Manga Review – Kisu Yori Mo Hayaku (Faster Than a Kiss) by Meca Tanaka

Manga Review – Kisu Yori mo Hayaku (Faster Than a Kiss) by Meca Tanaka Kisu Yori mo Hayaku (Faster Than a Kiss) by Meca Tanaka
Published by Hakusensha from July 5, 2007 to October 5, 2012
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Shojo, Young Adult,
12 Volumes/book series
Format: eBook
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Buy: Amazon
Find on Goodreads

Losing their parents, Fumiko and her brother hop from one relative to another. Getting tired of all those movings, she finally decides to quit school and work to support her brother on her own. As they sat on a park bench, her teacher appears in front of her and agrees to her demanding of marrying and supporting both her and her brother!! Is he serious or just playing around…!?

Review

After reading this manga, I was debating to myself on what rating I should give it. You see, when I was just in the middle part of this story, I already concluded that I will be giving it a 3.5 star rating, but man!!!! I love love love the ending. It was far from what I imagined and that’s really a relief. After the scene with sensei’s father, I thought everything will be cliché, but man! I didn’t anticipated the ending. It’s absolutely a perfect HEA, and you know how I’m such a sucker for that hehe. I’m just so happy with how everything turned out. I’m super happy that I shed a tear. It’s just, it seems like I was there in this story and felt what sensei and Fumino was feeling at that moment.

Kisu Yori mo Hayaku or also known as Faster than a Kiss in English is a story of Fumino, a highschool student who after getting tired of moving from one relatives to another, decided to ran away together with her younger brother, Teppei. While on the park, her sensei (teacher) approached them and asked what she’s doing. She got pissed so she demanded him to marry her so he can take good care of her and her brother. Out of tension between their confrontation, sensei said yes. And that is the start of their “secret” married life.

Unlike book reviews, I don’t mind sharing some spoilers when I’m reviewing a manga, so get ready haha. So what made me shed a tear? It was on the part where Fumino is walking down the aisle towards sensei. My! That was just so heartwarming. No words spoken, it’s just the two of them looking so lovingly at each other. If this manga would have made it into an anime, I’m pretty sure I’ll be watching that scene over and over again. It’s just so rewarding that after what they’ve been through, the happy moments and hardships they’ve shared, they finally able to overcome all of those and finally get married for real. It’s just beautiful. And speaking of beautiful, their first kiss indeed was so beautiful. Awww.. and thinking about it, I guess I’m going to start re-evaluating my feelings about the rain lol haha. Wanna know why? Well, that’s something you should find out for yourself. *wink

The idea of a student falling in love with her teacher is something that isn’t new to me. I’ve read and watch movies with that same logic before so I am really excited to find out how the author will remedy that and made me interested in this story to the extent of finishing it. And my! I sure did enjoyed this one.

Some may find it gross but hey hey hey, the professor is just 24 years old so it’s fine. Plus with a handsome face like that, I wouldn’t be having any second thoughts. Plus, he look so hot with or without glasses, but I think I’ll go for a glasses look for sensei. Why’s that? Well, he look so dang hot without his glasses so to avoid any women gawking at him, it’s better if he wear his glasses or I could kill someone haha.

I always love highschool romances so it wasn’t really a surprise that I enjoyed this one. Faster Than a Kiss wasn’t really in my radar until I stumbled to this one. It’s only 12 volumes and it’s already completed so I decided to check out the sypnosis and I like the idea, plus, the characters looks so good together so why not? It’s the shortest in my manga TBR so I decided to read it first. You see, I don’t usually read the manga without watching the anime first but seeing that it doesn’t have one, I guess I’ll have to check this out myself eh?

I have to say that Faster Than a Kiss is not your typical student falling in love with her sensei story. It’s not just the romance that is covered with this manga but it has so much more. You see, it’s just 12 volumes but it’s composed of so many chapters. I thought I know what’s going to happen next or I know how it’ll end but I was surprised with all the scenes the author added to this story. I love that it also includes about friendship, about family especially about relationship between siblings and also about not just love triangle but I guess that’s 5? Well, you see, Fumino is quite a Rapunzel in this story because of her long hair feeling lol haha.

