Let me say this first: I used to read manga (shounen, shoujo, and everything else) but after I got busier in high school, it was harder and harder to follow along with all the new manga and new updates on chapters from old mangas, and most of all: Everything was so BORING and generic and cliche!
So after years of suffering from good-manga-withdrawal and years of reading crappy oneshots and short, less-than-20-chapter mangas, I suddenly had the genius idea of revisiting some old recommended manga that I had never thought to read or dismissed because I was judging a manga by its cover. After sifting through and testing a bunch of manga, Kami-sama Hajimemashita was the first one I read and actually felt interested in. I LOVED it! It was refreshing, not too shoujo/cliche/romantic, but with those elements accompanied with an original, interesting plot and amusing characters. It was a miracle for me to find this manga: it renewed my faith in shoujo mangas and I finally am back to reading manga! 😀
The storyline is absolutely perfect. The latest time-travel arc...amazing. Amazing, amazing, amazing. Everything fit together, and it even connected with thus far unexplained mysteries from way early on, suggesting that Suzuki Julietta totally planned their romance from the beginning. It would be near-impossible otherwise. I can't get over how everything is so inexplicably intertwined and done so beautifully and flawlessly. Ugh, I'm jealous of their
500 year
romance/fate/destiny.
I think my only complaint was that when
Tomoe and Nanami finally did get together after he finally confessed to her, it was kind of anti-climactic! I was really hoping for a little more heartfelt confession that wasn't really cliche.
I'm kind of a romantic, so I really like it when I read something that makes my heart go dokidoki LOL. It feels like all the romance that the mangaka was building up to finally amounted to something great and real and amazing. It kind of felt like the characters were a little static, and didn't change all that much, and their relationship didn't change that much afterward... I felt like that whole arc could have been tied together a little better/more solidly.
The other characters are interesting as well in their own ways. My main fault with the main character, Nanami, is that she is too stupid sometimes! She doesn't really try that much in school and she trusts people way too easily, and she never listens to Tomoe's advice when she needs to. Some of the characters are hard to keep track of, good thing they all look different from each other and they keep reappearing throughout the series, so later on it becomes a lot easier. It takes a while for the side characters to reappear, so sometimes if there's a cliffhanger or a mystery behind a character, it takes forever for you to find out what it is, and so you're dying to know! But I guess that's an element of a good story. Sometimes you don't know what a character wants or how s/he'll fit in, but keep sticking with it. The story is woven intricately and there's so much foreshadowing and everything: remember that everything and everyone connects in the end!
Anyone who likes shoujo manga, romance manga, action manga, historical manga, and manga with beautiful art and well-developed characters should absolutely read this. (So, basically everyone! If you're reading this review, stop and read this series! No more excuses!) It's a stellar series. 10/10, will recommend to all. After this, I'm definitely going to read Suzuki Julietta-sama's other works!
This manga is also very similar to InuYasha, one of my favorite mangas of all time, but a lot more lighthearted, less action-y, less gore-y and monster-y, more focused on romance, comedy, story, and character development.
I'm really scared though, now that they're together, that the manga will suddenly end! I mean, it's already past 100 chapters! Isn't that always like that with shoujo mangas? I haven't read long shoujo in a long, long, long time, so I always feel betrayed when a series I stuck with for so long and spent so much time/tears and got emotionally involved in, gets a (oftentimes horrible) wrap-up, cliche fairytale-style ending. I'm so scared that this manga's going to end soon. Maybe I'm just being paranoid because I have an unhealthy attachment to this manga, being that it's the first romance manga I read and simply adored after such a disappointing break from manga. Thank god at least there's still a story after they get together. I'm not ready for this amazing story/romance to end.
If anyone knows when it's going to end (or if it is going to end anytime soon, or not), please tell me. I'm going crazy thinking that the story will suddenly be cut short, like so many other long mangas.