

Akira is still the nice guy that loves Yukina first, Yukina has always been there for him. They've always been close watching out for one another whats wrong with wanting to love and be loved by said person? I see nothing absolutely nothing wrong with it. But just from reading those lines, I can tell what you said is stemming from a hate towards the character.

Mami's defining trait is also not being a two-faced 'bitch', but rather her chronic sickness. Due to her constant absences, her long relationship with Shigure probably makes him the only friend she even has. Her possessiveness over Shigure doubtlessly stems not from self-entitlement due to his or her (shallow) popularity, but a loneliness and attachment to her only real connection. Just like with Yukina, Mami is practically the opposite of the standard 'two-faced' love rival: in Mami's case, the one Mami shows her 'devillish' real face to is Shigure, i.e. the main love interest, while it's everyone else who gets her 'sweet' side.

We know next to nothing on Mami, we know that she's very close to Shigure. Although it's obvious she's not in as poor health as everyone seem to think she is. She just fakes it a lot to keep Shigure's attention although he's already aware of it since they've been friends for a long time. But you know she's still gonna do some bitch moves, especially after that "evil smile" in ch.12. Every "bitch" character in Shoujo's have a reason for doing what they do, whatever the reason is doesn't change the role of the character.

Like I've said before, you shouldn't try to pigeonhole these characters into the standard shoujo archetypes. If you take a deeper look at them, they end up fitting very badly; I'd say, Shigure and Akira especially.

I'm only saying it how it is. I won't sugar coat it to make it look better. The execution is still enjoyable albeit extremely predictable.

- Yukina is still the cliche social outcast - difference? She's not a weak easily intimidated loser.

- Shigure is still the popular hot boy of the school - difference? He wears a facade of being a nice guy, but he's still a dick.

- Akira is still the "nice-guy" of the two rivals. No difference from the usual, unless you want to dissect it with your personal interpretations.

- Mami; not much is known yet. But you can tell already that she's going to be the bitch rival. Circumstances for being a bitch doesn't matter, every character of this category has some motive/reason/whatever for doing it.