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Here's some info on the series, for anyone who's interested in checking it out for the first time.
It can be found here, on Mangareader.net, or here, on Mangafox.com.
General plot. --Click here to view--
According to Mangafox and Mangareader: Touzuka High School is a public school with a very low grade point average. One day, a girl, who had been expelled from the state's top school, St. Katria Girls' School, transfers in...Her name is Kawai Maria. The official reason of her expulsion was due to "violence against the teacher." Because of straightforward comments, Maria starts to become isolated from her class...What is hidden in her past and what will happen to her?
According to MangaWiki: Akuma to Love Song revolves around an unusual girl, Kawai Maria who was expelled from her previous school, St.Katria Girls' School, and soon transfers to Touzuka High School, a public school with low standards. Her sharp tongue and straightforward personality often leads everyone else to hate her with the exception of two handsome boys who eventually get involved with her. With a devil's aura like hers and an arrogant facade to pair it up with, it's just too hard to be understood. And so Maria needs to deal with bullying, adjusting, fitting in and romance. Just how will a devil like her cope with all these predicaments?
According to MangaWiki: Akuma to Love Song revolves around an unusual girl, Kawai Maria who was expelled from her previous school, St.Katria Girls' School, and soon transfers to Touzuka High School, a public school with low standards. Her sharp tongue and straightforward personality often leads everyone else to hate her with the exception of two handsome boys who eventually get involved with her. With a devil's aura like hers and an arrogant facade to pair it up with, it's just too hard to be understood. And so Maria needs to deal with bullying, adjusting, fitting in and romance. Just how will a devil like her cope with all these predicaments?
Main characters (from MangaWiki). --Click here to view--
Kawai Maria
The protagonist of the story, Maria has a cold personality which estranges herself from her classmates. She says what she wants, albeit too bluntly and harsh, even when she intends to help others. Her arrogant facade and point blank statements are the reasons she is hated by most people and it seems she too is indifferent towards them. Emphasized throughout the manga, Maria also is shown to have the ability to see the true natures of people around her, or—more simply—their flaws. Although she maintains this air of superiority, she actually yearns for acceptance and friendship. Even when knowing the unpleasant outcomes, she often steps into troublesome situations just to prove herself to others. Everyone thinks that she is a devil but they don't know that they're the devils. She gives special regard to Kanda Yuusuke but exhibits much stronger feelings for Meguro Shin, stating that she feels Shin is much closer to her than God and she is much more afraid of being hated by him. Later she realizes she is in love with him. She likes nursery rhymes and hymns like "Amazing Grace." She apparently got expelled because of "punching the teacher/nun,"[1] but it has not been explained in detail, though it was revealed that the cross she always wears is from that teacher/nun.[2] She has a habit of pushing out her lips and having her eyes half open when someone says something that annoys her. It is shown that she starts to like Meguro.
Kanda Yuusuke
Yuusuke is a bubbly and cheerful person, who is popular with the girls and generally well-liked. Much to Shin's chagrin, Yuusuke always has an idiotic grin pasted on his face. Initially, he develops a liking for Maria as she is beautiful and has an intriguing personality. He is the first student to approach her and constantly pops up wherever she is. While he is extremely fond of her, it is not yet revealed if it is more than admiration. It seems as if he knows that Meguro likes Maria, because in chapter 11 he calls Meguro out and tells him that if he doesn't step up he might "steal Maria away". Yuusuke taught Maria the "lovely transform". He calls Shin "Megu-chin" and Maria, "Maria-chi". His face forms a comical style with thick dark outlined eyes and a w-shaped smiled when someone (mainly Kawai) is blatantly against one of his ideas. He also confessed his love to Maria later in the series.
Meguro Shin
Shin dislikes drawing attention to himself and prefers to observe situations. He is often cold and aloof towards his classmates, and Yuusuke's constant pestering irritates him. At first, he treated Maria with disdain, appearing to want nothing to do with her, but circumstances proved otherwise and he seems to actually care greatly for her. He pretends to be "rude" to Maria thinking that his actions would somehow lead the other girls to sympathize with her. In Chapter 4, he scooped up Maria in the middle of the class and declared that he would take her to a hospital because of her sprained ankle, making a scene as they leave. Then, he secretly bought Maria a pair of flashy shoes (apart from the ballet shoes he already bought for her) even after earlier commenting that they looked stupid. Despite claiming that he does not want anything to do with her, he finds himself falling in love with Maria, but there is no way that he'd let the "devil" discover his feelings. It is later revealed his "loner" persona comes from an incident when he was a kid where he "choked" during his large piano debut making the media destroy his image. In chapter 23, Meguro insists he will stand by Kawai Maria's side no matter what happens.
