Nagisa confesses to Kao at long last and she’s over the moon that he finally did. Then the book fills its time making sure every happy ending box possible gets ticked.
Webster’s dictionary defines ‘perfunctory’ as… just kidding, but you get the point. Why should I waste an original introduction on a book that doesn’t have an original bone in its body? Do not play the Shojo Manga Drinking Game with this series - you will die.
This is a real snooze of a landing for a series that somehow wrested eight volumes out of its premise. Once the confession is out of the way we spend a lot of time on the ‘is he actually in love with me?’ nonsense and the whole ‘even a rival must find love’ trope to wrap things up.
Insert a very rote Christmas date, a fair bit of volleyball, and some vague discussions about true love and all the other things that reality will grind into the dust in due course (I’m not cynical, but, okay, I am…). I mean, it has a certain charm, but it doesn’t exactly excel at anything.
I’m really, really struggling to say something unique about this book since it doesn’t have a unique bone in its body. And now its repetition is making me repeat myself, ugh. Maybe we’ll just leave it at that - if you have read any amount of shojo manga you will see the trappings that this series drapes itself in.
The art is decent, it’s all fine. If this is the first shojo you ever read, and you enjoyed it, congratulations - there’s a big wide world out there that iterates on this, but better. Fine this book was and fine it shall be, unto eternity. Just… fine.
3 stars. I’m not upset I took the ride, but I am kind of glad it’s over. The teasing is way softer in this one, which is kind of good, but it turns out that a lot of the zip was coming from that too. You would never recommend this as somebody’s first shojo, there are many better examples, but as a low-stakes example of type I can’t deny you could do a lot worse too.
J’ai dévoré le manga ce soir en me lisant les 8 tomes d’un coup
Vraiment un shojo sans prise de tête que j’aime tant lire. Les dessins sont vraiment très mignon et regroupe tout ce que j’aime.
J’ai beaucoup aimé le background de l’histoire avec le volley (qui aurai pu prendre un peu + de place). Ça me rappelle des anime/manga que je lisais avant qui étaient plutôt axé basket.
Les personnages sont très cute, rien de bien surprenant dans l’histoire on reste sur du classique.
Un triangle amoureux qui n’est pas angoissant avé héroïne qui hésite à mort. C’était clairement un bon point pour moi. J’apprécie quand il n’y a pas de drama en +.
(J’avoue que certaines planches entre les mecs me donnaient bien envie de passer sur un Boys Love entre eux plutot que leur obsession pour Koa 😂. Oupsiiii)
This is quite possibly the most average shojo manga I’ve ever read. It hit every plot detail and story beat you’d expect to see in a series. Two popular boys fall in love with a clumsy, innocent girl? Check. Secondary Boy™️ assures the Male Lead that “he won’t lose” in winning the girl’s affections? Check. A minor female character ends up being the Plan B romance for Secondary Boy™️ when he inevitably gets turned down? Check, check, check. It’s also part of the “girl manages a boys’ sports team and romance ensues” subgenre that’s been showing up these days, so we get some tropey plot stuff about some big sports match and the power of teamwork thrown in there as well. Unfortunately Waiting for Spring has already done a similar type of store, and that author did it first and more skillfully.
I can’t give this a bad score, because even thought it was a snooze to read it really is totally basic and average for a shojo story. But dang… I can’t believe this thing went on for 8 volumes.
This was a very typical ending to a shojo and I'm honestly a little disappointed. I thought Kao would get her own arc about finding something else she enjoys when we see her creating the costumes for the cultural festival. I think it would have been nice to see her quit being the manager because she found the thing that made her sparkle (and it's independent of the guy she likes). Even though she is trying her best I would have liked to see a hint that she is also pursuing her own passions.
Also hated her "best friend" is hinted to get together with Kiryuu because she only showed up when it was convenient. I want to see Kao with her friends outside of volleyball too! I think there are much better high school romance to read.
Noooo, it’s over! Maybe the plot isn’t anything groundbreaking, but I totally loved it. The sports storyline, the romance, the character development, their backstories—everything was really well executed, at least for me. It felt real and made sense.
And honestly, it made me wish I had my own Nagisa in my life. The way he acted in this volume was just *perfect*—kind, sweet, confident, silly… I don’t know, he had it all.
I really enjoyed these mangas. Even with some tough moments in the story, it never felt heavy, but at the same time, it didn’t take away the seriousness when it mattered. I think it had the perfect balance. I loved the characters, both love interests, the friends, the volleyball team—I'm satisfied!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I'm glad I pick this book up. It was so nice to go back and check these two again. You never know what will happen. When one door closes and other one opens. I'm so glad the main two characters got together and stay together as the book ended. I can't wait to read more from these two if and when that happens. He told her why he didn't want to go back in volleyball because the death of his brother. However she brought back his love for it. Which made him really worried about her foot. There Christmas was so sweet and perfect.
Classic shōjo formulas? ☑️ Full of recycled cliché? ☑️ But all of those are decently executed.
At first I thought the conflict will be "overly dramatic", but it's actually not that bad.
One of the things that keeps me reading this series is the ✨SUPERIOR ARTWORK✨ Though the volleyball parts was kinda awkward, limpy, and not that smooth. But it's okay, since it's a shōjo and not a sport manga (( —and i just finished Haikyu!! not long ago LOL, forgive my high standard [wink] )).
Overall it's a cute and sweet series. One thing that detracts the enjoyment of this book is Kao's character development that is almost non-existed.
I liked the ending. I think how this finished was much stronger than the start. I also like that she didn’t blush and try to stop all affection (hand holding, hugs, and kisses). I wish we had more happy endings for other characters as well and apparently she has had a best friend this whole time we just never really saw her? This series is really just romance. Overall I think 3.5.
fue completamente genérico hasta el final? sí. pero a veces todo lo que necesita una chica es que dos lindos se enamoren de ella y peleen por ella pero que nunca exista el conflicto (porque nos gusta eludirlo) y que al final el mas lindo y mas traumado de los dos nos ame para siempre
03/06/2022 : Shojo plutôt classique (avec un festival d'école et tout you know) ! Plutôt sympathique, les dessins sont jolis parce contre j'ai trouvé ça un peu mou après le tome 5 je dirais.
Bref, « I fell in love after school » est un shojo qui, sans révolutionner le genre, arrive à nous divertir efficacement. J’ai beaucoup aimé le duo Kao/Kuze, l’alchimie qui se dégage d’eux et leur personnalité. L’ajout du volleyball est un plus non négligeable, qui est bien incorporé au récit et qui permet de le démarquer des autres séries romantiques. Il n’y a rien de spécialement originale ou d’émotionnellement fort dans ce mangas mais c’est mignon, c’est franc, c’est bien dessiné et ça se lit aussi vite que bien. J’ai passé un bon moment devant !
Final volume means a series review! I think this is a perfect non-offensive shoujo manga. It does a lot right, like having the male characters not hate each other and having the side characters have more development to them. All of that said, I think our protagonist, Kao, suffers from a lack of character development. She definitely grows into her own, but I think her goals and reasons for growth were too influenced by her romance with Nagisa.
Still super cute regardless.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.