I guess I'd say it's a shounen battle manga from 2005 with a focus on (non-conflict) character drama with a tight-knit, interesting plot. It's also fully completed.

I don't know how to explain it better but it has an indie game feel to it, like if a frontline, long-running popular series are triple A games, then this could be described as an indie game. It's fairly succinct with a very clear vision, and also a bit rough around the edges in a way that you might say is charming.

I think a lot of the "rough around the edges" feel comes from the fact that this has a mid 2000s shounen aesthetic, with art, humour, tropes and I guess "wacky, light-hearted vibes" from that era which does definitely comes off as dated. I do personally enjoy this aesthetic though because it's pretty uniquely wacky compared to modern stuff.

I especially enjoyed the plot and how tight it was, there were quite a lot of small details that would come back later in the story, it didn't feel like anything was wasted. It's pretty clear that everything was planned out pretty meticulously before the author started writing, and even though the execution from the planning to the actual manga may not have been perfect, it was still pretty cool.

If it didn't really for me, I can see how some people might find this story or at least parts of this story very personally touching because of what it's about.

Some other things you might wanna know before starting:

- If you do decide to read this in an unofficial manner, note that the unofficial English translation of volume 4 available online is kinda questionable, so just steel yourself for that. Otherwise it's pretty decent.

- There's some pretty uncouth humour with panty shots (of a high-school girl) and stuff, which I feel ties into that mid-2000s aesthetic I talked about before. It's mostly just humour and isn't a focus for the vast majority of the manga, but if it's something that's a massive turn-off then maybe avoid this. (Also don't start to read this if you're in public like I did)

- You might recognise this because it had a recent-ish anime adaptation which is currently sitting at 5.64 stars on MAL. Dunno what's up with that, the manga itself is rated way higher. I guess the anime adaptation was just uniquely horrible or something, so don't let that deter you from reading the manga.