Kousaka Tomoya/yo (y'know, I can't remember which is is, and MWiki uses both...)
She is first introduced to us as Nippachi (apparently because she always gets a 28/100 in tests as Nippachi means 28 and is always grinning). Upon hearing this Maria stated that Tomoyo was looking down on the very girls that called her Nippachi. This aggravated those girls a lot, and shocked Tomoyo (indicating in a way that Maria was correct). Later, the other girls in the class made Tomoyo give an invitation to Maria for a fake welcome party for herself. The reality was that the girls in the class were going to make Tomoyo drink a lot of alcohol and then say that Maria made her do so. They supposed this would work because they already convinced Tomoyo to lie and say that Maria beat her up earlier. Upon receiving the invite, Maria, who was already aware that no good would come to the party stated that “I think, no matter how much filth you show, I need to go”. Hearing this Tomoyo pushed Maria down the stairs, insisting that she was not filthy like Maria. Tomoyo ended up crying. Then Kanda Yuusuke showed up at the party with Tomoyo. He smoothed out the whole situation. The next day, Tomoyo appeared in school with a cast around her legs and crutches. Then the other girls insisted that Maria pushed her, which was not true. The other girls in the class asked Maria to be Tomoyo's replacement; Maria abruptly refused, saying that she could not just go around smiling at everyone, and that she could only be herself. It was very soon after that the class discovered that the cast was fake. They then began to call Nippachi a liar, even though Nippachi insisted that she fell down the stairs that morning, which was later proven wrong. Tomoyo did not show up to school for the next week. This was later considered a problem, so the class and teacher told Maria to bring Tomoyo back to school. She and Kanda went to her house together. They spoke to her normally and then left. The following day, Maria went to Tomoyo's house before school and told her to come to school with her. At school, Nippachi defended Maria and also put an end to the other students and the teacher calling her Nippachi. This begins the friendship between the two of them. She has a secret love for dark things like black clothing and skulls.
The protagonist of the story, Maria has a cold personality which estranges herself from her classmates. She says what she wants, albeit too bluntly and harsh, even when she intends to help others. Her arrogant facade and point blank statements are the reasons she is hated by most people and it seems she too is indifferent towards them. Emphasized throughout the manga, Maria also is shown to have the ability to see the true natures of people around her, or—more simply—their flaws. Although she maintains this air of superiority, she actually yearns for acceptance and friendship. Even when knowing the unpleasant outcomes, she often steps into troublesome situations just to prove herself to others. Everyone thinks that she is a devil but they don't know that they're the devils. She gives special regard to Kanda Yuusuke but exhibits much stronger feelings for Meguro Shin, stating that she feels Shin is much closer to her than God and she is much more afraid of being hated by him. Later she realizes she is in love with him. She likes nursery rhymes and hymns like "Amazing Grace." She apparently got expelled because of "punching the teacher/nun,"[1] but it has not been explained in detail, though it was revealed that the cross she always wears is from that teacher/nun.[2] She has a habit of pushing out her lips and having her eyes half open when someone says something that annoys her. It is shown that she starts to like Meguro.
Kanda Yuusuke
Yuusuke is a bubbly and cheerful person, who is popular with the girls and generally well-liked. Much to Shin's chagrin, Yuusuke always has an idiotic grin pasted on his face. Initially, he develops a liking for Maria as she is beautiful and has an intriguing personality. He is the first student to approach her and constantly pops up wherever she is. While he is extremely fond of her, it is not yet revealed if it is more than admiration. It seems as if he knows that Meguro likes Maria, because in chapter 11 he calls Meguro out and tells him that if he doesn't step up he might "steal Maria away". Yuusuke taught Maria the "lovely transform". He calls Shin "Megu-chin" and Maria, "Maria-chi". His face forms a comical style with thick dark outlined eyes and a w-shaped smiled when someone (mainly Kawai) is blatantly against one of his ideas. He also confessed his love to Maria later in the series.
