Furi Youko definitely looks like a she's got a tough-girl image that wouldn't be out of place in a gang. When Taira Namito finds himself sitting next to her in his high school class, he's immediately afraid of her. But as it turns out, Furi's rough-and-tumble exterior hides a wholesome, totally cute person underneath -- and she's got the hots for Taira. (Not that he has any idea, of course.) One misunderstanding leads to another in this romantic comedy about a clueless dude and the adorable, slightly terrifying affections of the tough girl by his side!
Oh, geez, this book seems like it was custom-written for my tsundere-loving tendencies.
Furi Youko starts high school with a reputation for juvenile delinquency. She's physically strong and aggressive, and she generally wears a frown or casts an intense stare. And all this is freaking out the poor nerdy schmuck who has to share a desk for her. He obliviously imagines her hating him all day long, when he couldn't be further from the truth.
So Furi-San basically has a resting bitch face. She always looks scary/annoyed. But in actuality she just has a HUGE crush on her classmate who sits next to her. Taira, the guy who Furi has a crush on, is basically scared of her because of how she always looks moody. But it's actually the opposite, she wants to be close to him. Tus starts some really fun adventures.
Listen, this isn't a brand new idea. The story is been seen a million times but if it's done effectively, and the characters you grow to like work, then it hits all the marks. Most scenarios wrap up within 2-3 pages, which makes this a really quick read. But there's multiple times I chuckled or laugh, I liked the designs a lot, and the pacing flew by. I ordered book 2-3 because of how much I enjoyed this one.
Taira thinks his high school life is off on the right foot when he is placed next to a girl on the seating chart. Said girl, Furi, however, seems more likely to break that foot than anything else. Underneath, however, she has a heart as pure as they come; shame about those expressions though…
Yep, we’re back in the scary-but-not-scary romance genre again. This one’s a really good example of what is rapidly becoming a very crowded manga space and it balances the comedy, the romance, and the fan service juuuuuust right.
Taira is your (very) average guy who isn’t good at reading people and this doesn’t help when you have somebody like Furi, whose scowl game is very strong. They basically spend the volume with Furi sending signals and having them constantly get misconstrued as anything but the romantic overtures they actually are.
Taira’s fine, but Furi is certainly the far more entertaining of the pair. Much different than the far less sophisticated fare of Hitomi-chan is Shy With Strangers and the more sadistic I Belong to the Baddest Girl in School, Furi is genuinely sweet and very interested in Taira and absolutely awful at showing it.
The two get up to a fair amount of mischief of their own devising, as Taira tries to avoid Furi and Furi is… equally bad at receiving signals she’s not interested in. What helps this along is that their relationship slooooowly evolves over the course of the book, so it’s not stagnating as it reiterates on the same jokes.
So, Furi’s a good starting point, and carries large chunks of the story, but what truly makes this book a cut above is its side characters, who turn out to be the kind of people you’d really want in your corner if you were ever going into battle.
From the new teacher who’s been told to keep an eye on Furi but cannot handle how bashful the latter is being with her crush, to the lecherous manga club president who comes off way too strong, but turns out to be not as oblivious to 3D as he appears, they are all great additions.
Special mention to Furi’s female friend, who is initially scared to death of her classmate but is then moved to tears (repeatedly) by her. The two end up forming a tight bond that’s one of the genuinely nicest female friendships I’ve seen in a while (and lends to some amusingly foreshadowed fan service at the end). It’s arguably more charming than the romantic pairing.
And the romance is really good too. An absolutely adorable cat appears and comes through in the clutch. Taira tries to get out of loaning a DVD and sends poor Furi’s blood pressure pounding. Cooking class reveals everybody’s hidden sides. Taira is definitely not wearing the pants in the relationship when it comes to heavy lifting. It’s both sweet and funny in equal measure, with the occasional thought that lets you know that Taira’s a teenage boy.