The reason I was torn between 3.5 and 4 star rating because this manga had some confusing chapters. I’m not just talking about the drawing but also for the English translation, but then I realized that I should be thankful. Without these amazing translators who works so hard even without compensation, I was able to read this story eh? So I guess the only issue for me were the drawing. I’m not saying it’s bad, but there were some scenes and parts that was confusing that it made me spend a long time examining the pages to understand the scenes and the action it’s trying to portray. But I think that’s only a total of 2-3 chapters, all other chapters were great. And speaking of great, you can browse my favorite scenes from this manga here. *wink

The conflict, well, there’s so many conflicts in this story, but I’m so glad that the author didn’t add some annoying ones. Well, unless you count the part about sensei’s father, because that was downright annoying, but so far it didn’t stretched the far, because we finally got to see Fumino and sensei’s wedding, ayeeii. But even without the wedding, with cute Teppei around, they already look like one cute family. And my, Fumino and Teppei cosplaying while welcoming sensei everytime he comes home was quite cute, haha.

Although there’s no annoying conflicts, I have to say that there’s this annoying character that I really want to kill myself. And who would that be? Well, it’s sensei’s younger brother Shouma. My! He was really a pain in the ass. He’s hot and he’s cold and is downright jerk. If there are different classes of jerks, he’ll be in class A. I understand about his feelings towards Fumino but going to deal with his action of getting behind sensei and Fumino was so frustrating and irritating to watch/read. He’s just lucky that sensei didn’t lose his cool and was able to handle it maturely (well, not most of the time, haha).

For Fumino’s character, she was introduced as this badass chick who beat up guys who are doing bad to her classmates, but when she’s finally living with sensei, she somewhat loses her groove and was always in a situation where sensei always rescues her. Don’t get me wrong, I like her character but the saving the damsel in distress we’re too much. But on the other hand, she sure loves her younger brother so much. I love how she’ll do anything just for him and that really soften my heart. And ofcourse, I adore her kindness even to those who doesn’t deserves it, her cool, her courage and her guts. My! This girl is really something. And you know what else? I love how she fight so hard for sensei. She’s the kind of girl that knows what she wants and fights for it, and that’s the kind of attitude I like for a heroine.

Sensei on the other hand is definitely a prince charming material. He’s so nice, so good looking and everything you need for a guy is within him. He’s just too perfect which makes his character unrealistic. But even with that perfect attitude and appearance, I have to say that it didn’t stop me from liking him genuinely. I did not fall-in-love-with-him-and-wanting-to-become-the-heroine way but I really love his character. And my, didn’t I tell you how sensual his way of disinfecting Fumino’s wounds? haha. But beyond that perfect appearance, his distorted past makes up for it thus making his character relatable. What he’s been through and how he was able to get past them makes me so proud of him. Despite what he’s been through, I’m happy that he was able to become what he is now and finally found the woman who will love him and makes him happy.

There’s still some issue about his father and his relationship with sensei from way back before that wasn’t introduced to us completely but I guess the part where he bought Fumino’s wedding dress is enough to compensate it haha sucker.

Most POV of the manga were taken from the main character either the girl or the guy or from a third party, but for this one, I guess it’s safe to say that it was mostly from Fumino unless you’ll include some individual parts like the one from Shouma who was struggling about his feelings towards Fumino. I always love to hear about sensei so it was great that he had 1 chapter that is taken from his own POV, it was short yes but at least it was on the part where he talks about his feelings toward Fumino.

Both of the main characters confesses their feelings in the early volume so I thought after that all will be going to be predictable but the twist and turn surprised me.

This is the third shojo manga that I’ve read but differently not my first shojo anime so I have a lot to compare with, but so far, I find this one enjoyable. It didn’t just made me fall in love but it made me laugh my heart out.

And oops, I almost forgot. Aside from the romance and a little bit of comedy, I was eyeing to Fumino’s younger brother, Teppei. My! I guess he’s one of the most cutest character I’ve encounter so far.

If you love YA and drooling over a hot sensei, then Faster Than a Kiss is definitely for you.
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