Dengeki Daisy

Don't let the title or anything else fool you, this manga is not like anything else you have ever read before, its much, much better! Not only will the story make you want more and more, the art work is simply beautiful., Plus the heart warming relationship between Teru (Main) and Kurosaki (Main) I highly recommend this manga to anyone. One if the things i Love most is it not a manga thats just so gross you wanna puke. (so far, so good) Its also Super super funny! I recommend it to all ages and genders. :)

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

So I just finished this series, and had very mixed feelings about it. I was looking through the first few pages of reviews for this manga, and I couldn't find any that mirrored my own thoughts so I'll leave them here.

The main thing that I was surprised that more people didn't mention is how messed up and creepy the relationship between the two leads Teru and Tasuku is if you stop and think about it. Tasuku basically starts out as Teru's therapist who helped her deal with the trauma of her brother's death. He consoles her through email while she is in middle school, and falls in love with her before the story even starts. He then physically and emotionally abuses her when he's with her in person while secretly sending her emails telling her how much he cares for her and how good of a girl she is. It's just gross. Oh, and also he is 24 and she is 16, and she starts shaking and crying when he's about to kiss her, but he tells her it's okay and does it anyway. But that's all fine because he got permission to date Teru from her brother while she was still a child before he died lol. The story still would have worked if they had made Tasuku only a couple years older than Teru, so I'm not sure why the author insisted on having it be this way. There's even a point where one of the supporting characters gives her blessing when he's about to confess to Teru and says that society will see them as stupid youngsters, but if he's sincere everything could work out. This is only half accurate, since a crime is still a crime. Why go so far so justify unhealthy power dynamics and age disparities? It's like the anxiety of ReLIFE except if Arata was a total scumbag and picked on and made out with the high school girls in his class. Now that I've written so much I guess I'll talk about the other parts of the manga as well.

Story 6/10

The story starts strong and introduces a lot of interesting elements. The more that was revealed about each of these elements however, the less interested I became. The hacking is quickly revealed to be unrealistic and overly convenient. The mystery surrounding Teru's brother is mostly unexplained until it's all revealed in a boring exposition dump of a chapter. Tasuku's backstory of course needs to set in stone that he was a flawless good guy who was forced to commit bad actions, and takes away any interesting moral ambiguity about his character other than how terribly he treats Teru and others which is completely ignored. The pacing also flounders in the middle where there is no development between the characters relationship and Teru just gets kidnapped over and over.

Art /10

The art is OK and you can tell what's happening pretty clearly, but I'm not a fan of the unrealistic style and Teru's giant eyes creep me out.

Characters 3/10

I've already explained the problems I have with the main relationship so I won't go into it again. Teru is by far the most interesting character. She has the most development of any of the characters and has some cool scenes where she fights back against the villains. Most of the side characters have a lot of potential, but except for a couple of Teru's friends towards the beginning of the manga, none of them have any growth or conflicts with each other that aren't resolved within basically the same scene.

Overall 4/10

A mostly decent manga ruined for me by a pretty horrifying portrayal of how its okay for a 24 year old to date a 16 year old while treating her like total garbage.

i don't really understand what appeal does this manga have for its readers, why people like it, why they think it deserves a score:8.81, but for me it was huge disapointment (because of the good opinions i have read-i have had high expectations) and it was like reading a dragging, random, meaningless things happening to heroin and while the hero was in the process of saving her from that absurd situations, he somehow fell for her...
So i dropped this but let me tell you this: you may or may not like this but i'm 100% sure you will agree there is no way the plot is relevant to even a tiny bit of reality. And i'm not a huge fan of reality but there is a limit to absurdity...

I loved this manga! even though it's not done yet i know that there will be an excellent ending!

