This was a wonderful manga series. I am not one of the people, that if they find flaws in a manga/anime they give it less than 10. I say that mostly for people that will read the review and wonder why the heck I gave it a 10. The main reason is simple; it satisfied me all the way to the end.
I started this manga back when it started, or more like when it first reached me in 2004. I followed it over the years, but at volume 22 I just reached the point of my life, that I lost absolutely every bit of patience on waiting new chapters (I always waited large gaps of time anyway before picking up stuff). Finally 13 years after I first started it, I finally finished it.
But to get into why I loved it, it is because it offered me exactly what I always thought it would! Lighthearted, nonsensical, at times tear-jerking (if this kind of "story" can move you), funny and totally disconnected from realism, this manga gave me a lot of joy as I was reading it from the first page to the last. It did not make sense (much) a lot of times and it made fun of itself quite a bit (although this can be seen as bad at times), but either way it was fun for me.
The genre seems to jump around a bit, but I do not think that is bad. It is after all 36 volumes they had to keep going and entertain the audience, keep them interested and of course what moves the real world; make money. It is obvious that since this was making money, the creator released more of his imagination, trying to keep the story going and honestly it was really nice.
After a point the manga feels like it is trying to create and hammer in a lot of ideas and eventually as it reaches the climax, which in my opinion came at volume 36, everything feels like it is going faster and faster, as if they know they do not have much more leeway and they have to wrap it up. The only time it feels very strong though or at least it felt to me, was the last couple of chapters of volume 36.
In the next two volumes there are actual 2 afterstories. One usual that you see in manga/anime, which shows what happened right after and one that moves a bit to the future, showing what happened even after. I have to admit that actually these did not really feel rushed to me. They were more or less closure. I loved the first after story, but the second one was a bit of "ehh". Not because it is bad or anything, but because at a point it actually gives a sum of what happened with everyone. For some reason it reminded me of Breath of Fire 3 ending that says what happened to each of the characters. It was ok, but I do not know why it made me feel that "ehh".
So with all that said, I thought the ending was.. well ok. Not ok as in good ok, but neither a bad one. Things are more or less wrapped up and actually I was expecting an even more open ending. Considering that the manga was going all cliche (anyone who read the manga, will know that me saying that is not something offending, but funny) the ending was enjoyably quite a cliche, where everyone ends up happy (sorry people that love more drama, I prefer this).
For the people that like stories that are light hearted and do not know how to be serious, this is perfect. If you are looking for a serious love/drama/fighting story, better look elsewhere.
So to wrap it up, got fast in volume 36 and maybe a couple of volumes before that. Totally unrealistic and it strives to give happy endings all the time.
Watch the anime after you read up to volume 6. Seeing how crappy the anime is will DEFINITELY make you appreciate the manga 100 times more.. then again I regret wasting my time with the anime.. but it did make me appreciate the manga more!
PS: While reading the stories of the girls at the end, I suggest playing some nice Jazz. I enjoyed reading them, listening Hyadain no Kakakata Kataomoi-C Jazz with Vocals (not it's pop version).