Sakuranbo Syndrome

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Jan 20, 2018
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I love this manga: the way the rather silly premise is able to create a very interesting story due to the very life-like characters with their flaws and strengths paired with a pleasant and refined art-style makes it a truly great reading-experience.
 
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Gotta agree with @nasenbein

Wow! I am pleasantly surprised that the author and artist were able to deliver a story that resonates with everyday people on so many different levels. It was done in such a way that was crafty, witty, sexy and funny without being predictable. I thought that this story was going to have the main male character go through
many different girls and never be with the boss ever again due to an eventual dishonest betrayal, but that didn't transpire
. At the end I wanted more. I wanted to see how the
couple looked and grew, and I wanted to see the fucker who caused the car accident get fucked over in court and lose his job.
Most of all I wanted one last
scene with the 3 MCs rather than leaving it up to our imagination
. This kind of story is tough to pull through manga and it is rare. What a great balance of life lessons, wholesomeness and risque events.
 
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really didn't expect much, but was surprisingly good. Has a really good female character and overall pretty interesting and somewhat wholesome story. Last arc was pretty forced tho and the ending wasn't good.
 
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WIth such a premise, it could have been a really awful story but I surprised myself being sincerely engaged and rooting for the characters, and all the expressions the author can draw... damn, they really moves you.
Well, in the end there is the obligatory ending-climax with a quite forced antagonist... I thought it could have ended after the scene in the onsen hotel but well why not.
 
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Alright, heres my take. The story is very well made, with turnarounds on every corner and good character exploration and growth, with a happy ending.

The problem lies on the timeframe it ends. It could have ended way sooner or a little later, felt rushed and a bit disappointing (still a happy ending).

If you read only until chapter 87 you will instead have a 'very happy ending', and technically you will not miss as much as you think
you will have a ten years and two months skip till the end but will not see a bunch of really bad people being assholes to the max, with the characters, specially Rena, being hurt a lot, both physically and psychologically. Just stop here and I will let you know that the three get together even 10 years later, with a 20 y/o body Rena (30 real age). The story itself will have a 10 year skip, so you miss only what happened on those two months or so.
You can stretch it and read till chapter 88 but dont go any further, you might as well stop at page 20.

Let me tell you now, no, they dont show any interaction on the ending, only a big timeskip
10 years
, a lot of text telling about one event that happened to Rena and then an image of an older Rena, thats all. Thats why I said it could have ended a bit later, showing some interaction with the three, older now. So throught chapters 88 till the very end its only bad things happening to lead to a 'happy ending'.

Big spoiler, if you want to know if at some point something important will happen between Rena and Agawa
yes, they have sex while she is on her 10 y/o body, with Asou pushing them into doing it; at chapter 87, as I mentioned earlier the 'very happy ending. The story progresses in a way that leads you to think they do this more times, but doesnt really shows it.

About the characters I wanted to mention now Asou is the most unstable one, she has the highest highs and lowest lows of them all, and usually they happen one right after the other.
One chapter she leads them into having a threesome, with a kid body Rena and two chapters later she roundhouses her, ending the relationship of the three for a while, basically until the last chapter.

About Agawa, hes a good guy from start to end, besides one part
very near the end he puts Rena away as soon as he knows she doesnt needs him kissing her anymore. Yeah, I kinda get that he does that so she can grow up by herself, but also a dick move since he promissed to stay with her until the end, a very important promise that even makes so she doesnt suicides around chapter 80 or so.


Oh, and the two 'sequels' are not about the three (Rena, Agawa, Asou), so I didnt bother reading. People said "Kono S Wo Mi yo" is a good read, tho its missing 1/3 of the chapters to be translated so you dont get to know what happens.
 
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Hello? I'm new here in MangaDex. I want to find out about the ending, but I'm scared to get spoiled.

I have a request. I would like to know if this has a happy ending? This would really help me in reading manga with feels and a lot of tension.

Please help me, thanks.😗

Edit: I'm dumb, I didn't see the comment below me. It definitely mentioned a happy ending. Don't mind my comment please. Great manga btw, although I have only finished Vol. 1.😜
 
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@Roiisu: I personally would suggest stopping reading on Ch. 87, the chapters are garbage.

(You can look at the second half of the final chapter if you want for some closure, but it's not worth reading the story past the chapter I mentioned. You really don't get anything more out of it by doing so.)
 
