I"s - MangaUpdates

I"s

Description

Shy Ichitaka has a crush on his high-school classmate Iori, but ever since she posed for semi-provocative swimsuit photos in a magazine, she's had a lot of sleazy guys hitting on her. Ichitaka's afraid to make his feelings known for fear Iori will think he's just another creep. (From Viz)

Type

Manga

Related Series

N/A

Associated Names

Aizu

I's

I’’s

ไอส์ (SIC)

Groups Scanlating

MangaProject

Latest Release(s)

v.1-15 c. by Mangaproject 18 years ago

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Status in Country of Origin

15 Volumes (Complete)
12 Kanzenban (Complete)
9 Bunkoban (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

Starts at Vol 1, Chap 1 (I"s Pure)

Ends at Vol 15, Chap 144 (I"s Pure) Heavily abridged

User Reviews

I"s by Master_M2K

Forum

2 topics, 35 posts

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User Rating

Average: 8.1 / 10.0 (1068 votes)

Bayesian Average: 8.05 / 10.0

23%

22%

23%

17%

Last Updated

April 8th, 2025 11:17am PDT - 2 weeks ago

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Genre

Comedy Drama Ecchi Harem Mature Romance School Life Shounen
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Become a Girl at Night

Recommendations

N/A

Author(s)

Katsura Masakazu

Artist(s)

KATSURA Masakazu

Year

1997

Original Publisher

Shueisha (1997; 2005)

Serialized In (magazine)

Shuukan Shounen Jump (Shueisha)

Licensed (in English)

Yes

English Publisher

Viz (15 Volumes - Complete)

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #647

(-74)

Monthly Pos #1397

(-465)

3 Month Pos #2953

(-265)

6 Month Pos #4057

(-105)

Year Pos #5164

(+52)

List Stats

On 571 reading lists

On 719 wish lists

On 2734 completed lists

On 106 unfinished lists

On 291 custom lists

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Forum Posts Click to view the forum

anime or manga which did you prefer?

12 years ago

did she cheat ???? spoiler alert dont read if u have not finished I''s

12 years ago

User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

nostalgic

by Miachann
4 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

i remember i found this one in my brothers Bookshelf and i innocently read it, but still good tho

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Disappointing

by merlockmagus
6 years ago

Rating: 4.0 / 10.0

I read this years ago and remember really enjoying the art style. The covers for each volume is quite beautiful.

I decided to give it a re-read to see if it still stands up well. Having read through it again, I now feel disappointed. This has so many poorly executed shonen romance tropes that I have a hard time understanding how this went on for so long. Maybe this is just the fate of how shonen are serialized week to week. I don't know. I do know that it was not worth a re-read.

The plot is pretty simple. Boy likes girl. Boy tries to get together with girl. Chaos ensues. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. I don't mind the formula. I think the execution needs some work, though.

The characters aren't that great. Ichitaki Seto is your typical MC. Dense, selfish, low self-esteem, without passion or hobbies, has a girl he likes but can't confess to because he never feels like he shapes up to her. Yoshizuki Iori is better, but she is quite passive with Ichitaki. It doesn't feel like she has her own agenda, save for her acting hobby. Sometimes it feels like she's there as a doormat, someone for Ichitaki to confess to but otherwise very one dimensional and hard to care for.

It's clear there's a mutual interest between the two from their interactions, but somehow their heartfelt feelings for each other keep getting miscommunicated. Ichitaki tries numerous times to confess to Iori but keeps getting sidetracked with misunderstandings, distractions, lost courage, and general manga mishaps. After 50 chapters, it seems Ichitaki will never get a real chance to confess to Yoshizuki. It's maddening.

The side characters aren't so bad. Teratani Yasumasa is a good friend and foil to Ichitaki. Itsuki Akiba is the girl next door from childhood who has a big crush on Ichitaki but encourages him to make his own decisions and own up to himself. These guys are great. What's not so great are the new girls who always end up liking Ichitaki, even as he tries to go after Yoshizuki. This tends to create a lot of miscommunication and generally leads the manga into harem territory. This wasn't so bad in the beginning, but it is quite terrible from chapter 70 till the end.

