Kouya no Koi

I know this is slice of life but I feel like my head was chopped off at the end of it. It was so sudden. I wanted more. I really liked the tone of this manga. This is a light novel right? I wonder if there is any fulfillment there.....

ci sono rimasta un po male il comportamento dei genitori e la conclusione del manga sono un po tristi e incompleti avrei preferito un buon finale con un po di entusiasmo...

I pity Yuuya and Kouya for their future because of their parents... While the author didn't dwell too much on their parents' problems, I still feel its impact on those two kids.

I have to disagree with taiyaki114; I don't think there was much filler there at all.  I thought the final volume was very well done.  It was just a bit more subtle than a lot of romance manga.  The sensibility was a bit closer to a 'slice of life', but not exactly.  A 'slice of life' tends to be kind of laid back, where this was still sort of concentrating on the emotional highlights but not emphasizing the cut-and-dried plot events so much (although they do happen, they just aren't so much the point).

Anyhow.  The way she's been drawn all this time, I really can't imagine how the mangaka would suddenly turn around and show her and Yuuya making 'the beast with two backs'.

Not really, the theme of the manga has always been "the innocence of a pure girl". You can see this in the way all the adult women are always portrayed as being so tired and worn out (even the strong ones like Youko) and daddy's Peter Pan syndrome. Having Kouya turn into a mature woman herself would destroy the whole premise of the manga. This is a story of Kouya the girl just before she turned into a woman. It ends the night before that happens.....etc etc

So essentially the final volume was 90% filler and pointless.

Not going to write something too long on comments, but Louise, the baby, her father's infidelity and obsession of refusal to "taint" his daughter, her relationship with Erika, the new kid I don't remember the name of, and some other things I probably can't think of right now. I think the premise and the beginning were good, but it just crashed and burned.

Awww... Q.Q
There were some dangerous moments (since it's a shoujo, I guess), but still... It's a nice story and the ending is really beautiful. Definitely worth reading.

... Now, some cute lighthearted shoujo-ai story and my vanilla heart will melt away from happiness completely... for today)

Thank you so much, Dazzling Scans!

Great manga. One of the better shoujo I've read. Great characters, almost no angst, beautiful pacing, satisfying ending. Both the parents kind of disgust me though. 

Big thanks to Dazzling Scans for scanlating this.

That's the end? It felt pretty lacking and a lot of things left unsettled.

 

I'm assuming the series got the axe?

Not really, the theme of the manga has always been "the innocence of a pure girl". You can see this in the way all the adult women are always portrayed as being so tired and worn out (even the strong ones like Youko) and daddy's Peter Pan syndrome. Having Kouya turn into a mature woman herself would destroy the whole premise of the manga. This is a story of Kouya the girl just before she turned into a woman. It ends the night before that happens.

Thematic shoujo manga tend to end this way not because the series get axed but because the mangaka either experiences Conan Doyle complex or simply runs out of things to say. It's just naturally hard to stick to a theme over a long publication history. The disjointed feeling we get near the end is due to the mangaka's inability to match theme to page count, which is also common. The mangaka needed to write a story with just enough content to fill out the third book of the tankoubon but also with enough finality to end it there. This is very hard to do because manga are actually published as periodicals. 

You'll notice that the themes basically ran out at Chapter 9 (uh-oh) which is clearly not enough material for a tankoubon, so the mangaka had to bring in Aki, the baby, and Louise to extend the story (in essence adding new themes), but then abruptly cut off their participation to end the story with Yuuya's return. It's a pacing problem caused by trying to fit a periodical publication schedule to a graphic novel format.

That's the end? It felt pretty lacking and a lot of things left unsettled.

I'm assuming the series got the axe?

I really love the way this manga is written. The feeling you get when reading this (well, at least for me) is beautiful.

Seems like the next update won't be too far from now.

I read this two days ago and I already can't wait, haha.

This is quite interesting . . . these characters, they feel like there's more to them than you see, like they're complicated people you're only getting the edge of.

. . . Poor little cute yuri girl!

Timeskip? Maybe or it will be a rather bittersweet ending...

final volume! maybe there will be a timeskip?? xD

AHHHH I don't know where this is going so its amazing.

i can smell the drama fuel in this one

the cover is beautiful

Not bad

Well this looks genuinely interesting, I'm looking forward to see how their (inevitable) relationship will develop. 

Not exactly a unique premise, but hey, it has potential.

Wow that fourth grade teacher.

I guess he flirted and went to bed with her when he met her at the parents+child thing you have each year, and then told her it was just a little fling and was nothing serious. 

Women are scary beings.

That stepmother is mighty fine.