The story is quite amazing! And I loved the characters. Kurosaki is good-looking, hot, and always there when teru needs him the most, even though he's often cruel to Teru. Kurosaki is always looking after Teru, and had always loved her. Teru in the other hand have this very special person to her, Daisy, a text mate who her brother introduced to always help her in her times of need. Teru is quite smart and hard-working, she lost her brother a year ago, she is currently working as an assistant for Kurosaki in order repay her debt for the glass she broke on the first chapter. Now she has to deal with the loads of work Kurosaki is giving her and with Kurosaki himself. The only thing I dislike here is that there are no signs of romance yet but there will be in the future I suppose! Cant wait!!!


I loved this manga because of the art (good), Characters (fine), Enjoyment (enjoyable!), and the story (very unique and cute), overall this manga is magnificent!
A story that will keep you turning the pages!!!

At chapter 3, I felt this should not exceed 20 chapters. At Chapter 27, I've dropped it. Please. I can't stand cringiness for 50 more chapters, no way.
Honestly, when people are giving rave reviews on this, it feels like they had only read sooo many bad manga that this was a saviour to them. Please, save yourself from wasting your time.

A good shoujo manga, no matter if it's full of cliched situations or tropes, is nuanced. NUANCED. It is the tiny details, the reactions, the expressions and the analogies that give the characters a body, a persona. There's no ounce of the meaning 'nuance' in this. Everything is just blatantly open and put out there. Then again, it was a manga that was expected to end in a few chapters but kept getting revived, so at every chapter, it feels like the end is close, but just because the mangaka got more pages to fill, she was forced to drag on the story.

While Dengeki Daisy surely wants to move away from those cliched high school semester activities and have adults in the mix of protagonists, it takes the route of programmers and hackers (and dare I say even gardening), but all of it is very very amateur. Terms like registry, defrag, proxy are all just thrown in to make it appear technical and complex. Every so-called mystery situation is so blatantly obvious, and immediately given away - there's no good build up. It's like the mangaka thought, "Oh, I want to draw a shoujo romance, but let's give it a mystery turn - ah! Let's spice it up with a hacker hero!" And obviously there has to be some trauma because of course, hacking/cracking is illegal - you don't want to influence kids the wrong way. I mean, sure, use it as a setting. Sure, there's no need for technical accuracy and detail (and honestly, I no longer know what was possible in 2013 as opposed to 2018, but surely it was much more than that). But if you've introduced a plot device which requires intelligence and strategy, be intelligent and strategic about it and rise up to it. This manga surely could not. A loooooot of the situations were just soooo convenient just to give the characters a reason to come together or say something.

When the meaning of the name "Daisy" was revealed - I actually thought - WHOOOAAA - just what does that imply?? And I saw a whole different scenario pop up that diverted this from a shoujo to a seinen thriller. But nooooo... they killed that intensity right at the end of the same chapter with the characters' immaturity. Alas, it remained a shoujo. Just because it was being published in Betsukomi? Who knows.

The characters are as flat as the flat chested female lead, and you can predict that it will never grow. The bad guys are good guys gone awry, or just plain dumb who take their sweet time, the good characters just have so much trust to spare they want to donate it, and of course trauma and guilt needs to be slow-burnt in. The side characters are just there to fill in space, and not actually give support. 90% of the humour is not humourous. Ugh. It just became cringy. While I am 5% happy that Teru, the female lead, is a bit proactive, she still becomes a damsel in distress - not the usual type, but still yes. I can already see she'll heading towards having a saviour complex soon.

At 27 chapters, I don't feel any closeness to the characters. They are not growing on me. I am not excited to find out more about them. The guilt/trauma that's being built up, I don't care about that because I feel like the character is just whining.

I'm just tired.

Here I'll recommend reading cute shorts like 'Nanairo Sekai' or the much more rooted 'Seishun Kouryakuhon', the more nuanced love-tug-drama of 'Hirunaka no Ryuusei', 'Taiyou no Ie', or an actual debate on guilt and moral in the nuanced and intense 'Bones of an Invisible Person' that leaves you feeling something instead of empty.