After the whole journey, it feels like the ending is quite weak. It makes it really feel like the story was being torn left and right by the manga serialization process to continue as long as possible, never being allowed to end in a reasonable timeframe. It makes it hard to sympathize with any of the choices these characters make.

... Last updated 6 years ago

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One of the worst mangas I've ever read

by Kevadu
12 years ago

Rating: N/A

To be fair to my title, the really bad stuff I usually quit long before the end. I did actually read this one to the end but then I looked back and couldn't help but think, dear god why did I waste that much of my time. So I think it's a pretty fair assessment (and I've been reading manga for 15 years or so...).

The manga's biggest (but by no means only) problem is the main protagonist who is completely unlikeable in every way. I'm not complaining about the fact that he takes years to finally get around to confessing. Heck, that's pretty much normal in these kinds of manga. I'm more concerned about the fact that he is a selfish asshole who treats other people like shit, always demanding things and doing nothing in return. The amount of time he sits around wallowing in self-pity far outweighs the time he spends actually doing anything productive. What I can't figure out is why any of the girls in this series want to date this loser in the first place.

I sort of like to compare this to Love Hina, because although they have pretty different tones (Love Hina can be quite goofy), they're still popular contemporary ecchi shounen titles of similar length. But for all his faults, Keitaro has infinitely more character growth than Ichitaka. That's not an exaggeration because Ichitaka has zero character growth. Scratch that, he might actually have negative character growth. He starts out shy and awkward but by the end of the series he's shy, awkward, self-loathing, and always ends up just doing whatever other people tell him to. Grow a friggin backbone. I may have to redo my math.

That said, Iori has her problems too. She's far too passive and has trouble saying what she's actually thinking. Perhaps the most extreme example of that was the whole "I thought you dumped me moment". I'm not saying that sort of thing can't happen, but the way it was done here was seriously hard to swallow. No normal person would reach that conclusion from that conversation...

The supporting cast is mostly filled with one-dimensional forgettable characters. I actually liked Izumi at first but then she degenerated into a bland rival-you-know-has-no-chance-but-never-gives-up character. It would have been much better if she moved on or something rather than falling into such a pigeon-holed and repetitive role. But I guess that would mean acknowledging that there are guys out there besides Ichitaka. It's like the only supporting male characters are blatant perverts and rapists, which is the only way the author can make Ichitaka look decent. I mean, I guess he's better than a rapist...

What baffles me most is why people like this manga. I guess to be fair the first few volumes weren't that bad. I did make it all the way to the end for a reason. I didn't truly start hating this manga until the later (post high school graduation) volumes, and by that point I figured I was committed. Even so, it's not like the early stuff is particularly great. I would rate it OK at best.

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my first loved manga

by tekiteki
13 years ago

Rating: N/A

I can't rate it, because I had read it many years ago, being a student. But it was a first voluminous manga that impressed me so much, I thought - "Oh, that's what manga is." I was hooked, I cried a lot ^___^, I laughed a lot. I liked Ichitaka and his friends, all this "caring about each other" atmosphere. Sometimes they were silly, Iori was self-centered, and Ichitaka was liking her mostly because of her beauty and reserved nature. But they are kids after all, and their attitude towards love was rather realistic.
Maybe I should rate it after all)

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Just couldn't Give this an 8

by bull3thole
13 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

The story drags on way too long to give this an 8/10. I felt that . I''s is one of the first animes that got me into the Japanese manga world but with years of reading many mangas' I just can't give this a 8/10 because of the protagonist.

The protagonist is way too indecisive and is being a wuss to confess to the heroine. It took him years for them to finally be together, which felt way too long and draggy when you read the manga. I love this manga but as a person that is reviewing this manga I just couldn't give this an 8/10.

Overall I still recommended this manga since it is a classic and has an old school kind of feeling when you read it(if that made sense lol).

It's been quite a while since I read this manga so I can't say much.

