Sometimes youve got to get through those rocky starts. Sometimes something you thought was boring might surprise you a bit. Honey So Sweet is one of those series. It didnt hook me right away. It was cute but nothing grabbed me. Nothing made me care. However it slowly managed to grab my attention and while its far from being one of the best high school romances Ive ever read it was still worth my time. Nao isnt exactly a fan of delinquents but one day despite her fear she left an umbrella and bandages for an injured one. Her act of kindness touched the heart of the delinquent Taiga Onise who finds that he has fallen in love with Nao. Taiga isnt exactly a delinquent but a kind boy with a scary looking face and Nao finds herself opening her heart up to him despite her misconceptions. Honey So Sweet was really boring when I started it. It was cute but it didnt click with me and I didnt really care about the main characters and their relationships. And Im going to be honest even after finishing the manga I cant say that Im a fan of either Taiga or Nao. They were boring to me except for in the Miyabe arc but Miyabe made everything better simply by existing. I am the number one Miyabe apologist now. Shes probably one of my favorite love rival characters in shoujo manga. https://otakuusamagazine.com/Uploads/Public/whoneysweet.jpg The beginning is all about the characters getting together and establishing them and their relationship. Taiga is a really sweet guy but he has an intimidating look despite being quite innocent and naive. He is also quite oblivious. Before meeting Nao he wasnt shown much kindness and was avoided due to his appearance however somewhere down the line he stopped trying to make friends and shut himself off. Nao is a cute and timid girl who lost her parents at a young age. As a result she was raised by her uncle who she thinks she had romantic feelings for. And that was certainly a choice on Amu Meguros part. And Im not opposed to the series tackling tricky topics like that. After all the love story is about her and Taiga and she comes to realize that she mistook familial love for romantic feelings. And honestly Im fine with that sort of storyline I just wish it was handled better. Like Nao clearly has an emotional dependency on her uncle after the death of her parents and she never really got over that and that is sort of glossed over. And we never talk about what made her mistake familial love for romantic in the first place which probably has to do with her home situation And then Amu Meguro just couldnt keep her mouth shut and at the end of final volume starts talking about the things she wanted to do with the series and one of them was to potentially have the uncle reciprocate Naos feelings and become conflicted with her confession Which is a tad concerning. Some things we keep to ourselves and this one of them Miss Amu Meguro. https://i.pin.com/originals/63/be/5b/63be5bf2ac679a52c9ef1ac8866e2c3e.jpg Anyways the two of them were cute and had a healthy stable relationship but neither of them were particularly interesting. We get a love triangle with a guy named Futami who is in love with Amu. I found him really annoying personally. He becomes friends with Taiga only to fall in love with Nao instantly and then declare that he will not lose to Taiga who was her literal boyfriend. Hes just there to interfere with their established relationship without any regard to Nao or Taigas feelings. I just wanted to smack him since I felt like he was being really underhanded and a terrible friend to both of them since he was trying to break them up for his own gain. He gets a bit better especially in the Miyabe arc because Miyabe is amazing but he was still really annoying and made it seem like he was about to make some moves on Nao like acting like he was going to kiss her without her consent. Hes the worst type of second male lead and I honestly just want him to get a life. The side couple is really cute pairing up the cute looking but foul mouthed Ayumu and the mature cool and assertive Yashiro. They get an arc that revolves around Yashiros toxic relationship which honestly felt like textbook grooming. She was a neglected and lonely 14yearold and he was her college aged tutor who took advantage of her. He wasnt exactly a good person either and Im glad that Ayumu stood up for her. He and Yashiro also had good chemistry and I loved how Ayumu would get all flustered when Yashiro would make advances. And now I shall talk about my beloved Miyabe. I really related to Miyabe immediately. Shes very cute but extremely awkward. Shes shy and nervous and it takes her a long time to put her thoughts together in order to communicate with people. As someone with social anxiety and a slow processing speed I really connected with her. I might only really struggle with the processing stuff when Im put on the spot but I deeply connected with her. A lot of rumors spread about her and she had a hard time making friends. She also relied a lot on books about relationships and socializing as tools to help her in place of her lack of experience. https://www.heartofmanga.com/wpcontent/uploads/2016/07/HoneySoSweete1468887785580.jpeg Shes so sweet but very misguided. She has a hard time understanding romantic feelings even when she has some herself which is also something I relate to. However her crush on Taiga a guy with a girlfriend brings something out in her when she realizes what her feelings mean. She doesnt know what to do with her jealousy and she finds herself trying to replace Nao. She thinks if she can be Nao she will be able to earn his love. It was kind of funny actually watching her try and enact all sorts of romance cliches in the festival chapter to try and get Taiga to fall for her. And honestly this led to some great communication between the leads and Miyabe was quickly guided in the right direction which I really appreciated since she never really had bad intentions. I did find the ending where they propose to each other and the age appropriate romance with the uncle to be super forced and I found the entire last volume to be as boring as the beginning. I honestly think that the series was at its best when it didnt completely focus on Nao and Taiga or the uncle for that matter since they were the characters who felt the blandest to me. It was the side characters who really shined in this manga. The art is incredibly cute. To be honest Naos design was the one I liked the least. Taigas mom and Yashiro were simply beautiful and Miyabe was adorable. The guys all had cute designs as well. Ive noticed all of Amu Meguros character designs make the characters look much younger than they are. It was a cute manga with a bland start and finish but the stuff in the middle especially Miyabe is what makes it worthwhile. Its like a sandwich with boring leads and lovable side characters squished between them. I just wish Amu Meguro could have kept some things a secret. Some stuff isnt meant to be shared.
70 /100
12 out of 13 users liked this review