Starting off with the ratings:
Story - 7.5(but since there's no such rating, I'll be giving an 8)
Art - 8.5(once again, upped to a 9)
Character - 9
Enjoyment - 7(the reason for the sudden drop in rating may be due to a personal belief but yeah...)

Overall - 8

Honestly speaking, there isn't really anything particularly special about the storyline. It's just the usual type you see with a conflict going on.(Teru's PHONE being wanted due to her brother's history, not sure if "history" is the right word though, which in turn causes Teru herself to get into trouble and the wonderful male lead will come to her rescue and... so on) The reason why I gave it a 7.5/8 is because of the heart-warming feeling that the way the events are being portrayed gives.

I find the art beautiful and I love the special way the author draw the "dark-aura-eyes" of the characters at certain time which add to the humour, a factor I absolutely can't live without. I find Teru's giant eyes pretty creepy though and since the art isn't exactly flawless either, which is why it got an 8.5/9.

The characters is where this manga shines brilliantly. Unlike the usual characters who only have a flat personality(pure evil, pure blindly kind-hearted, pure hard-working, pure trouble-making... all those), Dengeki Daisy's characters have various different "faces" depending on the situation they face. Eg. Teru has the determined-to-persevere personality when facing antagonists while having an innocent(or maybe even dumb) side in her daily life as a poor girl as well as having a witty personality when it comes to issues with Kurosaki.

It is such personality changes going along with the situation that makes the characters realistic to a point.

There is a reason why the "Enjoyment" part got downed so severely(compared to the other ratings) I really did enjoyed the manga at first. I was even okay with Kurosaki being a pervert. I mean, which NORMAL guy isn't a pervert? Right? I was okay with literally everything, even the age gap until... They began mentioning that Kurosaki is a lolicon. *SMALL SPOILER*---The point when Kurosaki steals Teru's panties just went overboard---*SMALL SPOILER END*

I'm sorry if this seems to be biased on my part but I seriously cannot stand lolicons/pedos. I couldn't seem to read the manga properly after that which is why enjoyment got downed.

Overrall, an 8, it's a great shojo romance manga, given that you can tolerate slight loli-ness.

I this is my first review, so bear with me, please.

Dengeki Daisy is an amazing story. It truly captures shoujo in its own way. This story has beautiful characters that shine in their own way. Of course, this story has its flaws, but (as of late) I cannot find any. I liked this manga so much because the characters were definitely not ordinary. Each character had a past that intertwines with everyone's. The story itself is sad, enchanting, funny. It made me laugh, cry, and cheer for the main character's romance. Understand, I cannot even express how much I love this manga. Do not get me wrong, this manga is not for everyone. If you do not like manga that incorporates the past into the present, or patience with the romance, do not read this! Although, I encourage you to because there are hilarious scenes that would suck to miss.

Overall, the reason I like this manga and why I recommend it is because of the emotions it will pull out and the fantastic character development.

EDIT: This was my first review, and it wasn't well-executed, at that. If you want a truly good, informative review, please refer to the one below me. I definitely recommend that one. :)

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Story: 10

At first, I believed this was going to be the typical manga where the female protagonist is whiny, child-like, dependent, and –overall– someone who doesn't stand up for herself. I thought this would be that one story with the pair of infamous main leads: the girl who's constantly a damsel in distress and the guy who's just a bit too perfect and arrogant for his own good. However, this manga is different. The story is quite original and it wasn't as cliché or predictable when compared to most other manga.

I wasn't expecting Dengeki Daisy to take a sudden, serious turn when it came to discussing criminal/investigative topics. I am a sucker for mystery and this one is most definitely one of my favorites. The plot twists are fantastic. The drama is not the sickening type. It is the kind of story that makes you want to read the whole thing in a day.

On a different note, the author is astoundingly interactive and friendly with her readers (if you read the author's notes, that is). I absolutely love how she dedicates time to her audience.

Art: 8

It was nice and appealing. Of course, there are your everyday mistakes and such, but these are often minuscule. Personally, it's not my favourite art style, but it's still enjoyable nonetheless.

