Typical high school bad boy romance

Cheeky Brat reads similarly to older romance-themed manga where the basis of most of the interactions between our main couple involves the man being gross and the woman somehow falling in love with him despite it. Three pages in and our romantic lead has already touched our protagonist’s breast without consent sooooo yeah.

Yuki is a high school student who manages the school basketball team. She decided to sign on as manager after an interaction with the captain, Kido, and develops a crush on him because of his kindness and general good nature. When she overhears he has a girlfriend, she is devastated but tries to keep a brave face. That isn’t hard for her as she’s known for being a bit of a hard-ass and never smiling, a trait which Naruse, our love interest, finds intriguing. He falls for her and tries his best to be around her as much as possible, which drives her insane.

Naruse is a typical manga love interest in that he’s basically an asshole with issues who makes the protagonist uncomfortable but rather than finding him weird and creepy, she falls for him too. It’s a trope as old as time that all of these women deserve more. But hey, it’s a high school manga so it’s what I’ve come to expect. It’s a fine, very typical high school romance with hijinks and a lot of teenagers not trusting their own feelings. Naruse isn’t a bad character, and he never does anything overly offensive (aside from the earlier mention) he’s just generally cold. Yuki is weirdly all over the place, always keeping her emotions in check but also losing it over a dude who doesn’t deserve her. So, in turn, pretty typical 16-year-old behavior. It’s an enjoyable enough series that I can see a lot of my high school students enjoying.

Title: Cheeky Brat (Vol 1)
Author: Mitsubachi Miyuki
Format:  Paperback
Pages: 192
ISBN: 9781975334352

Three Descriptors: Enemies to lovers, Guilt Tripping, Unexpected romance