Meguro Shin
Shin dislikes drawing attention to himself and prefers to observe situations. He is often cold and aloof towards his classmates, and Yuusuke's constant pestering irritates him. At first, he treated Maria with disdain, appearing to want nothing to do with her, but circumstances proved otherwise and he seems to actually care greatly for her. He pretends to be "rude" to Maria thinking that his actions would somehow lead the other girls to sympathize with her. In Chapter 4, he scooped up Maria in the middle of the class and declared that he would take her to a hospital because of her sprained ankle, making a scene as they leave. Then, he secretly bought Maria a pair of flashy shoes (apart from the ballet shoes he already bought for her) even after earlier commenting that they looked stupid. Despite claiming that he does not want anything to do with her, he finds himself falling in love with Maria, but there is no way that he'd let the "devil" discover his feelings. It is later revealed his "loner" persona comes from an incident when he was a kid where he "choked" during his large piano debut making the media destroy his image. In chapter 23, Meguro insists he will stand by Kawai Maria's side no matter what happens.
Kousaka Tomoya/yo (y'know, I can't remember which is is, and MWiki uses both...)
She is first introduced to us as Nippachi (apparently because she always gets a 28/100 in tests as Nippachi means 28 and is always grinning). Upon hearing this Maria stated that Tomoyo was looking down on the very girls that called her Nippachi. This aggravated those girls a lot, and shocked Tomoyo (indicating in a way that Maria was correct). Later, the other girls in the class made Tomoyo give an invitation to Maria for a fake welcome party for herself. The reality was that the girls in the class were going to make Tomoyo drink a lot of alcohol and then say that Maria made her do so. They supposed this would work because they already convinced Tomoyo to lie and say that Maria beat her up earlier. Upon receiving the invite, Maria, who was already aware that no good would come to the party stated that “I think, no matter how much filth you show, I need to go”. Hearing this Tomoyo pushed Maria down the stairs, insisting that she was not filthy like Maria. Tomoyo ended up crying. Then Kanda Yuusuke showed up at the party with Tomoyo. He smoothed out the whole situation. The next day, Tomoyo appeared in school with a cast around her legs and crutches. Then the other girls insisted that Maria pushed her, which was not true. The other girls in the class asked Maria to be Tomoyo's replacement; Maria abruptly refused, saying that she could not just go around smiling at everyone, and that she could only be herself. It was very soon after that the class discovered that the cast was fake. They then began to call Nippachi a liar, even though Nippachi insisted that she fell down the stairs that morning, which was later proven wrong. Tomoyo did not show up to school for the next week. This was later considered a problem, so the class and teacher told Maria to bring Tomoyo back to school. She and Kanda went to her house together. They spoke to her normally and then left. The following day, Maria went to Tomoyo's house before school and told her to come to school with her. At school, Nippachi defended Maria and also put an end to the other students and the teacher calling her Nippachi. This begins the friendship between the two of them. She has a secret love for dark things like black clothing and skulls.
My thoughts on the series as a whole. --Click here to view--
I was drawn to this series a couple years ago on Onemanga (rest in peace ; ^; ) because of the title, and the pretty art. As I got into the first few chapters, I was drawn to Maria who was an interesting take on the "unwelcome transfer student". A lot of times, I've seen the unliked transfer student played out as a seemingly sweet, friendly, and attractive person that is bullied or isolated by their new surroundings simply because they're new. Makes for a very unrelatable character, and a dull-as-paste plot, generally. Maria, on the other hand, is brash, blunt, and appears to have the attitude that she's better than her new class--all very clear reasons for why they don't like her and go out of their way to make her feel unwelcome. Another interesting twist to Maria's character, is that I expected her to follow the character stereotype of "tough, insulting girl that really just wants to be fweeends~", someone that cries to themselves when no one's looking because they don't know how to relate. Maria does not do this, or at least, not until later in the series when she already has friends and worries about how to interact with them. In the beginning, though, she reacts rather calmly, or with even more insults and brazen behavior towards those that are bullying her.
As the series progresses, and Maria grows, I half-expected to start disliking her, thinking that she'd become a weepy, shiny-eyed person that really just didn't understand the world and would lose all of the quirk and bluntness that had made her interesting at the start. I was pleased to find that wasn't the case. Yes, she did get a bit weepy here and there, but given the things that made her weep...I'm willing to forgive her. Especially since she's still capable of being just as outspoken and charmingly rude as before.
As for the romance...I've got a rant that I'm going to post below, but overall, the romance frustrates me in that it follows typical shoujo patterns which (to me) are really out of place and, in a way, unfair to Maria's character.
