Fujishiro Nanaki was the class queen, perfectly beautiful and relentlessly bullying Kurokawa Kanade for her "ugly looks". But when said Kurokawa comforts her after overhearing Fujishiro getting dumped by her cheating boyfriend, she changes her ways and the two become friends.
Before I get into the actual review: At the start of the manga, they have this little "beautification" where Fujishiro buys Kurokawa new clothes, does her makeup, she gets a new haircut, etc. (which I find a bit superfluous anyways, since she was already pretty) AND THEN THEY TAKE HER GLASSES AWAY and she doesn't put them on again for the majority of the manga!! Why does making a girl beautiful always entail taking her glasses away?? I thought we were over 90s teen romance tropes? Aside from that, I really liked this one. The characters were very well written (even the side characters!) and and their growth over the course of the manga (especially Fujishiro's and Kurokawa's) was built up very well. Kurokawa's inferiority complex was very relatable to me in how it was written. The romance scenes were very cute, especially them blushing at the beginning. Emotional scenes always were illustrated very beautifully, and that really shone through in the ending, which also neatly pulled all threads together. I was really happy both of the pairs got together in the end. Kurokawa's emotional breakdown at the end could have been less spelt out, high school girls normally don't have quite the emotional awareness she exhibits in that scene, but I don't grade these manga on realism. I also wish the epilogue chapters were translated.
This manga was a very enjoyable read which I really recommend, but I felt it lacked some kind of oomf factor, some kind of memorability which would have granted it the 4/5 rating.
Rating: 3/5