Heart by Rie Takada

It feels like forever since I not only read a shojo manga, but also read a manga on schedule! By the way, the Neuro anime really can't compare to the amazingness of the manga, too many unnecessary changes, but I better stick to reviewing manga for now, one time consuming hobby is enough for me.


Heart by Rie Takada

Art and story (c) Rie Takada

Genre: Shojo
Length: 10 Volumes – 58 Chapters and a few extras


           Art is bishie heaven (slang for, literally, 'pretty boy,' here for information), beyond that I don't think it's very remarkable per se, but it looks very professional in about every way. The hair is my favorite part of this art, it has very good shape and form while also having good movement, too. The eyes are nicely detailed and sparkling, though there isn't much variation to the face or eye shapes. The clothes were well detailed, as well, even though the main characters wore mostly a school uniform and a white t-shirt respectively. The backgrounds were iffy, but the pages themselves were usually very full to bursting with panels and sound effects so it wasn't really noticeable. In fact, there were times when the pages were very cluttered. It wasn't very often, but the face proportions had a little wonk here and there, but otherwise I didn't notice anything else distracting. Its very cutesy overall.
           Yume Takara is a bit of an airhead (understatement) but has only one thing she wants from her school life, to have a loving boyfriend who is kind so that they can spend their high school life together in bliss. Luckily, on the first day of the semester Yume finds the man of her dreams right away and vows to seek him and ask him out so that dream can
be realized. Too bad he refuses her right away and tells her to stay away from him! Yume, risking it all, challenges him to a race where, if she loses, she has to give up on him forever. But Shoubu Matsukaze is a former motorcycle gang member, and an avid bike driver, does Yume even stand a chance at love?
          Cute and re-readable, I've always enjoyed Heart, and for that matter, all of this mangaka's works. Quite a few of them have English releases, too, though Heart isn't one of them. I've heard around that some people find this manga to be annoying, and, truthfully, despite my love for this manga I can readily see why. For the most part I don't like manga where the girl is so super naive that she's like a little kid, I find that really annoying, and I find it twice as bad when the female character is even drawn like a little kid and both of these things appear in Heart. On the reverse, the boys in this manga are one of my favorite types of lookers, droopy eyes and wild hair, sigh... Still, if you can't stand a main character who makes mistakes and cries about it every chapter, you'd probably think you should avoid this manga, but, as one of the types who also can't usually stand that, Heart is a solid shojo manga about an odd-couple type of relationship. Not only is it funny, but it also is full of, you guessed it, heart. I mean, it even has a fourth thing against it, according to my tastes, and I've come back to it again and again. Silly manga all about young couples wanting to do it but who instead keep getting interrupted also typically bore me, but Heart really shows a depth of relationship beyond that step. It has elements for it too, of course, the wild delinquent angle is a favorite of mine, of course and the male lead is
aloof most of the time. The simple fact is, the good parts out weigh the annoying things by far. Heart is very typical as the story line goes; girl falls for tough guy, girl wins tough guy over, their different lives up 'til now cause them friction, their love beats all, and so on. You can probably guess it all right from the beginning, but Shoubu's slowly warming attitude and Yume's determination make it a memorable story. There's also a ton of side characters to like, as well, which is always a plus. As far as the genre of rough guy and normal girl goes, Heart is fairly original, too. Shoubu doesn't bully her all the time (looking at you Akuma de Sourou) nor does he endlessly dote on her, and Yume really does try her hardest at everything so her clumsiness pretty much sticks to gag use. It is pretty fluffy and filled with silly jokes, but when you're looking for a delinquent romance I don't think you can go wrong with this manga. I'd give it full marks but it is far from perfect, despite it's high enjoyment factor, the story does drag at times, though it is typically very fast paced, and Yume can get really bratty. As a couple, though, these two win, plus there’s lots of motorcycle action as well. Just throwing that in there.



4/5 Really recommended, it's just not for everyone methinks. 

I'll just add one last picture of this gorgeous face...sigh....