Once again, Aoki Kotomi, has authored a work that is so angsty and delicious. It's so good! Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu was great. If you read it, toward the end of Boku, Aoki starts to incorporate other narrators into her story. She made the multiple perspectives more frequently in this work, and I LOVE IT! It's like getting the same beautiful view from different angles, each with its own charm and reveals some different details. Oh Shinya, fear not, because I feel you! I wish manga would use multiple narrators or an omnipresent narrator more often.s
With shoujo, once you have read enough works, nothing will ever be completely fresh again. Music mangas have been done time and again: Nana, Nodame Cantabile, but the thing that sets Kanojo a part is Aoki Kotomi's brand of angst. If you have any of her previous works, you know what I mean. While Nana has slice of life-y mature feels, Nodame Cantabile is silly and comedic, Kanojo is all about the youthful and dramatic angst. The kind that is unique to inexperienced teenagers, which is funny because the leading men in this manga are 25s. hahaha.
I always adore Aoki's male protagonists. They are always so devoted to their love interests. Aki is no exception. He starts out in love with another girl but fell in love with our heroine. A weak point of the series is that his change from being heartbroken to falling in love with Mush wasn't well portrayed. It gives a "when did THAT happen?" kind of feeling. With the first few chapters making his love to Mari a big deal, I thought it would take a lot more for him to get over her. Oh well, Aoki's strong point is always about the men BEING in love, so I'll forgive some shortcomings.
With a scandalous title such as Kanojo wa Uso wo Aishisugiteru, it was only able to sustain the theme of him lying to her for the first few volumes, which were seriously awesome. After that, this almost feels like Boku no Hatsukoi 2.0 with Aki being so in love with Mush. Well, I still love it anyway. This was made for my taste!