Characters: 8

The main female character started off pretty normal, yet she takes a turn for the best and continues to better throughout the story until the very end. The male lead shines through as well with time, and almost all the characters –both the supporting cast and protagonists– developed beautifully –some of them you could say were unusual and went through some equally unexpected changes. I did, however, which we could've had more insight or time with the supporting cast. Though –seeing as the manga is eighty chapters long– I believe this was for the best, as extending a story too much would've taken away Dengeki Daisy's charm.

Enjoyment: 10

It's a story that doesn't bore you; it doesn't prolong too much nor too little. Like I said before, it's a story that makes you want to keep on reading 'till the very end.

Overall: 10

Even though it seems Dengeki Daisy's off to a cliché beginning, it all progresses well and it becomes an enjoyable and satisfiying story until the very end. I recommend this manga for any person who is 13+, male or female.

I really love how this manga is going. I've only read 7 chapters, but already it's got me hooked.

Story: 10/10
Why? It's original. A hacker protecting a girl...and all around it are story developments in both the past and future. Not every manga I've read has the same quality of intriguing development in BOTH past and future. It's hard to do that, but I believe Dengeki Daisy has done that fairly well.

Art: 10/10
I really like the art. Better than most manga I've read. It's not messy and it really adds to the enjoyment of the manga.

Character: 9/10
The characters are incredibly interesting and eye-catching, but there are some characters that I wish I could change. I won't mention which ones here since it would spoil it, but there are just some personality traits in characters that you just wish you could remove.

Enjoyment 10/10
I loved it.

Overall: 10/10
It's a MUST-READ for Shoujo maniacs! You may not enjoy it as much as I have, but it's definitely something you should pick up if you have spare time.

To put it: Dengeki Daisy is not your common shoujo manga.

STORY : 10/10
This story is purely original. I'm serious, after reading the first 10 chapters of DD, I dropped reading most of the flowery shoujo manga I had.

My reason? When you laugh, you laugh until your oxygen supplies run out. When you go all "Kya~!", you wake up your roommate or your neighbor. When the plot gets serious, you take time to understand everything. When the story gets touching, fat tears come down from your tears. When you got confused, you go back to reread. When you get angry with a character, you curse them with all your might.

Intrigued? Go ahead. Read it!

ART : 10/10
The characters were drawn great, but not to the extent that you'll be drowned in flowery stuff. Kurosaki Tasuku was drawn... HOT.

Oh, my fangirl fantasies with him.

CHARACTER : 10/10
Kurebayashi Teru is your typical girl: not necessarily the "damsel-in-distress" type and she can save herself most of the time. I can say that she's really witty and not as gullible as she looks. She's not a weakling, and although on the first parts of the manga she was often bullied, as the story progresses, she's much a strong girl as she is.

Kurosaki Tasuku is the most badass guy leads I've ever seen. He really is a good guy at heart, but he's a PERVY, MEAN BULLY in front of Teru. He's not the perfect guy you can hope that could exist... and that's the main reason why I love him. He's there for Teru and at the same time, he loves to make her miserable.

ENJOYMENT : 10/10
I enjoyed reading it. I wait IMPATIENTLY for the next chapters every month, but every update is worth it. It made me laugh. It made me cry. It made me mad.

OVERALL : 10/10
One thing I want to say to Motomi Kyousuke:

MAKE THIS AN ANIME SERIES SOON, PLEASE? :)

[Again... intrigued? Haha. Go ahead. Read the manga. NOW]

Let me start with what I loved the most about this manga. (And this is going to be a long list...)

1. Characters.

There's no place for a Mary Sue (or Gary Stu) in Dengeki Daisy. No one is perfect. You cannot just use a blanket descriptor like "kind" or "sweet" for any of them.

Especially the two main characters, Teru and Kurosaki. Dear lord, these two. They're real people - when you finish the manga, you feel like you've known them forever. You understand the things that worry them, the things that make them happy, the things that MAKE them. Their past, their feelings, everything defines and shapes them.

