Over my years of anime-viewing and manga-reading I’m sure that I have at some point come across series that made me rather teary-eyed. However, I can’t really remember any that managed to make me drop honest-to-goodness tears. I’m happy to say that I’ve finally met my match in a terrific manga series called Kimi ni Todoke. Granted I could blame some of those tears on raging hormones and a bit of general emo-ness at the time… I definitely don’t think this would be a tear-jerking series for the average reader. Tears aside, Kimi ni Todoke is really a wonderful read. If you enjoy reading bittersweet schoolyard/first love shoujo manga, you definitely have to check out Kimi ni Todoke!

I picked up Kimi ni Todoke after reading Casey’s glowing review of it on Anime News Network. The story immediately sucked me in – the protagonist, Sawako Kuronuma, is a sweet and pure-hearted girl with creepy appearance and ways befitting of evil characters in horror films. As a result, she’s nicknamed “Sadako” after the cursed ghost in the popular Japanese horror film “The Ring” and isolated in school – that is, until she met Shota Kazehaya, an equally sweet but very popular boy from her class. Kazehaya’s interest is immediately piqued by the kindness he sees in Sawako underneath her forbidding appearances, and the story takes off from there. With help from Kazehaya, we follow Sawako’s personal journey as she slowly steps out of her shell, makes friends, and comes to terms with who she wants to become as a person, and what she would need to do to get there.

I love this series because it brought back so many memories of school days past – as such, the story feels very real. I couldn’t help rooting for Sawako as she tried to take on her inner demons and reach out to her classmates. There were many scenes that were rather heartbreaking in how well they showed the cruelty of kids. Even if it’s often unintentional, it still cuts. At the same time, while I was completely taken with Sawako’s internal struggles and growth, I was also absolutely infatuated with the emerging love story. It’s always refreshing to read a shoujo story where the main female character isn’t throwing herself willy-nilly at the main guy. And a lot of the love story circles back to the theme of personal growth – not only for Sawako, but also for Kazehaya as well as he finds himself affected by Sawako’s genuine heart and gestures. And that for me is a sign of a really great love story – showing that it’s not just one character involved that changes, but both characters for the better.

On an interesting side note, I skipped to the Chinese translation after chapter 13 in order to read ahead, and found the story much more compelling in English than in Chinese. It could be that I’m still adjusting to the differences in tone and nuances between the two languages. A part of me also thinks it might be because real-life Kazehayas are much harder to come by in the States than in Asia, where I more or less split my student days – making English-speaking Kazehaya much more appealing.

Regardless of my language preferences, I’ve been doing quite a bit of reading marathoning and will likely be indulging in a lot more of Kimi ni Todoke. Again, if you like shoujo series with a bit of a character twist and a simple yet compelling plot, pick up Kimi ni Todoke – you won’t be disappointed!

P.S. In case you’re curious, the monumental tear-inducing spot for me was chapter 7. If you’ve read it, let me know if you think my tears are justified :)

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