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Umm... so, I can understand what people mean by the post ch. 87 feeling like contrived melodrama, but lets be clear that if there was a living "Fountain of Youth" walking around, there's no way in hell that that wouldn't get the attention of people who'd want to exploit the hell out of that. It would have been much better to weave that in the background of the story from the get-go rather than jamming it into the end. Still though, as far as manga endings go, it seems to wrap up in a way where the characters do have a sense of completion.
The timeskip is useful in the sense that Rena is allowed to "grow-up" on her own. Likewise witholding information about Agawa and Asou is good too as it allows the reader to come to their own conclusions. It's not known whether Agawa ever fully recovers or what happens with Asou and her work; we just know, simply, that all three choose to be together in the end... at that time it's no longer fate, but some affirmative choice that is made that the relationship that they shared was something of value to them all.
 
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I didn't find the characters (especially Agawa and Asou) to be good people. Although they do the right thing, I never found them likeable in the least bit. But they feel like real people. They make mistakes, and sometimes they just don't give a crap when they do. They are ultimately engaging and really carry the story. Even though at times I really couldn't "root for them", they never failed to entertain and intrigue me. The story isn't about loli porn,1 it's about being true to oneself and what it means to be an "adult". The story is well worth reading, and really moved me. There's so much behind the words and the pictures. It is... dare I use the word "literature"...? Maybe stretching it a bit, but the author is both a graphic artist and a writer, and I'm grateful he shared his story with me.

1
Aside from brief nudity, it barely has any.
 
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Meh. Super meh. There was a point when I was interested, but after reading it all... Meh
 
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The last arc could certainly make you ask why the author would even have bothered with it at all if that's how they were going to do it, but still. It could be worse. If you're a masochist, go check my comment on the last chapter for a link to one such series that could really leave you scratching your head about the author's intentions. Even for a tragedy it was kind of a bit much, honestly. Speaking of, tragedy tag on this one might not even belong there. Things happen, sure, but the ending looks fairly happy, or suggests happiness to come at least? Pretty sure when you're brought down you gotta stay down for it to be tragic, getting back up is kind of a win innit? Like calling a cancer survivor who gets to grow old "tragic." Not it isn't, they fuckin' did it man. The stuff before beating it would be drama, that tags already here too.

Anyway, getting a bit off the topic there. I do also agree with what Hootanic says down below. It should've been part of this all along, little of this and that here and there in the background, if it was going to be utilized like that. It does objectively make some sense for that angle to happen (if not necessarily the exact way it did).
 
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I don't know how to feel about the ending of this manga. Some say it was rushed, but I don't feel like it. What I do feel is that all the drama was incredibly unnecessary and ramped up to an incredible degree, making the mangaka unable to flesh out the "evil" characters more.

The author tried to make the evil characters sympathetic, but was so knee deep in drama with unnecessary characters that it didn't allow them to be properly fleshed out, making their half-assed motivations feel more ridiculous than sympathetic.

Also FUCK ASOU! Fucking cunt was the weakest link, the one that deserved major punishment yet she got to live happily ever after. Also Agawa never grew as character. I have nothing against flat arcs (Marty Mcfly is one of my favorite characters of all time), but Agawa felt gutless or spineless for never telling what he actually felt to any of "his women", specially Asou, who is a major cunt by the end even though she ended up being the "hero" of the clusterfuck she created.

Still I was glued to this manga until the end. I felt anger, anxiety, relief and many other things and I feel mildly satisfied with the ending but it also left me really frustrated by cutting off the growth of Rena and complicating things more than necessary.

This story could have been told with at least 70 chapters instead of 95, but I guess mangaka has to put food on his/her table.

All in all 7/10
 
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@Cain_art @Glomoro @ScherisMarie @ShionSinX @MOKALI @Aelth
You guys are right on the money. The manga could have and should have ended at chapter 87,
where they have threesome and finally are able to put their conflicts with each other to rest and accept each other
. Chapter 87 was the resolution to everything that the author has been building up to with the three character and that's where the story should have natural ended. Instead, the author felt the need derail that resolution and everything that lead to that resolution by adding 8 chapters of cheap, badly written drama and villain's for a "exciting climax".

Despite me seriously questioning on why the author would write such a unnecessary, badly written, forced arc and having that negatively impact the story overall, I still love Sakuranbo Syndrome and still think it's a great romance read. The 3 main characters in Sakuranbo Syndrome are these flaw, complicated, and insecure characters but are also these sincere mature characters that are just trying to find happiness despite the hardships of connecting and being accepted with other people. The art is also fantastic as people pointed out especially people's expressions, simple things as a character smile can be so endearing.

Overall a great adult romance read with actually good drama (expect for the last 8 chapters mind you). I wish more people would read this and get's it time in the spotlight. If anybody has anymore recommendations similar to Sakuranbo Syndrome (besides the authors other work that already read), by all means let me know because it difficult finding manga like Sakuranbo Syndrome.
 

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