Yakoz

Yamada doesn't like school: he doesn't like studying and he can't make any friends because he's seen as a delinquent by everybody, so they tend to avoid him. One day he is having a bad one and, if things couldn't get worse, he falls down from the stairs together with Urara Shiraishi, one of the best (if not the best) female student of the school and their lips touch! Nobody's really hurt but.. they switched bodies?! Now Yamada is in Urara's body and vice-versa! How could that happen? This is how this rom-com called Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches starts. Discover all the mysteries that Suzaku High School hides, enjoy the adventure!

Plus/minus considerations:

• STORY: the story starts really well, being not only unique and refreshing, but also entertaining and funny. As you can expect from the title, Suzaku High School hides some secrets about not just one, but seven witches that we know nothing about. Let's say that the situation gets out of hand quickly, opening doors for the recurrent gags: basically the comedic side of this manga. I really liked the whole deal: characters, story and art style. What ruined it for me then? Repetitiveness. We can divide this manga in 3 arcs: the first one is great, the other two are copies of the first one with minor changes and addition of new characters. It feels like, given that this manga was doing really well in popularity and sells, Kodansha decided to extend the project for another couple of years, dropping in quality. (+)
• ART: the art style is likeable, above average and gets better the more the manga goes. (++)
• CHARACTERS: I'll try to say it without revealing spoilers: the characters from the first arc are all great and fit perfectly; some of the characters from the second arc are also good; the rest is just mediocre at best, especially in the third arc. The best part about those characters is to see how they react when they witness and experience the body swapping, just great. I don't believe there's a growth in any character outside Yamada and Urara (the real main couple): these two are the only characters that really mature throughout the whole story, the other guys just help in some situations (that's what friends do) and contribute to mantain the plot alive. (++)

Overall I was really happy when Yamada-kun started, becuase it really was something special and it saddens me that it loses quality gradually. But as I said already, second and third arc ruined a bit for me because I believe the story should've ended after the first arc. Since the story continued, I must rate everything and this is why my ratings dropped. If you like rom-coms this is a must try: you might like it, you might not like it, but I definitely suggest trying it.