• Birth Date: March 11th, 1972 • Blood Type: A • Zodiac: Pisces
Kazune Kawahara (河原和音) made her manga debut at age 18 with Kare no Ichiban Sukina Hito (His Most Favorite Person). Also, while thinking of her manga, she often spaces out and brings grocery baskets home. Adores her nieces.
Perfect, perfect, perfect! I LOVED that final chapter! It was soooo good and had a good dose of humor and just shows how far this lovely couple has come.
I also really enjoyed the bonus stories (except Asa's but no surprise there LOL), especially Yoh giving advice on what people should or should not do at karaoke bars. LOL!
The last side story was really cute!
Overall, I LOVEDDDDDD this series! It was everything I hoped for and more. Very good!
I finished rereading this series on March 17th, and at the time I didn't have much to say aside from how well HSD held up since the last time I'd read it, which was somewhere in ... I don't know, 2012? 2010? But I've returned with a somewhat cohesive review.
This review is for the entire series, and therefore contains spoilers. I've left this review on the final volume in the series for a reason.
Synopsis: Haruna Nagashima has one goal upon entering high school: leave her tomboy image behind and bag a man! Or rather, since this manga is mostly pure fluff, find love. Unfortunately, Haruna's idea of romance comes directly from the shoujo manga she read on the sly after softball practice. She is, needless to say, woefully unprepared. Enter Yoh Komiyama, an incredibly attractive upperclassman who happens to be exactly what Haruna is looking for...in a coach. Though Yoh resists at first, eventually he agrees to teach Haruna how to find love. The only condition? Haruna isn't allowed to fall in love with Yoh.
The Review:
Pro Tip: If you can find the live-action film they made...it's absolutely worth the watch. They crush a few different storylines together to make it fit into the timeframe, but it's funny and the acting is pretty solid and it's just a nice, feel-good film.
**STAR BREAKDOWN AS OF 3.23.22:** ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Series Overall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Characters ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Art ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Standard RomCom “Drama”
[[I've left this same review on the last volume of the 3-in-1 version of High School Debut because...Goodreads doesn't have a better way to review manga 🤷♂️]]
This review is of the entire series, not just the last book.
If it weren't for the library, I'd probably have never heard of this series; thankfully, they had the entire series...and in omnibus format, at that! Some people may laugh at having three books in one, but I grew up on Garfield Fat Cat Three Packs, so, I don't mind an omnibus; sometimes, I prefer two or more books in one to just a single installment.
This series in particular starts off interestingly enough; most of it read like a Disney Channel sitcom. I was disappointed to see sexual references in the later volumes, though at least it kept things relatively clean compared to most "PG-13" media.
It's been a while since I completed an entire series in such a short period of time; I definitely had fun with this one!
Aw man! I wanted more! I wanted to see Haruna move to Tokyo or something (more than what we saw that the end of vol 13 in the one year time jump).
There was a lot of side stories at the end. I’m not usually the biggest fan of those but this mangaka finds a way to make it a part of the ongoing timeline so they’re not hard to get through.
Overall thoughts on High School Debut, I loved this series!!! 5/5 stars!!!! It was hilarious. It was cute.It was fun! I loved the characters and to be honest, I would read a spin off about their college lives/adult lives if the mangaka wanted to continue!!!!
Ce tome a fini par sortir en France 7 ans après le tome 14. Je ne savais même pas qu'il existait un tome 15. Du coup, je me suis refait la série plus de 10 ans après ma 1ere lecture. Je me rappelle avoir adoré, ce shojo pétillant qui était différent de ce que je lisais habituellement. L'héroïne est attachante, pas du tout niaise, pleine de vie, motivée. J'avais trouvé original le point de départ et à ma relecture je me souvenais surtout du début. Je pense que c'est parce que c'est le debut qui est le plus réussi, le côté coach et le début des sentiments... Le milieu de la série est cute et drôle, même si on retrouve les codes shojo mais sans tomber dans le larmoyant et dramatisme. Au final même si cela fait 13+ 2 tomes, la série est courte et va vite. Il y a peu d'evenements marquants. Mon bémol vient de la fin, avec cette sempiternelle séparation du couple principal et des tomes 14 et 15 qui ne concluent pas vraiment. Ce sont juste des tomes pour revoir les personnages et voir la relation à distance mais j'aurai aimé avoir l'après dans le futur. (Cela renforce mon sentiment que divine nanami a vraiment une super fin) Mais cela reste une série que j'affectionne particulièrement. Léger drôle pétillant. Peut être même un peu en avance sur son temps.
Dieser Manga war alles in allem nicht schlecht, aber ich hätte mir einfach mehr Yoh und Haruna gewünscht. Die Hauptstory war, meiner Meinung nach, zu kurz und ich hab nicht das Gefühl, dass die Geschichte abgeschlossen ist - das kann natürlich daran liegen, dass die eigentliche Geschichte zwischen Yoh und Haruna bereits am Ende von Band 13 ein Finale hat und die Bände 14 und 15 chronologisch im letzten Drittel von Band 13 anzusiedeln sind (ich hoffe das macht Sinn - falls nicht: In Band 13 gibt es am Ende einen Zeitsprung und Band 14 und 15 füllen die (zeitliche) Lücke teilweise aus); vielleicht gerade deshalb fand ich diesen Band eher unbefriedigend: Er endet nicht genau vor dem Ende aus 13 und das 'Ende' in diesem band kam - für mich - viel zu abrupt. Schade eigentlich - zumal dies wohl der wirklich letzte Band ist.
The final, final volume of High Schoold Debut! Exactly like volume 14, this one continues with the one shots, give us bonus stories, and chapters not featuring Haruna or not featuring Yoh.
