Manga 24521 2 Kaime No Hajimete No Koi

The allure of a forbidden relationship is unfortunately absent in this poorly written oneshot. The many emotions, intense drama, and growing fear of being discovered are practically nonexistent. Ultimately, this 40 page one shot is a waste of time and a disgrace to all mangas about teacher-student relationships.

Story: 3/10
The story begins with an overused plot in which a high school girl reunites with her first love. From there, anyone can figure how the plot goes as the story is cliche and the romance shallow. A major plot hole is immediately discovered as the story lacks the falling action needed between the climax and the ... resolution. Instead of slowly developing towards a solution after the climax, the story plummets straight down, meeting its end before the reader is even aware of what had just happened. The potential for an intense drama and bittersweet romance is cut off halfway through the story, leaving the readers with a bitter taste.

Art: 6/10
As always, Kyoko Kumagai illustrates her strong talent for shoujo art in this one shot, which is sadly the only redeeming point of this manga. However, I felt that her depictions of Shin seemed a bit distasteful at times, making me want to discourage Yumika from pursuing her crush on Shin.

Character: 3/10
The character development is completely one-sided on Yumika's part. Yumika struggles with emotions, such as nostalgia, disappointment, happiness, sorrow, and embarrassment, which are all completely natural for a girl in her situation. The downside of this story is strongly attributed to Shin's character. He maintains a facade of stern seriousness, which is supposedly dropped after he realizes his feelings for her. No emotional struggle or any struggle at all for that matter is seen on his part of the story. Therefore, even in the end, the romance appears to be one-sided and the plot disconnected.

Enjoyment: 1/10
In retrospect, to the common manga reader, this one shot isn't as awful as I make it out to be. If I had to rate it objectively, it would probably be a 4 or 5 at best. However, in my personal opinion, I was appalled by the awful plot, the glossed over romance, and the blatant lack of character development.

Overall: 3/10
This story is only to be read if you are in dire need of shoujo romance reading material. Unless you don't mind wasting 5 minutes reading utter garbage, go look somewhere else. You'll be glad you did.