Coming from the anime I already had an idea of what I was getting into. My blurb for the review I gave for the anime on Anilist was While being one of the most average anime that Ive ever watched it still was enjoyable. On that front the manga held up. While it did take me almost a month to get to where the anime adaptation ended I still read about one chapter a night not fully immersing into the story but at the same time not disinterested enough to drop it. I could have skipped to where the anime ended to save myself the slog of reliving the adapted parts of the manga but I felt like I would be cheating myself by doing that. Once I arrived in Paris in the manga my reading pace picked up. This was uncharted territory and as such was entertaining to read even if the quality of the story was the same. If youre a fish out of water and havent watched the anime before deciding to read the manga Ill briefly summarize the plot for you: Masamune Makabe our main character after eight years of rigorous training deep in rural Japan has returned as the perfect young man handsome good grades athletic etc. While Makabe wants to give off the air of The Dreamy Transfer Student no one else knows that this is all the culmination of his eightyearlong training. Why did he train? Its because of Aki Adagaki the Most Popular Girl At School and Masamunes onetime childhood friend. Masamune ran away to his grandfathers home to start his training after being rejected and being called Pigs Foot by a thenyoung Aki. Along with that Makabe was constantly tormented for being a fat rich child. If he was in America he would have definitely been nicknamed Porky Pig. That aside those events especially Aki rejecting him was traumatizing to the point of Makabe spending half of his life in a remote part of Japan. His plan now is to get revenge on her by swooning her into going out with him and then humiliating her by dumping her. Im writing this review from the point of view of someone whos attempting to compare and contrast the manga from the anime so if you havent watched the anime left or have no interest in it and only want to know if the manga is worth reading then this review might not be the best for you. One great quality probably the best quality of them all about Masamunekun is that the manga has great pacing. Im not exactly the most experienced manga reader but my experience in reading other romcom manga has been damaged by pacing issues. Whether it is due to the manga seemingly ending all in a sudden like The Quintessential Quintuplets or are perpetually stuck in motion like RentAGirlfriend at the time of writing this. The mangaka makes a comment on love comedy manga in Chapter 32 having Makabe say A love comedy you see is 80 finished once the love becomes mutual. To their credit the mangaka does stick to what Makabe said. A romantic comedy has to teeter the fine line of teasing without it becoming pedantic but must not also have its conclusion come too soon since then it might become boring which in some cases can be worse than being bad. Of course this rule isnt etched in stone or is even necessary in some cases but it works well with Masamunekun. If I wanted to be negative here I could further push my narrative that this reinforces that Masamunekun is one of the most average anime/manga series that Ive ever read but that would be unfair. The general pacing of Masamunekun keeps it interesting enough to not make it a slog to read. Its relative shortness with the caveat of longer chapters makes it easier to digest. Its also a finished product so you know youre not getting into something that might waste your time for the next few years and have you wondering why you started reading it in the first place. With that being said the real question here is: Is the story better than in the anime? Like I said in the review of the anime the story was one of the most average that Ive ever witnesseddoes the manga manage to become better? Well on a technical level yes it does. The anime ended with See you in Paris alluding to the next arc. The anime cuts off here and the godawful OVA is pure fanservice for the diehards leaving See you in Paris to mean Read the damn manga if you want to know what happens next The anime adapts the first 60 of the manga and the manga has been officially translated in its entirety so theres no reason why you SHOULDNT be able to read it if you live in America at least. So does the story reaching its conclusion change it from being average to good or great? Unfortunately for Masamunekun I cant go that far. Its really tragicMasamunekun does everything correctly on a technical level: it keeps tension going throughout the series to keep readers interested it has its climax at the right part not too soon or too late it doesnt overstay its welcome when its done telling its story it curtsies and leaves your home and it doesnt become so wild that it loses focus of the story at hand the Masamunekun wiki oversold how wild the manga would get. It manages to get all of that correct but fails to have a compelling story. One that will have you thinking about it for years to come. Masamunekun doesnt have this staying factor that other more memorable anime/manga series have. While its not boring in any sense Masamunekun seems to be too focused on doing it the right way and forgets that the series that are most remembered and highly rated are often the ones that break the rules and forge their own. In playing it safe Masamunekun has avoided being bad or becoming boring but has become forgettable. I would also say that it has fallen into anime purgatory but it being within the Top 200 Most Popular Anime on AniList the manga being very close to being within the Top 100 Most Popular that would be a lie. I dont see anyone talk about Masamunekun on social media but thats only anecdotal evidence and due to who I follow on Twitter. The ending really reinforces the paintbynumbers nature of the series. It almost broke free and became something that would be worth remembering but at the last moment reverted back to the default and called it a day. Its fatalistic which would be nothing new from a Japanese romcom series but still is disappointing to read. While it isnt bad I have to say that the ending is quite weak and I would imagine have left more devoted readers on a sour note depending on if they had a favorite girl and who it was. One could call it an asspull depending on how you took it. The ending is also very sudden not like a cliffhanger but you would expect that there would be a chapter or two after that. Technically there is a whole volume after it but its called a sequel which focuses on wrapping up the looseends of seven of the characters. The flipside of the paintbynumbers ending is that it isnt rushed or prolonged. Even if it ends suddenly it doesnt end too soon. A huge part of my review of the anime was focused on complaintsmostly trivial ones about the lack of research into working out in relation to Makabes character. Im glad to say that the series got better with this as time went on. Even to the point where Makabe talks about protein supplements While the knowledge of working out by the mangaka still seems pedestrian its much better than the Buy Low Sell Hightier of knowledge that was in the anime. For a series that was careful with how its plot was laid out it still had some weird plot points that in hindsight never needed to be in there in the first place. The one that comes to mind is Makabes rashes that he occasionally gotwhile diving into why he got them in the first place would be too big of a spoiler its disappointing that it got dropped as soon as it came in. Therere also some characters that disappear completely as soon as their arc is over. I know that they were really never meant to be important characters with the purpose of them being to force a progression of the story but it still is odd how they disappear and never make a return. Is Masamunekun worth reading? If youre here from the anime and want to see if the manga is worth reading Id say go ahead give it a shot. The manga is relatively short and could be nolifed within a day. It would give you closure even if you hate the ending. If you havent watched the anime then I would suggest that you watch it first but either way is up to you. The manga like the anime is painfully average only saved by the fact that it never goes off the rails or gets boring. There are better romance manga that you could read but Masamunekun is at least worth a shot. You should also read the after stories after finishing the manga since it will give you better closure and leave you more satisfied with the ending.