Thread: THE Suzuka Review

Hm..

Seriously. We've seen Love Hina. We know the Japanese couple's dream of entering college together, much less getting into a tier one college like Seijoudai or Toudai with your loved one. With Yamato gaining admittance into Seijoudai with Suzuka, it looked like he had more than anybody could ask for, but it all came crashing down once they found out about Suzuka's pregnancy.

That, I think, is where the central plot of Suzuka revolved around. Sure actually getting Asahina to be his girlfriend has a herculean task, as she's proved time and time again that she can be the biggest bitch on the planet, but I think that a dual admittance into a tier one college plus bright futures as both sprinters and high jumpers is something more horrible to be denied. Plus, during the wedding she said she was happy when he kept chasing after her, so that implies that the affection wasn't onesided and if Asahina decided to up the ante, Akitsuki definitely would have followed suit.

I think the manga handled most of the situations quite well. I was extremely pleased at the turnout of the pregnancy, as they decided to go with a birth instead of an abortion. This is a stoic contrast to American society, where the females are so undedicated to their husbands, and definitely vice versa as well, that the most overwhelmingly probable course of action would be not to get married, and abort the child. Honoka was a sweet girl, and I definitely wouldn't have minded to be able to see their relationship blossom a little more before the breakup, but like Honoka says herself, once Asahina was in the picture, she had no chance. I also really would've liked to see Hashiba or even Megumi or Yuuka, since I thought the plot confict with Yuuka was essentially meaningless since it literally ended with a sentence, "Sorry.. I'm engaged." Seriously, devoting over seven years of your life to hear THAT? Ugh, I've never seen time wasted more.

The only problem with the manga I had is how they handled the pregnancy situation, dropping out of college isn't the answer. There are plenty of teachers in America who teach while pregnant and then take a two weeks maternity leave. Catching up with two weeks' worth of material is by no means an easy task, but doable, as people with appendicitis and bronchitis and other ailments know the difficulties of making up much work as well, but you see that kind of stuff everyday. What I'm trying to say here is that if the manga were to go in a direction where both of them were able to stay in college, it's not really an unrealistic scenario. I really do admire Akitsuki's heart and drive in his willingness to sacrifice his track scholarship and entrance to Seijoudai, but let's be honest, it was pretty reckless. The payoff for four years of hard work in college would be immense, as Akitsuki would have both a college degree from one of the most distinguished universities in Japan as well as a career as a star track athlete. That equals one thing: $$. A pregnancy on average is nine months, and Asahina was three months pregnant before their senior term had ended, so that implies maybe a month tops of school plus a month of summer break, which translates into a five month pregnancy. She would've delivered the baby four months into her freshman term, the easiest college term, so it's not even like she was pregnant as a Senior with final exams rolling around. However, I will always be sad whenever I read a high school manga, because I hate it when graduation time rolls around the supporting characters have to say their sad lines, "We wil never meet like this again," (Ichigo 100%'s graduation chapter really got to me the most). Oh well, in a technological age such as today, staying in touch is literally as easy a press of a button. I think the biggest fear and sadness of graduation is the transition into an unknown and an unexpected. As a freshman in college, it's not even remotely as bad as I thought it would be. But, I think the ending could've been much, much more polished, and there was easily a happier route Seo could've taken the plot.

In the end, this manga embodies a very important and essential idea: to follow your dreams, and with pure love, anything is possible. Great job Kouji Seo, you've made this manga a very heartwarming read. 10/10.

But of course it has its flaws. Some can be forgiven. Some, not so much.

1. Little secondary character development. Girls like Yui and Honoka would appear for awhile as an anti-Suzuka, of sorts, then quietly fade into the background. Or that one college girl, who inspired Yamato to continue chasing after Suzuka. We still don't know whether she succeeded in attaining whoever she was out to attain.

2. The time jump could've been handled better, imo. It just came out of nowhere and caught most readers by surprise.

3. Track and field, which was given so much importance and the beginning and middle of the plot, basically faded to nothing for the last third or so of the storyline.

4. The pregnancy, at least for me, seemed like a cheap plot device used to end the manga on a positive note. Deus ex machina, if you will.

But all in all, it turned out better then I expected. I'd rank it higher than Love Hina but lower than Ichigo 100%. 6/10

Also the sudden change of mind of suzuka's parents about yamato still left me confused.

Originally Posted by be0wulf

But of course it has its flaws. Some can be forgiven. Some, not so much.

