Definitely a great ride. A lot of the stuff was easy to see coming, but the "how are they gonna pull it off" aspect of it was great. Also great to see such a long crossdressing series get a good ending. Minori is great <3
if you're here in the comments section looking for anything to help you decide whether or not you should read this, then maybe i can help you with this:
it's a wild ride. and it's strange. creepy, even, if you look only at the surface. but it is also surprisingly wholesome and pure. and it's definitely not without its flaws. but it has a lot of heart and sincerity. and fun. sometimes that's enough. maybe if you witness it to the very end, then you might even find yourself shedding a tear while wearing a stronger smile than any you've had before. i was not even remotely interested with AKB before this. but now i might just start listening to their music!
(thank you for the tls! now ive got one more series to buy and carve into my heart!)
It's been around 3 years since I've read this and I came back to reread it every six months. This really is my favorite manga and I can name a lot of reasons for that, but one I would like to highlight is the love and effort put by the scanlators in the chapters. The amount of AKB48 knowledge and trivia sprinkled throughout the manga through tl notes and entire pages is amazing and adds a lot to the experience. I also can't help but praise Striptease and Whimsical Meatloof for making such a good effort in the final stretch of the manga, and even going as far as doing chapter 292.5 three years after they had completely finished translating the manga. The amount of love and passion that went into delivering AKB49 to english speakers crosses the boundary of language, I'm really thankful for all the scanlators that took part into it
For me its an amazing manga but the end doesnt felt like it . It will be a good idea to show the relationship between minori and hiroko , he teased us for 262 chp but nothing happened
great manga, i thought there will be america actor arc but it seem to be cutted/thrown, to bad it dont go longer -_-, thats the only bad thing about this manga
One of my favorite manga now after finished watching it for 2 days, at first I found this manga by accident bc I try to find similar manga but I found this instead on reddit and at first I thought I'll just read this to kill time bc there's a lot of chp and I never thought that it would be this good, 250-262 is so fcking good and it makes me tears up a lot I'm so glad that I found this manga. And that's all goodbye and to those who read this have a nice day
Sometimes it takes a man to be the best woman, the Manga.
Half joking aside, when this was recommended to me I really wasn't sure I would like it. Cross dressing is not my cup of tea at all. But Rimoru's motives and charisma as he kept getting sucked deeper in the hole in pursuit of his dream won me over.
It's hella manly to go through the extent he did over 4 years to help Hiroku accomplish her dream. To take gamble after gamble head on, to reach the top. Climax did not disappoint.
My only disappointment with the series would be the ending feeling a bit short, and some nitpicks. For the former, I would've liked to have seen more conversations following the climax, and some more epilogue scenes. Or perhaps a short sequel series of sorts.
For the latter(nitpicks):
The plot moved a little too smoothly. Rimoru/Rimori is given an "impossible"obstacle. Somehow they pull it out. Repeat. Which is mostly fine, you are drawn in to the moment, but there just wasn't a true failure. Like Rimori losing rank due to failure.
Groping. Just a bit too much of it. Some of it was good as it was a threat to Rimori being discovered. But like we did not need pervy grandpa or others joining the mix. This trope can just go extinct, if it's not going to have the perp face lasting consequences, or be used to call out real world behavior.
Convenient plot points. Some of the aspects of the story just require suspension of disbelief. From effectively concealing identity without more problems. To the convenient developments regarding home situation. Sometimes it just let authors intentions bleed out too strongly like "I need the character to do this, so let me do that". Good writing conceals this with plausibility and creativity. Most of the time things were great, but some moments just stood out(cough cough when MC family moved out)(cough cough sister feeling like plot vehicle for the end)
Not giving enough time to tie up loose ends with characters. Like no conversation with sis about her brother having been an idol. No real heart to heart with main cast about the aftermath. Not resolving Rimorus future thoughts/plans. Like his whole purpose was to help his friend reach the stage, then it became helping the entire group reach greater heights. But we never got any resolution on his thoughts or goals after exiting the stage. Less can be more sometimes, but this was missed opportunity for catharsis.
All in all this was a great story about a boy with great passion and a dream, who stayed committed and clear eyed in accomplishing it. A touching and inspirational tale.