Teru could be just another shoujo heroine - there's a real danger of that, considering Dengeki Daisy is a shoujo manga. There are a lot of situations where the mangaka could've taken the easier way out and just labeled Teru to be an absolutely helpless angel who just needs Kurosaki's protection and can't do something on her own. But Teru isn't just another shoujo manga heroine. She's not only strong, independent and unmelodramatic unlike most shoujo girls, she's also very believable. Her reasons for choosing things are sound.

Kurosaki. (If I had to count the number of ways I love him, sigh.) It's been a while since I fell head over heels in love with an imaginary character. But he doesn't even feel imaginary, that's the best part. He's a real man, he isn't just wildly strong or wildly good-looking or wildly successful. He's just a normal guy with a normal job, and he has fears and apprehensions. He's not invincible, he's very human.

The secondary characters aren't far behind in development. They aren't just for show. Each character serves its purpose. From Riko to Rena to even the deceased Souichiro, each character has a job and they all do it splendidly. When a character appears, you know what to expect from them. It feels like you spent several hours just hanging out with all these folks at Master's restaurant.

2. Chemistry and Romance.

Teru x Kurosaki. Early on in the manga (like in the very first chapter - actually, in the first 2-3 pages) you start shipping this couple. And then you never stop.

The chemistry between these two is the kind of stuff that could make your breath catch. He's an adult, she's still a child, and he's very, very mindful of that. With just one look, one word, one action, they show they love each other very much and they crave each other's contact very much. You really wish you could read a chapter from the future where Teru's all grown up and ready to handle the man that Kurosaki is, but nope. This is a shoujo manga of a high school girl called Teru and you have to take a cold shower at the end of the "hot" scenes (and not hot because they're explicit - the author calls this a "lukewarm" manga, but I feel like the characters are enough to set the pages on fire; no need for sexual tension at all) just like Kurosaki is going to have to.

The love doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen because Kurosaki's hot or because Teru's sexy. The love builds on top of (in spite of, as a result of) several trials both the characters go through. Their bond gets stronger with each interaction they have and you can feel it. The romance is very, very satisfying. When you finish the manga, you sigh and wish that there were a couple more chapters after all the JF drama where they both just love and fall deeper in love.

Though this is a shoujo romance manga, it doesn't neglect the other relationships. The chemistry between the MCs and the secondary characters are also tended to with TLC. Teru's relationship develops over time with the rest of the people. She makes new friends, she forgives an old friend, and all of that strengthens the bonds she has with all these people. Kurosaki matures as a character and so do his relationships with the people around him. The friendships feel real and warm.

3. Humor and Drama.

The main thing I love about this manga is, I lost count of the number of times I laughed till my tummy ached and cried till my heart ached throughout the story.

Things may seem like they're taking a turn for serious, and suddenly there's an extremely humorous comment or dialogue that makes you laugh out loud (ugh, the number of times I made a fool of myself in public!). And just when it all looks hilarious, there's one dialogue or just one statement that could make you long for a love like that or a friend like that or something that makes you feel sorry for even the bad guy.

4. Art.

Fantastic. Detailed, beautiful, emotive, meaningful (and I have more adjectives, but I'll stop here).

As for cuteness...

Chibi Teru. Period.

Bonus: Author notes.

I LOVED reading Motomi-sensei's notes and the Q&A sections. Hilarious and extremely cute. Reading the sections has the added benefit of making you feel like you've gotten a bit closer to the characters.

What I don't like about the manga:

Just the rushed ending. That's all. Really can't think of anything else.

The story isn't this manga's strongest point, but it's not the weakest either, it's still pretty detailed. In such a believable manga, some scenes are way too flashy, but it's difficult to nitpick too much when it's all heartfelt and leaves you a molten mass of fuzz.

Give it a try, just because it's addictive and fun, like the best rollercoaster ride you've ever had. It may not be a masterpiece or classic, but it's still one of the best shoujo mangas ever written (and drawn).