It is officially the end and I'm so sad to say my goodbyes to all the characters... The series was full of laughter and love and there was plenty of comedy gold. I'm gonna miss the characters so much ( ಥـْـِـِـِـْಥ)
loved the protagonist, the romance was ok and wasn't that cringy, not sure if i want to reread it but maybe,, i'll just consider it. anyways, the plot was really good in my opinion, and the ending was satisfying.
More stories from You and Haruna's long-distance relationship. I don't think I said this in my review of volume 14, but these are completely unnecessary to the main story, which did end in volume 13. They are cute though! The stories in this volume were shorter than the previous volume, so there's quite a few of them. Let's see if I can remember them all.
The first part dealt with Haruna getting into You's school and her trials and travails. Because it's Haruna, so of course, nothing is easy. I got a little annoyed with this plot. I mean, really. How many things can go wrong for one person? At some point, it just feels like you're reaching too far. It was sweet, though, because You made it clear to Haruna just how much her coming to Tokyo meant to him.
There was a story about You making friends at school that was quite cute. It did a good job of showing how other people perceive You, because we know Haruna is completely biased.
There was a story about Asami and Fumi that I really liked. Asami is not my favorite character, but this was quite cute and made it clear that they do like each other a lot, despite what you might think.
Then there were a couple shorts. In one, Haruna is trying desperately to study for her exams, but keeps falling asleep and having ridiculous dreams. In the other, You explains to everyone how karaoke should be done. These seemed more like space-fillers than anything.
And the volume wrapped up with an unconnected short story that felt like the spiritual predecessor to My Love Story. Misato, the main character, always gets upset over manga that feature love stories between childhood friends. This is because she's had a crush on her childhood friend for ages, but has never dared do anything about it, partially because they're just not that close, and partially because he's pretty ugly and socially awkward. This was cute in its own right, but I think I particularly liked it because of the hints of My Love Story to come.
Bref, malgré les années qui se sont écoulées, j’ai pris autant de plaisir à lire « Koko Debut » que la première fois. J’ai rigolé, beaucoup souri et j’ai adoré les personnalités originales des personnages qui nous permettent d’éviter quelques clichés. Le mangas pêche par ses dessins et par ses planches parfois trop chargées en texte (surtout au début) mais pour le reste, on passe vraiment un bon moment ! Enfin, en ce qui concerne le dernier tome que je n’avais jamais lu et qui est sorti 7 ans après la fin de la série, il n’est clairement pas indispensable. C’est une suite de petites histoires racontant le devenir de différents personnages et bien que les fans de la première heure seront ravis de replonger dans l’univers, pour les autres, ce tome ne révèle rien de sensationnel.
I forgot that manga counted towards my overall goal for the year, and since I was feeling lazy today, I went through the entire series online. Thank you, Internet. Don't read this if you don't like shoujo tropes/dislike secondhand embarrassment. Also I am NOT a weeb, I just felt nostalgic today and wanted to reread something sweet.
This manga has a soft spot on my heart if only because it was one of the first more sillier shojo slice-of-life stuff I read. If you aren't looking for anything too serious or something goofy with a cute romance and fun characters, this is a great read.
Haruna gets into the university that Yoh is in. Asami gets some competition for Fumiya's attention, but of course Fumiya turns her down. Asami wouldn't give up easily anyway.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Dear author, your hair doesn't magically grow to be way over your shoulders in 5 months time. :P (As we saw her with long hair in the last pages of volume 13.)
It seems we only had one more chapter for this Long-Distance story, what a shame, I wouldn't have minded more of them, or at least seeing them go through those last 5 months and planning to live together (since I am guessing they will be doing that given they are going to the same school, are 18+, and are in a relationship, plus I am also sure it is cheaper to do that then to have 2 places).
The next stories are all spin-offs. The first one is mostly from Hara's POV. I didn't quite like the guy and how he judged Yoh. In the end he turned to be nice, but I still don't like him that much. Of course he would think that Asami is Yoh's girlfriend, he really doesn't have any pictures which are good from Haruna, well, OK there was one :P
The next story is about Asami. Not my favourite girl, and add to that we have another girl who I don't like. She is named Lira and is being quite bleh towards Asami (though she has a point about Asami's personality). I didn't like how Lira went after Fumi, and how she was flirting with him. That is just no, no. He is in a relationship, you know that full well, and you just do all those things? Bah. No. You are just as bad as Asami is, or at least, how she used to be. These days she still has a pretty bad attitude, but that is centred on other things. She is pretty faithful to Fumi. If only she would be a bit nicer.
Haha, the next story was absolutely brilliant. Of course we knew she passed already so this should rather have been done as chapter 5, and the other chapter as 6. But eh, it was still fun to read. I loved how she kept seeing Yoh everywhere, even offering her food. Girl, you need to go to bed right now if you are seeing that. Yoh of course knows her so he sends her text which has her going in a frenzy.
The next story takes place at karaoke, and I had fun reading it. I wonder where it falls in the main story. Before or after the graduation? Yoh is pretty knowledgeable about what songs not to sing, and also what not to do during karaoke. I wonder how he knows all that stuff.
Awwwwwwwww, this was just sooooooooooo sweet. *sniffles and wipes away her tears* This had nothing to do with the series, I don't think I would miss such a big guy. But it was just so sweet and perfect. I loved them both and I was rooting for them since the start. Awwww!
And thus a series comes to an end, I will miss this series, it was a bit awkward and cringey, but also hilarious, cute, fun, and I was rooting for everyone. I would highly recommend this series to everyone.