Overall, the series has a lot of good humor in it, and tends to sidestep/take its own spin on shoujo character/plot stereotypes (my favorite obviously being Maria's character). It does sometimes fall into typical shoujo holes, but uses them in a way that brings just enough "cheap thrill" to keep the story interesting. Also, I love the issues it deals with, in regards to Maria's past, the issues she has stemming from said past, and how everyone around her deals with it and/or tries to help her. It's a decent series; nothing terribly amazing but very enjoyable to read.
.....though frustrating at times >>;;
As the series progresses, and Maria grows, I half-expected to start disliking her, thinking that she'd become a weepy, shiny-eyed person that really just didn't understand the world and would lose all of the quirk and bluntness that had made her interesting at the start. I was pleased to find that wasn't the case. Yes, she did get a bit weepy here and there, but given the things that made her weep...I'm willing to forgive her. Especially since she's still capable of being just as outspoken and charmingly rude as before.
As for the romance...I've got a rant that I'm going to post below, but overall, the romance frustrates me in that it follows typical shoujo patterns which (to me) are really out of place and, in a way, unfair to Maria's character.
Overall, the series has a lot of good humor in it, and tends to sidestep/take its own spin on shoujo character/plot stereotypes (my favorite obviously being Maria's character). It does sometimes fall into typical shoujo holes, but uses them in a way that brings just enough "cheap thrill" to keep the story interesting. Also, I love the issues it deals with, in regards to Maria's past, the issues she has stemming from said past, and how everyone around her deals with it and/or tries to help her. It's a decent series; nothing terribly amazing but very enjoyable to read.
.....though frustrating at times >>;;
The latest chapter came out recently, here on Mangareader, and so far I haven't found any "decent" discussion for it.
Here's my rant on the romantic leads/hopefuls, copy&pasted from another site. Some spoilers for the latest chapter, naturally.
It's kind of a mess, but I was just rambling to myself, so... --Click here to view--
Y'know what bothers me? The latest chapter of Akuma to Lovesong, and how much of a crappy "main love interest" Meguro is. I mean, at the start of the series he and Maria had the most chemistry because she was at a really dark, self-hating place and she related to Meguro's brooding personality while he was attracted to the bit of playfulness/shyness she would sometimes show. As she became accepted by her class and made more friends, and the issues with Anna took place, she and Meguro grew apart--because of Anna's interference, and because of Meguro learning about Maria's mother. In that time, Yuusuke stepped up and really helped Maria open up, both in general and to the possibility of letting go of her issues with being close to others while liking herself.
Since then, Meguro has yet to get anywhere near her again, and Maria's still running on the thought that he rejected her and doesn't like her. While keeping those thoughts in mind, she's become stronger and expanded her circle of friends to where she doesn't really have to rely on Meguro's presence to feel accepted like she did at the beginning. And now we have Kurosu entering the plot. From the very first time we met him, he has made a connection with Maria unlike any other character in the series.
How? Because his connection with her isn't based on the negatives within each other, like with Meguro, which leads to shyly licking each other's wounds. Nor is it based on the comfort of well-meaning advice, like with Yuusuke, which leads to having a relationship based mostly on healing. With Kurosu, their connection so far has been based on acknowledging the good and bad points within each other, and then growing from what they find in the other person and in themselves. He's only been around for two or three chapters, yet he's already made a huge impact on Maria by getting her to realize and accept that she wants to touch and be touched by people. And on a more intimate level, between just the two of them, it's been shown that unlike with the other two boys, Maria gets Kurosu; she understands his actions and reflects on them, while also accepting them whether she means to or not (as shown in the latest chapter when she thinks about his constantly trying to touch her).
And while Kurosu's busy being a natural match for Maria, Meguro's getting jumpy and crazed--in the latest chapter, his expressions when talking to Kurosu really freaked me out; he seemed so...psychotic, almost. He's gotten to the point where he's so obsessed with trying to protect Maria by not talking to her about anything and even trying to keep others from getting too close that the thought of him getting together with Maria in the end is just...ridiculous.
