Manga 70399 Seishun Buta Yarou Series

After watching the anime adaptation and absolutely loving it, I felt like rewatching it because it was so good. But I'm not the type of person who really enjoys seeing the same things repeatedly. So instead, I came to read the novel. Honestly, I was not disappointed at all. So far, it has given me all of the same emotion (if not more) than the anime has. I believe that the story really has a way that keeps you hooked... and I've been caught. I love the characters personalities, I think that this author has done an outstanding job of developing each and every character, ... and fitting them perfectly into the story as they should be. I'm loving it, you would most likely love it, and I plan on continuing to love it.

I have read through volume 3, and this review will be based on that.

The basic premise of the series is straightforward. A guy goes around solving supernatural problems, which always involves a girl. At first glance, this may strike you as nothing but ecchi fan service and harem trash. Reading the clickbait title and synopsis made me believe the same thing, at first.

Thankfully, it's anything but.

Combining relatable character drama, numerous heartwarming and wholesome character moments, along with the colorfully witty banter, this series was an unexpected gem. It does it's romance and drama better than most.

The drama is easy to sympathize with on many levels. ... Everyone is familiar with someone (or yourself) having a sibling complex- living up to the standards of your more successful sibling. Or anxiety problems stemming from failure and/or bullying- everyone gets bullied at some point in their life. Or wanting to do something unpopular- and yet you don't want to risk being cast aside by your social group. The list goes on. This series is filled with people with these relatable problems, and how they overcome it.

Additionally, despite there being a lot of girls, somehow this series manages to avoid turning into harem. Before the end of Volume 1, the protagonist Sakuta is already committed romantically to one girl. None of the other women introduced have romantic interest in him (one other does at first, but that disappears by the conclusion of the same chapter. It is never brought up or mentioned again).

But the biggest reason is the dialogue and banter between the characters. You'll laugh a lot, and it will remind you of all the things you and your friends from high school and college used to talk and tease each other about. This is especially true with the female lead and the male lead. I can't stress this enough.

Mai, the female lead, guards most of what she really thinks and can be off-putting at times. This is because she's a child actress who is used to people only being nice to her because they want something. Sakuta, on the other hand, is a crass and blunt lech who says whatever's on his mind with no filter whatsoever. And yet these two characters who are almost complete opposites of each other have fantastic chemistry. Their banter is clever and real. It makes every moment that they're together a pure joy.

Of course, it's not without it's flaws. There is no overarching plot, which may bother some. Rather, the series is very interpersonal, making each book primarily a character driven experience instead of a plot driven one. 'Quantum mechanics' as an explanation for the supernatural stuff is usually just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo (thankfully, the supernatural elements exist mostly as a backdrop reason to bring the characters together). The art is merely okay; it could definitely be better.

Overall however, this is a great series. It's one of my favorites, which I think says a lot, as someone who does not like much of what he reads. It's heartwarming and wholesome, the drama is relatable, the romance is sweet and endearing, and the witty banter is realistic. You'll laugh, shed a tear, and your heart will grow several sizes from all of the touching moments.

Highly recommended to all fans of romance and character drama.

A series of stories about a boy rescuing girls from their troubles. Not exactly an original idea, but could be made into one.

This review is based on the first six volumes, which is all that is available in English at the time of writing.

The first volume is quite nice – there’s enough too hook your attention and for you to care about the characters and the drama and sense of urgency is well executed. The story wraps up nicely, leaving the reader satisfied. That is where this novel could have ended. Not everything needs to be a series and sometimes a self-contained one volume ... story is good enough.

Unfortunately, the quality declines with the volumes. The story becomes more and more formulaic as the stakes keep getting less relevant. While I like the idea of using physics to explain the unnatural phenomena (and also, that not just the cliché Schrodinger’s cat alone was used but more were added), it does get a bit silly later - and more importantly, less relevant, as the situation gets more or less resolved by just talking it out, without the supernatural phenomena not really having much impact on the plot other than making the teenage troubles seem more interesting to the reader.

Character-wise, I commend the protagonist not being just a wuss that keeps taking verbal beating from others, as would be the typical archetype for male protagonist surrounded by female secondary cast. Sakuta holds his ground and I find his bickering with Mai entertaining. If only the entertaining style of writing extended just beyond the lover’s quarrel and more into the narration itself too. Or at least into other types of dialogue too. I would also prefer if the already established characters were more developed rather than having new ones being introduced for each volume.

Seishun Buta Yarou Series is frequently compared to Monogatari Seires, and I can definitely see why, the basic idea is really very similar. To me, Seishun Buta Yarou feels like a Monogatari Series for more mainstream audience, with most of its quirks being stripped down to create story with more universal audience, losing its originality in the procest. However, had I read Seishun Buta Yarou first, perhaps I would have felt that Monogatari Series is just unnecessarily weird Monogatari Series. Though, at very least I would like some sort of lampshading in Buta Yarou along the kind of “Stand users attract each others”, “one encounter with apparition will cause more encounters with other apparitions” or even “The right hand negates the protagonists luck, causing him to end up in all these unfortunate situations” just to make it easier to suspect the disbelief about all those situations suddenly springing out around the protagonist. Maybe we’ll get an explanation in some of the later volumes.

I also have to commend the series on being well done clickbait - presenting itself by an element that is rarely actually used. You know what I'm talking about.

Up until now I have not mentioned any specific spoilers, but next I’d like to talk a bit more about the 6th volume specifically, which won’t be possible without mentioning some. So, some degree of spoilers for volume 6 beyond this point, you’ve been warned.
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I have mentioned that the episodic stories were getting a bit too predictable with relatively easily resolved problems, so 6th volume was a nice change to this. It had some actually unexpected situations and also expanded upon some elements mentioned from the previous parts, which was a pleasant surprise. It did maybe go a bit too far with the helpfulness of the protagonist – despite being willing to help others, were few people would actually consider literally killing themselves to save someone, and Sakuta wasn’t exactly shown to be like that. More realistic would be if he prioritized his own life while being eaten away by some sort of guilt. That said, the volume did end in a cliffhanger, so we’ll see how that actually gets sorted out, but so far the 6th volume seems like the series might be on its way back to being a more interesting story.