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@ Cecropiamoth

by Seijurou
13 years ago

Rating: N/A

You have to first of all understand that these stories you refer to are usually about virgin kids who have never experienced love, so admitting their feelings is hard for them to do, especially when they are not sure how the other person would react, as they might lose them. Now, in our case here, Ichitaka is particularly careful of expressing his love for the girl he likes since long ago, another (the first) girl he fell for turned him down, making him insecure. He does not want to do anything that would make her hate him. I think we read such stories because we want to put ourselves in the main characters' shoes & have a great experience of our own. After all, it s nigh-impossible to find such perfect girls in real life.

If you want to see what happens when the protagonist does not care about the girls & goes all the way with them, I suggest watching the anime version of School Days. The ending is a lesson about the result of apathy.

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Decent

by Verix
13 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

Read it if you have some kind of desire of reading every single decent romance manga out there.
I personally found it a bit of a waste of time. It had its cutesy moments, but overall I found it too childish and forgettable. I think manga like Ichigo100%/Good Ending or even Shoujo as Dengeki Daist are much more powerful romance-wise.

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What is good about this?

by cecropiamoth
13 years ago

Rating: N/A

In Japan does it take a year or so of showing each other by many clues in their behavior how they feel about each other, for a couple to get around to kissing or confessing? Does it take a similar amount of time for a young man to get over AGONIZING about the awful fact that he desires a girl, and wants to be close to her? Is the standard rule on emotions there a general rule that you just don't talk about them hardly ever? And when you do, does it make a guy, at least, feel so ashamed of himself he wants to die?

In other words: 1) in what culture are teenagers this utterly non-functional in interacting with each other, and this ignorant of every aspect of sexuality, including the most basic one that women are actually interested in sex, so you're not insulting them by kissing them on the lips or giving them a big hug?

2.) Such a culture must exist somewhere, because stories have to have some relation to reality for people to keep reading them for hundreds of episodes.

3.) And clearly lots of people did keep reading, and ended up liking this thing, so what's going on? Is Japan so puritanistic that the idiotic behavior of the male lead in this thing seems realistic? Or are you all about 12 years old?

Stopped reading it about half way through. If anyone can explain why the men is many romance manga are as pathetic as this guy is, and yet people will sit through them, I would be very grateful.

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.....okay i guess its done

by SSJR2
14 years ago

Rating: 6.0 / 10.0

now that i finished this i gotta saw WTF 😕 !! this series pissed me off in so many levels, mainly the main character i mean the guy needed to grow some major BALLSS!! the guy was trying to confess for like i dont know about 80 to 90 CHAPTERS!!!

i mean he let so many opportunities go by and he kept screwing up before it happened, and finally when he got her he started getting pressured to break up and was feeling inferior, but if you look at it he was doing nothing with his life, he had no dreams or goals except for the girl, he was basically being a loser that doesn't do anything so it make sense to feel inferior to her. plus he constantly changing his feelings and making me wonder does he kinda love every girl that comes in his life besides nami and the others seriously hes probably the worse harlem manga main character i ever saw, hes so indecisive, weak and easy to influence.

Well what made me keep reading this despite such a weak male lead was for one i thought he would have some character growth some and second is the girl characters and the comedy a little, i really liked the art and i love the authors other work Zetman and i liked the personallities of the other characters excent Iori alittle cause she acted a little dumb,

"like when she dumped him and said and actually thought he dumped her" and how she kept taking his attemps the wong way was pretty stupid and sum others but the other characters were great and i really felt all the other girl love interest characters exspecially his childhood friend seemed like better match with him personality wise. my last coment regarding the ending is that it kinda sucked cause ther was no epoliuge and they are in the same boat as when they started but the guy is a little more determined wow. honestly the story needed a lot of work and the characters need more depth and growth but i give it a 6 cause it did have some good drama too

... Last updated 14 years ago

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Pity

by kanakosoup
15 years ago

Rating: N/A

This manga starts out good but sucks on the from volume 13 onwards.

Note: I don't think Iori

cheated on Ichitaka when she goes to her co-worker's place (hotel). It was later on revealed that her co-worker used her up for publicity. Correct me if im wrong on this one.

And what the hell happened

on Ichitaka's former girlfriend? She goes to other man's place and then goes home and what the hell?

Is this harem or not?

In most manga, they usually uses mood when doing ecchi, but as per say,and it's stupid to stop doing ecchi halfway when your stomach or something gets on the way.

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