Faster than a Kiss (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I started this manga a while back as part of my manga suggestions and I quite enjoyed it. I didn’t realize that it was close to ending when I caught up to the new chapters. This series was an enjoyable read and the ending was quite nice. I still found quite a few of the elements of this series disappointing, mostly the main character, Fumino Kaji. I can reference my other reviews to remind you that I love a strong female protagonist, and Fumino just wasn’t doing it for me. Regardless the manga was still an enjoyable read with some nice characters.
The plot follows a young girl named Fumino Kaji. She and her younger brother Teppei are homeless after their parents’ deaths until Fumino’s kind teacher Kazuma Ojiro tells her that he will marry her to give them a home. From this moment onward Teppei and Fumino live with Ojiro Sensei in secret while Fumino attends the school he teaches at. She is thought of as a delinquent because she often gets in fights defending others and sleeps through class. Fumino tries to do “wife” things for Kazuma but her never lets her so much as kiss him and only lovingly takes care of Teppei. Eventually both Fumino and Kazuma develop real feelings for each other and the story follows them as their relationship grows in the midst of hiding their secret from everyone in the school.
The plot of this manga is really quite nice despite its many slightly cliché elements. In essence it is a reverse love story. The couple starts off being married but not in love and they end being in love and not married. The only critique I would have about the plot is that most of the conflict came from the same couple of problems. If it wasn’t Fumino being insecure about Kazuma’s feelings for her it was the two having to hide their secret from a particularly nosy new character. The manga also contained the typical elements, beach trips, being forced to spend the night alone in a hotel, and a restricting rich family. I felt like a bit more could have been done with these basic shoujo story lines, but it was done well enough that I still enjoyed reading the manga. The only part of the plot that I found over average was the ending. It was very sweet and well done. The ending gave the reader everything we had been wanting during the rest of the manga and I wish the earlier chapters had shown more of the potential that the ending had.
The characters were really lacking in my opinion. Kazuma Ojiro was pretty good at certain points, especially when we explored his past as a delinquent in high school, but he was still a little too perfect for my taste. I mean how many times do they have to write the “rich guy who ran from his family legacy” character to realize that it has been overdone. I can think of at least three manga guys with this same story just off the top of my head. Kazuma was also annoyingly noble at times. **Spoiler alert** the guy doesn’t even kiss Fumino until the final chapter. I know he is constantly trying to protect her, but no wonder she has an inferiority complex! Despite my dislike for Kazuma’s boring character, Fumino was even worse. She was one of the most needy and insecure main heroines in manga I have read so far, only rivaled by Tsubaki from Kyo Koi wo Hajimemasu. I suppose Fumino got suggested as a “strong” female character by my tumblr friends because she gets in fights, but by the end of the 10th chapter that part of her takes a back seat. She is constantly being saved by Kazuma or crying because her doesn’t love her enough. She is also so apparently irresistible that half the guys in the manga fall for her too. This kind of character really bugs me because she just isn’t awesome enough to have all the guys want to date her (not like Kyoko Mogami for example). I was happy to see her get a happy ending, but I felt pretty neutral toward her most of the time. She didn’t make me like her all that much.
Overall I would rate this manga as average. If you’re bored and looking for some romance that is extremely innocent, check this out. Don’t go here if you want a unique female heroine or some steamy scenes because you won’t get them. It is a nice read for shoujo lovers like myself, but I don’t expect to come back here and reread it again. I give this manga a 3/5 for my manga review.
Related articles
- High School Debut Review (luciustheninja.wordpress.com)
- Hana Kimi Review (luciustheninja.wordpress.com)
