No Matter What You Say Furi-San is Scary – Manga First Impression

I’m going through some sort of identity crisis at the moment. The moment is probably 3 months ago. I have quite a lot of posts prescheduled at the moment.

First, a whole bunch of series of animes have made me realize that I no longer have a tendency to dislike little kid characters. Quite the contrary, in fact, I think they are adorable and I should watch more shows with little kids in them. I started Poco’s Udon World in response.

Second, I don’t dislike romance. Now I still find a lot of classic romance tropes quite annoying and it’s still not going to be my favourite genre any time soon. But I have been finding romantic series that I enjoy little by little. Will Furi-san be one of them?

Why I Picked up No Matter What You Say Furi-San is Scary

I’m actually not sure why I picked up this manga. On the face of it, everything about Furi-san would normally lead me to skip it. The cover is a blonde girl. I do like the fact that she’s got this slightly menacing expression and isn’t the classic pretty style. This said she is still quite an attractive character. It’s not like they were going for anything controversial. And the summary is fine but again, not usually my style.

It’s a mystery why I decided I needed this manga. But let me tell you, I really wanted it. This was one of the new series I was looking forward to receiving the most. Sometimes I get like that and I can’t explain it.  For instance, right now I’m holding my breath for the release of Nightfall Travelers and I literally can’t tell you why. (It has probably already been released when you read this, I hope it’s good!)

Official Summary

An ordinary high school boy is terrified of his scary-looking (but secretly sweet!) yankii girl classmate in a romantic comedy of crushes and misunderstandings.

Furi Youko definitely looks like a delinquent: she’s got a tough-girl image that wouldn’t be out of place in a gang. When Taira Namito finds himself sitting next to her in his high school class, he’s immediately afraid of her. But as it turns out, Furi’s rough-and-tumble exterior hides a wholesome, totally cute person underneath–and she’s got the hots for Taira. (Not that he has any idea, of course.) One misunderstanding leads to another in this romantic comedy about a clueless dude and the adorable, slightly terrifying affections of the tough girl by his side!

My First Impression

ohh, it’s cute!

What I liked

It’s a pretty well-worn trope, isn’t it? The scary-looking person everyone assumes is a delinquent is actually really sweet. And maybe a little shy which leads to a ton of misunderstandings. I’ve seen it a dozen times. It’s a romance staple, whether it’s traditional, bl or yuri. Furi-san is really just a simple gender-bend of the more common take.

You know, now that I think about it, I actually really like that trope. I’m not sure why but it’s easy to win me over with it.

In any case, I think it works particularly well with Furi-san because she is quite adorable but it also makes sense that people would have assumptions about her. She’s taller and stronger than most of the guys in her class. She’s not very good at academics but she’s naturally quite athletic so she has some good muscle mass. She’s also kind of brash and not very sociable. And not in the cute, she’s too shy to make friends way. She’s just a very direct person and she’s not too concerned with making a good impression.

So from an outside perspective, it makes sense that people would be intimidated and jump to conclusions. And that’s what makes it particularly endearing when Furi-san opens up a bit to the people around her and lets her charms shine.

It should be said that in the first volume, Taira doesn’t get to see the sweet side. She tries but it never quite works out. However, everyone else does and Furi finds herself surrounded by allies rooting for her love. I really liked that. She might not have gotten a boyfriend, but Furi finally made some friends and it’s very cute.

It did remind me of Komi Can’t Communicate at times. There’s a similar feel to it even though the characters are actually completely different. But it was easy for me to just lose myself in the easygoing story.

I also liked that Furi’s body type is a non-issue. Not once did any other character make fun of Fumi for being bigger than average, not even comment. Granted that might have been because they are scared of her but still. Taira freely admits that she’s very pretty. And she never got down on herself for not being a small dainty type. She has no body issues. That’s refreshing.

Any drawbacks?

Well, I liked Furi-san so I am less inclined to find something wrong with it. Like for all other manga I review, I would say that if you don’t like light romantic comedies then this isn’t the series for you.

Here is something that could be of genuine concern. This is very much Furi-san’s story. And well, Furi gets a crush on Taira the first day she meets him because she likes his face. From there on, we mostly get insight into what Furi is thinking. This means that Taira remains pretty much a mystery. We know that Furi likes his face and that he thinks she’s pretty but scary, and that’s about it. As such, you can really only connect with her side of the crush. And I guess that if you don’t, the story is going to lose a lot of appeals.

But we’ve all been there, right? In high school I mean. When you see someone you think looks cute and BAM, LOVE! You probably can’t even remember them now and you have no clue what you liked so much about them but at the time, it was intense! Puppy love! I love puppies.

Conclusion

No Matter What You Say Furi-San is Scary, made me smile and aww. I honestly rarely enjoy romantic manga this much. In fact, that might be a warning. My tastes in romance are definitely not the norm. S you might want to take my impressions with a grain of salt.

However, if you are looking for a light romantic comedy, why not try No Matter What You Say, Furi-San is Scary!