Haru wa Kumo no Ue / 春は雲の上, Chapter One Manga Review

A “shadow character” develops feelings for the idol of his school, Karen. Will he ever be able to catch her attention?

You can check out chapter one of this series for yourself below!

Japanese (Hana Yume)

What’s the series about? (chapter one spoilers!)

Our protagonist, Souta, is what you would call a “shadow character”. He’s the type of person that just somehow doesn’t register in most people’s minds. To make matters worse, his two childhood friends are outstandingly handsome, making him even easier to miss.

While Souta isn’t all that gifted in the looks department, he is as kind as a person could ever be. Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter to most people, as it’s difficult to register someone as kind when you don’t even know they exist.

The one person Souta wants to acknowledge he exists more than anyone is his classmate, Karen. She’s rather famous, having 100,000 followers on instagram, and even having her face on billboards. Not just a pretty face, she also remembers the names of all her classmates, and takes time out of her day to make everyone smile.

Thanks to a stroke of good luck, one day Souta is able to see a side of Karen that she tries her best to keep hidden, creating a hidden bond between the two of them. Will this be enough to get her to notice him going forward?

My thoughts on this chapter (spoilers for chapter one)

I know this may make me sound shallow, but I’m just not a big fan of the “incredibly beautiful and kind popular girl falls for the average but nice boy” trope. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being average and nice, it’s just not a trope I look for in my manga. This chapter honestly felt more like a shounen series than a shoujo to me. So much so that I was surprised it was in Hana to Yume!

Souta is written to be so kind that it’s unrealistic. Like, he allows himself to get stomped on by a large crowd of people just to protect Karen’s love letter. While it was an unbelievably kind act from him, it just felt hard to believe that he’s so invisible that a group of adults could stomp on top of him. Even if you didn’t see him with your eyes, you would surely feel him under your feet, no?

Of course, all of his kindness is exactly why Karen likes him. She sees his kindness as very princely and because of that is able to let her guard down when it’s just the two of them. While I do like that he is able to be a safe space for her, I just wish he was given more of a personality than just “ever so kind”.

While Karen was already fleshed out enough that I have a good feel for her character after just one chapter, I can’t say the same for our protagonist. I think I may have enjoyed this chapter more had it been from her perspective, but it’s too early for me to write it off just yet.

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