Reading this feels like listening to a talented singer with great voice, who unfortunately keep making the same mistakes and hitting the wrong notes over and over again until the whole performance is kind of ruined.

Er, random musical analogy aside, there's actually a lot that I like from this manga's set-up. For starter, the fact that the the main characters are middle-schoolers/pre-teens, which I don't see very often in manga. It's a great period when kids are mature enough to start exploring complicated feelings and emotion, while still retaining the sense of childhood innocence lacked by high-schoolers. Naoshi Arakawa's art hits similar kind of sweet spot by combining the intensity of typical shounen art and sensitivity of shoujo style, creating a signature look that's both powerful and very easy on the eyes. He's very, very, good at paneling and impactful framing, too. Someone once said to me that "a comic/book about musician is kind of useless because you can't hear the music", however, Arakawa's art has enough power and details that the characters absolutely resonate with me during their performance scenes.

I like the main character, too. Arima Kousei is an unusual protagonist for this type of comic, quieter and more perceptive than your typical lead. Most importantly, his mental block makes for an intriguing internal conflict and a very realistic depiction of a real life issue. Physical abuse by a parent figure is a serious thing, and watching a fundamentally good kid struggle to come to terms with it and overcome the guilt he shouldn't even bear is simultaneously gut-wrenching and inspiring. It's also very interesting to see Arima's past as a child prodigy, as well as the bond he formed with his two lifelong rivals.

.....Now, about those "wrong notes".

In addition to music and internal struggle, there's a lot of comedy and romance in April. To be frank: they don't work at all. The comedy first: nowadays I've been bothered a lot by the sense of humor in many shounen/shoujo manga, as it often try to pass off abusive, sexist, and/or problematic behavior as something 'cute' or 'funny', and I also find that issue here. April's main joke is to have Arima routinely abused (physically and emotionally) by the two main female characters, which is not only unfunny, but becomes extra disturbing when you consider the boy's background. Like... I dunno girls, your friend there was severely abused in his childhood, maybe you shouldn't kick his kneecap/throw his head with softball/choke him with recorder/emotionally blackmail him?

It happens too often to be coincidental, which leads me to suspect that Arakawa-sensei really think that brute force and aggressive girls are the best therapy for abuse-induced trauma. I'm not an expert on psychology... but yeah, that doesn't sound right at all. The problem with the comedy ties directly to the romance one, since the aforementioned two girls are also Arima's love interests. It's basically a tiresome love square, with the second boy never becoming significant or memorable enough. I couldn't care less which girl Arima ends up with, as they're both selfish, petulant, and manipulative. Teenagers are never perfect beings, I know, but these girls are just too damn unsympathetic. The occasional melodrama makes it even worse, as some of the characters like to suddenly break out of character and wax some purple prose. Imagine watching kindergarteners have a childish fight, and seconds later quote Shakespeare out of the blue-the effect is as jarring as that.

(there's another girl character that I actually like, just because she's much wiser and more mature than everyone else. Unfortunately, her only role is to be the thankless Best Friend/Adviser character).

The music performance scenes are the biggest strength of the series, but they're not entirely free of problems either. As I've mentioned above, Arakawa's art is more than good enough to convey the emotional state of the musicians during their performance, but he also frequently have a bunch of random people in the audience providing unnecessary amount of corny commentary. "That boy looks nervous!" "Ooh the melody truly comes from her heart!" "I could feel the emotion coming!" Yes, yes, please shut up, Random Audience #3.

In spite of all that, I'm actually happy I got to read this manga and learn about Arakawa. There's such a great deal of artistic talent on display here that I'd definitely still check out his future works--I just hope next time I can truly get behind his characters and narrative.