3.5 stars and I think I’ll nudge this one up because it doesn’t really have a mean bone in its body. If you love this genre you’ll be in heaven and even if you’re tired of it there’s enough to make it worth a look. A real winner.
Playing on a stereotype of delinquent girls in Japanese society called sukeban this is a typical misunderstanding romantic comedy that comes off as really cute. I do like seeing a strong female lead in the series that is also capable of gentleness and even take on motherly duties to take care of her siblings. As the story continues Furi picks up new friends like the obese otaku Okuta Takuo (so otaku his name is an amalgam of it...twice) and the easily moved to tears Maeda Kaho who realizes fairly fast Furi's feelings even though she was intimidated by her like many others initially.
Artwise this was pretty nice book with expressions pretty clearly portraying not only emotions that each character is experiencing but also the occasional humorous moments that make the book enjoyable to read. With a slice of life style of short stories showing everyday life around the two main characters those people looking for more plot driven stories might be bored considering the toughest person in the story is a real softie for the man she cares for.
Been a while since I went to buy the next two volumes before even finishing the first one. A very cute story with quite fun characters. Gave me heavy Takagi-san vibes, with a little of Horimiya and Komi sprinkled in. I'll be diving into vol 2 asap.
4/5 No Matter What You Say Furi-san is Scary is a cute slow build romantic comedy. It reads a lot like a 4-Koma there’s usually a gag per page. This is my 3rd weekly new manga series release review.
Taira is a typical freshman dork. He is sat next to Furi a tom boyish girl who seams distant and has a case of resting bitch face. He’s a little scared of this pushy introverted girl. Unknown by Taira is that Furi is developing a crush on him.
I enjoyed this volume but it was way too short clocking in around 150 pages. However Furi is super cute and the manga is sweet and fun.
It feels like have been here recently, I read a series called "I Belong To The Baddest Girl At School" and this is so similar. Main Girl is either or perceived to be a delinquent and has feelings for a plain scared guy to which the series follows the misunderstandings of the two. This one is alot more light for want of a better word, not as much violence or the MC being a lap dog more just cautious around her which is a nice difference.
I cant say at this point which I prefer out the two, as I've read 3 volumes of the Belong series and the first one of this, I have 2 more volumes to read right now of this series so I'll see in due course.
Would not say it's "groundbreaking," but giving five stars because I laughed SOOOO much when reading this! I genuinely had a fantastic time and could not get enough of these characters!
While in many ways, I would say it's a gag manga of sorts because we have the same scenario (just different situation) play out every chapter. However, I did not mind this because I specifically wanted it for that (as long as it was working towards a potential romance).
Furi is hilarious! Not becuase she means to be, but because the way she looks is so different then what she thinks, so people are always having a misconception of her until they get to know her.
Taira is cute! He's pretty "dense" and is usually the one who is always thinking the wrong idea about Furi's actions. ;P
Enjoyed the art style, enjoyed the story, and had a great time! Overall, I would recommend if you need something that is light and want a good laugh!
It's a very cute romantic comedy about a boy who ends up sitting next to a somewhat scary-looking girl in class who turns out to actually be very sweet. As with any new series it took me a bit to find the rhythm, but I really ended up enjoying the volume as I got used to the flow and I liked how it seems to avoid some of the lesser romcom tropes. I liked that Furi-san realizes she like Taira pretty quickly and that her affection for him actually leaks to the side-characters pretty quickly. It was a nice change from trying to keep everything secret and while Taira still hasn't quite figured it out, I think it's fun that basically everyone is trying to play wingman to these two. I think my favorite side-characters to far are the two main teachers, the lady teacher who really wants these two together, and the lazy dude teacher who for some reason pawns off every single task to poor Taira.