1. Little secondary character development. Girls like Yui and Honoka would appear for awhile as an anti-Suzuka, of sorts, then quietly fade into the background. Or that one college girl, who inspired Yamato to continue chasing after Suzuka. We still don't know whether she succeeded in attaining whoever she was out to attain.

2. The time jump could've been handled better, imo. It just came out of nowhere and caught most readers by surprise.

3. Track and field, which was given so much importance and the beginning and middle of the plot, basically faded to nothing for the last third or so of the storyline.

4. The pregnancy, at least for me, seemed like a cheap plot device used to end the manga on a positive note. Deus ex machina, if you will.

But all in all, it turned out better then I expected. I'd rank it higher than Love Hina but lower than Ichigo 100%. 6/10

Yep, that's basically what I said. It's really dumb how the track and field practically disappeared entirely at the conclusion. The time jump was pretty sudden too, it sort of felt like Asahina had been away for a year, but then it sort of didn't as well. But as for the pregnancy.. I'd hardly say the end of the manga was positive. It pales in comparison to what it could've been.

Haha, and if you rank this higher than Love Hina.. damn, what did you rank that?

Originally Posted by be0wulf

But of course it has its flaws.

Did you even read his post? Most of it was critique o_O

Originally Posted by Mican

Did you even read his post? Most of it was critique o_O

Haha, thank you!

Love Hina is a piece of crap. I rate it slightly higher than Naruto.

pretty good one you made there xRising,
the way they handled pregnancy was good but seriously their parents was so strict huh?why won't they lent them some money till they graduated from college instead of making yamato went to work...
I didn't think that track and field was that important ever since the beginning.
for me,it's just some of many way to getting close with a girl you like,yamato didn't like running from the very beginning.he just went into some random high school where he met his wife that at that time was practicing high jump and after some investigation she was dead serious in high jump so he decided to join track and field.

Love Hina is a piece of crap. I rate it slightly higher than Naruto.

woot,I would rate love hina a bit higher than naruto...naruto is trash nowadays.

Don't copy old posts and repost them (despite good intentions).

I thought there were several problems with the manga, with the pregnancy being the biggest and most notable debacle. The inactivity in certain chapters was exasperating (for those who remember) and irritating. Don't forget old names such as bakato.

Rising, the whole pregnancy and college life analysis at the end of your post is too realistic. This is a manga that, while it tries to be realistic, doesn't actually reflect realistic decisions(like most mangas).

I agree that most of the women in the manga were given crappy endings, but I disagree that the central plot of the manga, as you put it, is:

With Yamato gaining admittance into Seijoudai with Suzuka, it looked like he had more than anybody could ask for, but it all came crashing down once they found out about Suzuka's pregnancy.

The pregnancy and the Seijodai acceptance didn't come until very late/the conclusion of the manga. There is no way this is the central theme of the manga. This manga was enjoyable because it is pretty much another rendition of the difficult love story and everyone liked it. Sure, it was original, but not that original. That is why most of the people who like Suzuka like other romance mangas. The theme you mention is important to the conclusion of the manga, but by no means is a central theme of it.

My ranking: 8.5 or 9.0/10.

P.S. Beo, our tastes are completely inverted. I love Naruto and Love Hina and think both are better than Suzuka. But I think Suzuka is better than Ichigo 100%.

I think suzuka and ichigo are just a tie. If the end of suzuka wasn't so crappy then it would have maid a higher rank.

But it's just like this :
Realistic: Suzuka>Ichigo
Character Usage: Ichigo>Suzuka
Anime: Suzuka>Ichigo
Manga: Ichigo>Suzuka
Seriousness/Romance: Suzuka>Ichigo
Plot: Ichigo>Suzuka
Artwork: Suzuka>Ichigo
Focus on main characters: Ichigo>Suzuka (Ichigo focuses more on the other characters better and I'm still not even sure who the heroine was until the end. Suzuka was just almost all about Suzuka and Yamato, the title was also kind of a give away. The girls in Ichigo had their different stories about Manaka, unlike in suzuka which was always focused on suzuka and for a little time Honoka.)
Unpredictability: Suzuka=Ichigo (well at least for the first to the middle part, but the latter part's gotta be Ichigo)

The track thing that was gone was just like Manaka giving up his dream to go after the girl w/ the strawberry panties after knowing who she was. So it's pretty much a tie afterall.