As I mentioned before, he and Maria had a connection at the start because their slightly darker personalities meshed and brought out some of the better qualities in each other. Now that Maria's moving past the things that kept her in the dark, though, and is in fact becoming a much much brighter person, she and Meguro don't click at all. He hasn't become lighter, and seems to almost resent the progress she's made--in the latest chapter he had a negative expression on his face while he watched Maria and her two female friends playing with each other's hair. If he was any decent kind of love interest--the kind that so many people seem to think he is, going so far as to call him "perfect" for Maria--then he would have had a shocked and/or relieved look on his face to see that she was moving past the issues he'd been worrying about! This is all pushed even further when he calls Kurosu out to talk about how he wants Kurosu to stay away from Maria. Kurosu in turn calls him out on his behavior as being selfish, paranoid, arrogant, and detrimental to Maria. And Meguro's reaction? To get angrier, and to have an even crazier look in his eyes like a child about to throw a tantrum because someone threatened to take away his toy or something!
Oh, and the cherry on top of the "Meguro freaking sucks as the main love intererst" sundae? At the end of the chapter, right after he's taken some initiative to invite Maria out (and cockblock Kurosu, and then fail because he didn't have a place in mind), and everyone's all excited about making plans to go to his holiday house for the weekend, what does he say to Kurosu? "Yes, I am a selfish coward. I'm going to keep protecting her in secret."
WHAT. THE. FREAKIN' HELL. And this is the guy that most fans want her to end up with? The one that's had no personal growth at all and in fact seems to be regressing in a way that could only hurt the main character, who has spent the entire manga growing exponentially??? GOD I really don't get shoujo fans sometimes!!!
Since then, Meguro has yet to get anywhere near her again, and Maria's still running on the thought that he rejected her and doesn't like her. While keeping those thoughts in mind, she's become stronger and expanded her circle of friends to where she doesn't really have to rely on Meguro's presence to feel accepted like she did at the beginning. And now we have Kurosu entering the plot. From the very first time we met him, he has made a connection with Maria unlike any other character in the series.
How? Because his connection with her isn't based on the negatives within each other, like with Meguro, which leads to shyly licking each other's wounds. Nor is it based on the comfort of well-meaning advice, like with Yuusuke, which leads to having a relationship based mostly on healing. With Kurosu, their connection so far has been based on acknowledging the good and bad points within each other, and then growing from what they find in the other person and in themselves. He's only been around for two or three chapters, yet he's already made a huge impact on Maria by getting her to realize and accept that she wants to touch and be touched by people. And on a more intimate level, between just the two of them, it's been shown that unlike with the other two boys, Maria gets Kurosu; she understands his actions and reflects on them, while also accepting them whether she means to or not (as shown in the latest chapter when she thinks about his constantly trying to touch her).
And while Kurosu's busy being a natural match for Maria, Meguro's getting jumpy and crazed--in the latest chapter, his expressions when talking to Kurosu really freaked me out; he seemed so...psychotic, almost. He's gotten to the point where he's so obsessed with trying to protect Maria by not talking to her about anything and even trying to keep others from getting too close that the thought of him getting together with Maria in the end is just...ridiculous.
As I mentioned before, he and Maria had a connection at the start because their slightly darker personalities meshed and brought out some of the better qualities in each other. Now that Maria's moving past the things that kept her in the dark, though, and is in fact becoming a much much brighter person, she and Meguro don't click at all. He hasn't become lighter, and seems to almost resent the progress she's made--in the latest chapter he had a negative expression on his face while he watched Maria and her two female friends playing with each other's hair. If he was any decent kind of love interest--the kind that so many people seem to think he is, going so far as to call him "perfect" for Maria--then he would have had a shocked and/or relieved look on his face to see that she was moving past the issues he'd been worrying about! This is all pushed even further when he calls Kurosu out to talk about how he wants Kurosu to stay away from Maria. Kurosu in turn calls him out on his behavior as being selfish, paranoid, arrogant, and detrimental to Maria. And Meguro's reaction? To get angrier, and to have an even crazier look in his eyes like a child about to throw a tantrum because someone threatened to take away his toy or something!
Oh, and the cherry on top of the "Meguro freaking sucks as the main love intererst" sundae? At the end of the chapter, right after he's taken some initiative to invite Maria out (and cockblock Kurosu, and then fail because he didn't have a place in mind), and everyone's all excited about making plans to go to his holiday house for the weekend, what does he say to Kurosu? "Yes, I am a selfish coward. I'm going to keep protecting her in secret."
WHAT. THE. FREAKIN' HELL. And this is the guy that most fans want her to end up with? The one that's had no personal growth at all and in fact seems to be regressing in a way that could only hurt the main character, who has spent the entire manga growing exponentially??? GOD I really don't get shoujo fans sometimes!!!
Edited by Kushina, 07 July 2011 - 12:45 AM.
