Fuka MizutaniRezensionen

A perfectly sweet ending to a perfectly sweet middle school romance!

A perfectly pleasant yet problematic book. I continue to like the gentle romance between the main 14-year-olds and am anxious to see how the new complication plays out next volume. And then there are the two 20-something women who keep responding positively to the crushes of 14-year-old boys as if they were viable romantic partners. Every schoolboy's dream depicted as romantically and as well as potential statutory rape could be.

The author noodles around with the main characters and all the established relationships in perfectly fine ways (well, except for the still creepy student/teacher quasi-romance), but what elevates this volume to being the best one in the series are storylines involving some of the side characters.

Goofball Kenji Kato brings the comedy as he tries to help a distressed girl who is trying to avoid being caught in a lie about how she is dating an upperclassman. Hijinks and misunderstandings abound. And the girl is totally appealing to a big tsundere fan like me.

Aoi Shiki brings the drama as she struggles with her huge crush on the female lead of the series, dreaming of somehow winning her away from her oh-so-perfect boyfriend. The school nurse is the only one aware of Aoi's crush and becomes a confidante and advisor. But in helping, she reveals something of herself that brings all the feels in the volume's climax.

As always, this manga is very sweet when it focuses on the main couple, and a little discomfiting when it dwells on the will-they-won't-they relationship between the fourteen-year-old student and his adult female teacher.

The main stories this volume focus on the students investigating supernatural urban legends about their school for a school newspaper article and trying to figure out which high schools they will be attending in a year or so. Gentle humor, slice-of-life scenes, and mild drama abound.

Nothing much is going to happen in this series in the foreseeable future, but it is always pleasant to visit with the characters as they tread water in their status quo.

The romance between the leads continues to be gentle and sweet. The romance between the bad boy and the teacher continues to be a touch creepy. This volume features the trope of a class trip to Kyoto. Solid and enjoyable execution.

This cute little tale of gentle romance and teenage crushes would be one of my favorite manga series if it weren't for the ongoing B-plot about the inappropriate relationship between the adult female teacher and the teenage male student. If not for that element I'd probably be giving this four stars, especially for the scene in which a young LGBTQ character has a moment of revelation.

Great start to a sweet romance

This first volume of Love at Fourteen is a wonderful introduction to some interesting characters. The realistic progression of the young couple's relationship (from class idols who are really childhood friends who act more mature at school than they do when they hang out after school, to a boyfriend and girlfriend who realize that the 'mature act' they have been putting on has become their actual personality and that childhood friend from yesterday looks a bit different now, in a good way) is handled with a natural flow of conversation and behavior. It is really well done.