This manga had
comedy,
compelling character dynamics,
side characters that didn‘t overstay their welcome nor feel unnecessary,
both good and easily distinguishable designs for all characters,
character arcs beyond who loves who,
and above all, it kept things interesting throughout the whole run, despite the main duo getting together at the halfway mark.
most series that have the main duo get together either end within a couple chapters or taking a big nosedive in quality. So seeing this author from like 2004 who self admitted to making it up as she went when I see modern series flop at this is crazy.
There was a price for this to be fair. Like talking about how it’s been 3 years when the first half of the run was 2.7 years and the second half, 0.3 years is wild.