KuroOkami

++++---==== SPOILER ALERT ====----++++

OK, I want to be very up front about this, there will definitely be spoilers in this review.  While I do not plan on going into a detailed description of what happens in this manga, I do itend to bring up issues that will be very spoilerish right from the beginning, so it that is a problem for you, turn back and and skip this review until after you have read Fuuka.

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++++---==== SPOILER ALERT ====----++++

OK, if you are still here for this review, then I'm assuming you are OK with spoilers so here it goes:

First of all, let me start by saying that I have read all of Suzuka(the previous manga) and Fuuka in the past few days and I have seen both of the anime adaptations for these works as well. With that said, if you were a big fan of the Fuuka anime (like I was) and came to the source material for more depth into their world, I have a warning for you. After the debut concert at the HS fair, the manga and anime differ wildly and lead to my first spoiler.

Fuuka is labeled as the sequal to Suzuka and I guess is kind of is because Fuuka Akittsuki the female lead in this work is the the daughter of the main characters of the previous manga, Suzuka. But labeling this work as the sequal to Suzuka instead of just existing in the same universe/world, like the manga of Kouji Seo that was done inbetween these two (A Town Where You Live), is a bit cruel on the author's part since he kills off the MC Fuuka Akitsuki in chapter 36 in a work that reaches almost 200 chapters. A previous review also bring up this point and it ruined the story so much for this person that they were completely turn off the manga and gave it a horrible rating. In all honesty, since I loved the anime so much (where she doesn't die at all), it took me a long time to get over the dead of that character and almost put it down myself (I have actually done that is the case of another work). At first, I kept waiting to it to be a bad dream since she didn't die in the anime, but as the chapters wore on and it became all to clear that this was indead what was to be reality, I was very depressed. And then when we meet a second Fuuka (Aoi) who is so obviously setup to take her place, I just got mad and thought, well why the hell did she have to die off anyway. In fact is took getting almost half way through the whole manga series before I could really accept it and start to actually enjoy the story itself again. (Yes, I liked the character that much). But I'm glad I did.

The second glaring difference from the anime is the fact that the brief romance between the other lead Yuu Haruna and Koyuki Hinashi is also not there. Whether that was filler put in by the anime studio or the author wanted to add more substance to the work in the short time of the anime adaptation, I have no idea, but it is definitely not present. Since this is my review, allow my to give me honest opinion again and say that as much as I might have like the pairing of Yuu and Koyuki, I always thought that the anime's approach felt a bit too rushed and a little more haremish than it needed to be.  I far prefer the the best friends and unrequited love that the manga stuck too. I think it gave a far more realistic feel to the work that the repeated haremish hook-ups. Not to say there isn't a lot of ecchi fan service and unrealistic accident moments that happen in the manga, there are, but not to the point of being so extreme that it was a turn off for me.

Sticking strickly to the manga now and comparing it to Suzuka (only since it is the same author and labeled as it's sequal), I definitely preferred Fuuka over Suzuka.  The ups and downs, transitions and inter-weaving of characters felt so much more real (plausible) to me. It just felt more like the trials (if extreme in some cases) that a newbie band might go through as they grow rather than just a thrown in plot point of, "Well the characters are together and too happy, so now I'm just gonna put in this to throw a monkey wrench into their lives and just to create more drama." I refer mainly to the 3rd quarter of Suzuka. (Trying not to give specific spoilers to another manga in this review). But getting back to Fuuka, I genuinely enjoyed the character growth of the members of the main band. I wish it would have stuck a little more at times instead of regressing so much, but I thought it was good and accurate to the characters and where they needed to be for what they were gonna do next.

My final critique would be about the ending. While most of the story kept a consistant pacing all the way up to and through the final climax of the story, the end wrap up left a lot to be desired. Turning Makoto bi all of a sudden and pairing him off felt rusted and pandering and Sara and Kazuya felt like a complete after-thought and a huge mistake in my opinion. That couple should never have gotten together and the way they did was throughly unbelievable. It was like, our mains are happy, so lets make the rest of the band members be in happy relationships at the end to. Beyond that there was a feeling of disjointedness. I don't know it Kouji-san had indented to keep going and then need to rush an ending I don't know, but that's a little what it felt like. I think the best and most well done part of the ending was the wedding and just leave it at that.

I feel like I have done nothing so much as harp on all the bad points of Fuuka, but really, I'm glad I stuck it out and kept reading till the end. Overall, I enjoyed the journey and really grew connected with the characters. I am also glad that I watched the anime first. While you might not think so initially because of the diffences, it is completely because I got something out of the anime that I could never get out of just the manga, namely, the music. I happen to love music anime and some of my favorite songs are from the ani-song genre, so every time they played "Climbers High" in the manga, I could hear it in my head as I read and enjoyed those passages all the more. I wish I could here the rest of Yuu's music. I'm sure it would touch me just as much as he intended it to. So again, I can only say that I really enjoyed this manga, it's journey, it's romance, it's sadness and it's triumphs. Definitely worth the read and looking forward to Kouji Seo's next work.