Say I Love You

School is just around the corner so it's really time to crunch and roll out all these blog posts. I did promise my tumblr following that I would review Say I Love You. Hopefully it'll be as coherent as possible since I have a  tenacity  to post juvenile  writing.  Say I Love You without a doubt has been one of my favorite mangas for 2013. Maybe it's because I'm a sucker for high school romance stories, maybe because the manga has so much goddamn good art but whatever it is, I'm not alone when I say it's a good piece of work.

According to mangaupdate (a manga database used worldwide), out of 1026 votes, this manga on average is rated 8.45 out of 10. For a manga this is an extremely good average since majority of mangas do not score over a 9/10. I also must note, this manga is not complete and it's currently at its peak, so this score will change over time. 

I was attracted to the manga because it was very highly rated, and often compared to other favorites of mine like Mars, Gokinjo Monogatari (I will review that along with Paradise Kiss), and Denegeki Daisy. I almost did not read this manga because it was characterized as a smut manga. It's actually not a smut manga at all, the author is just usually a smut writer. 

Say I Love You's real attraction will depend on if you can become empathic with the main character. As with all shoujo mangas, the main character has a bit naivety and lacks some real world concept. Mei however represents many of our high school lives; bullied and lack of knowledge of love. As she develops, making friendships and growing her love, we as the audience continually look back on our experiences and compare and root on for Mei.

Scorings

Story: 8

The story line for Say I Love you, starts rather slow and quite unrealistic. The whole love affair between Yamato and Mei, RARELY ever happens in high school. Once the story picks up into their constant "love trials", things get more realistic and juicy. The drama between the constant love triangles and other things that tend to get in between their love tend to be interesting. Maybe as an american, there is many things I see and think to myself "Wow, that just doesn't happen." It could also be just how some things translate into English. 

Art: 10

Good manga are is really hard to find these days. Say I Love You consistently has been wowing me with art since the very first page. Oddly, cover art doesn't really appeal to me.

Literary Value: 7 

Overall as a story, it's a shoujo and it's a manga. What sepperates it from regular shoujos is that it has more adult scenes and thought processes but its a shoujo. A shoujo has a million cliches and Say I Love You is no different in that aspect. The overall story has been done before in one way or another. If you delve even further you come to see quite a lack in literary devices. The only one I can really pick out and say its been used to an advantage would be characterization. 

So my scoring would leave the manga at a 8.3 which is not much different from what the general audience would say. It's a good read that I suggest you to pick up. I'm really curious where the author is going to take this.

Anime

In the meantime of waiting for another chapter to release I did watch the anime for this manga. I solomenly ever watch the anime adaption of a manga because I feel the manga is always better and animes don't do enough justice for the manga. However if the manga is really good I will go ahead and watch the anime . 

The anime did justice in someways and did a lot of injustice in other ways. They took out anything that may of referenced sex, something that was discussed openly in the manga. They changed Mei (the heroine) character, to being this extremely shy person who couldn't even say a sentence without stuttering or simply murmuring. The latter made me quite upset because I loved Mei because she wasnt very shy, she would spew realism in a high school where everyone was carefree. In the anime, they shredded away her independent thinking and made Yamato her knight in shining armor who saves her from of world of loneliness. In the manga, Mei is independent and Yamato is simply a catalyst into helping her developing relationships. 

Other then that. The anime isn't bad. Not incredible either. I can't score it because I am a really tough grader for animes so everyone has their cup of tea. I suggest watching the anime first then reading the manga. It saves you from a whole world disappointment. If I didn't read the manga, this probably would've been an incredible anime.


EDIT:
 I just found out that there is an additional 10 special episodes that I didn't see so I will post a  separate  review and I will TRY to be as  unbiased as possible. 

Thanks for reading!! I hope my writing wasnt that bad this time. Comments, opinions, questions? Leave it down in the comment box, I reply as soon as possible!!

For awesome pics and updates/advice follow my instagram/twitter @moonangelko

Follow my blog and tumblr if you enjoy these posts! Comment so I know that you are reading!

xoxo Moonangelko