Language and grammar-wise this isn't too bad, generally I only really had to look up some romance and delinquent words, though the head of the manga club talks in an old-timey samurai accent that threw me for a loop. The actual trickiest thing about this series is more of a stylistic aspect. They don't always stick to the normal conventions of speech bubbles in this one, and it can be tricky at times to figure out when a line is spoken vs. being someone's inner thoughts. They don't always have the usual line pointing to who's saying or thinking something, so it can be a little tricky to figure out who the words belong to at times, especially when the panel cuts away from either of them to show something they're looking at. By around the second half of the volume I'd kind of settled in enough to generally get it from context clues and I expect the next volume to go more smoothly now that I'm used to it.
Tricky bits aside, this is pretty accessible and there's enough open ended here that I want to know more about the characters. Will Taira stay dense? Why is Furi so scary? As far as "weird class neighbor" stories go, it's definitely a lot more grounded than something like Tonari no Seki-Kun, but it kind of fills that gap that Seki-Kun left for me once I was finished with it.
I like the “tough-looking, delinquent-type who secretly has a heart of gold paired with a sweet, cinnamon bun of a character” trope very much. It works very often, especially with most heteronormative relationships [i.e. tough guy + sweetheart girl].
With this series, I was really excited to see the trope reversed—with a tough girl + sweetheart boy.
And, granted, I do find the central relationship to be adorable and wholesome—that���s not the problem with this one.
It’s just a rather boring, “meh” story aside from the role reversal of an otherwise traditional—and enjoyable—trope. This story is so… unremarkable. Uneventful.
A story can be a lot of things—but it can’t be boring. That’s a cardinal sin.
Maybe that’s just because of my tastes? I guess if you like a mild, slice-of-life romance with a little bit of a twist in terms of tradition gender roles, you make like this series? For me, I just found it to be a tad too easy-breezy and bland~
Furi is the kinda girl who dances to her own beat. Unfortunately, it makes most other students (and a number of senseis) think she's a delinquent. She's not. She's actually really sweet, and loves cute things. Her favorite cute thing is the boy who sits next to her, Taira. He's scared of her because of her image, not realizing she's crazy about him. After a series of events, the find out where each other lives. She insists Taira regularly visit, as does her cute little brother, who adores Taira. I see good things in store for these two classmates.
Cute! But not quite on the complete wholesome level that I wanted it to be. I definitely got some Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie and The Girl with the Sanpaku Eyes vibes here, just not done quite as well. A bit too much fan service for my taste (again, it’s always the high school minor girls).
Ending was stronger than the middle, where it dragged a bit. I’m on the fence about continuing here.
More 2.5 stars for me. Kinda cute, kinda funny, decent artwork, just mediocre. The sometimes 4-koma, sometimes not makes this unbalanced with panel layouts very underwhelming. It’s so helter skelter I blew through it thinking about others of this ilk doing it so much better. I don’t feel it’ll get any better then this, so It’s a one and done.
Furi is actually really cute, and this series is genuinely funny. The teacher cheering them on is a riot, and their desk neighbor crying uncontrollably from Furi's cuteness just sends me. A very amusing romantic comedy! Unfortunately, it's not complete. I got up to chapter 28, and it looks like there's been no updates for a while.
Nothing mind-blowing, but so friggin cute. Furi-san is the definition of tsundere. The supporting characters are also really funny and cute, especially Furi's little brother. Love the teacher and deskmate cheering on Furi-san and her crush.
Comedia estudiantil regular, en 5 libros. El protagonista tiene miedo de la aparentemente delincuente juvenil Furi, la cual se sienta a su lado. Lo que no sabe es que las apariencias engañan. Furi es realmente una tierna doncella que simplemente no sabe expresarse. Enredos y más enredos.
So cute! Girl looks like a delinquent and has a scary resting face. In reality, she's in love with the boy sitting next to her, and she's a total marshmallow inside.
It's your standard scary-dere heroine who pines after the oblivious bland male lead. It goes for the clumsy/cute/heartwarming angle rather than gags or ecchi.
I am much more interested in the friendship between Maeda and Furi, than anything else, but I am not sure I am motivated enough to continue reading the series. The art style is cute.