Its been a while since I wrote anything here, and this probably won't be that well formatted, since I am writing this as PPNC idkac. Spoilers ahead, you have been warned.
After 106 chapters and over 2 years of following this series, Hope you're happy, Lemon has finally ended. While I've never mentioned it in my blogs, the series been one of my favorites ever since I started reading it. With all mangas that I enjoy, the manga is a romcom with absolutely amazing art. Lemon was also one of my favorite characters design wise (her hair is white), and I've been cheering for her ever since I picked up the series. Now if you are an astute reader and cross referenced the draft date of this blog as well as the idkac counter, you would know that Lemon unfortunately did not win in the end.
If it was any other series, PPNC idkac would have been pissed and would have hated the ending, as well as saying something among the lines of "idkac curse i hate this series". But for some reason, I didn't feel the same for this manga. It is also one of the rare occurances where I actually felt quite satisfied with the ending and did not think it was rushed at all. In fact, I was actually quite satisfied with how it ended and handled all the plot points that have been developing without dragging it on.
Early on, my biggest bet on how the series will go was that this manga will go down the route of Good Ending where Lemon helps out Sunao with getting a relationship with Kogahara, but Sunao eventually breaks up with her and goes back with Lemon. Now of course this is partially (mainly) fueled by the fact that I wanted Lemon to win, but you can see my though process behind this (given the fact that Lemon is the main character Sunao is interacting with, how shes the one dealing with his body swap, and how she still has feelings for him, etc.). Now obvious with the idkac curse still looming, that didn't end up happening. To be fair, I think that in order for something like this to happen, there definitely would need to be at least another ~50 chapters for the whole love triangle to be really fleshed out, since Sunao has always been adamant with his choice in the chapters we've been given. So if anything, I am kind of happy that things ended this way, and we don't have to deal with the classic romcom bs of misunderstandings and baits.
Now to get to the hottest point of contention: the ending. Is the ending much shorter than what could be expected? Yes. Is it rushed? I'm not so sure. PPNC idkac seems to believe that the ending was quite satisfactory. Now of course I would love to have a bit more context with the resolution after solving the body swap, and I think it would have also been nice if the solution to this body swap problem wasn't deduced immediately, but that doesn't necessarily mean the ending was bad/rushed. I think it was a very logical conclusion that resolved everything cleanly, but it would have been nice if it was maybe 3-4 chapters instead of 1 (granted the chapter itself was 40 pages but you get what i mean). I think the resolution of how the 3 main characters interacted after the swap would have been nice, but thats more of an epilogue kinda thing and doesn't necessarily need to be part of the manga. Now of course they could have also done the Good Ending route, but that's just me being salty. But otherwise, while I would have wished for the ending to be a bit more developed, I don't personally hate it, and it does not really ruin my enjoyment of the manga.
With that being out of the way, what are my final ratings for this manga? PPNC idkac wanted to give this manga a 10, while PPPNC idkac was leaning more towards a 9. Of course if Lemon had won I don't think there was any world where this manga wouldn't get a 10, and if any girl other than Kogahara won I don't think I would have even considered giving this a 10, so we're kinda stuck in a predicament. By itself, Lemon has some of the best artstyle and character design I've seen, and I absolutely love the characters and story. The manga also has a clear attention to detail, like giving Sunao and Lemon different postures depending on who is in the body, which I absolutely adore. The artist also draws amazing chibis, which is another plus as always. All of these factors point Lemon towards a 10, but I think the end all really is just the idkac curse holding me back
remember how 4 paragraphs ago I said "I'm not that mad at the ending"? i guess i am a little bit
Honestly, I think for the fact that I've been religiously following this manga for the last 2 years is a statement in and of itself, as I am someone who tends to drop/forget mangas on the regular. It's very rare that you'll see me consistently stay up to date with a manga/manhwa that I don't consider a 10/10 (even some 10/10s i dont regularly check for updates). I think off that metric alone, and while I am still kinda salty with the ending, I would have to give Lemon a 10, with the caveat that this is probably the weakest 10 out of all the greats. Still, recognition needs to be given, and I believe this rating is enough as thanks to Lemon for providing me with one of my favorite mangas and characters of all time.
edit: PPPNC idkac here, I just git commited this blog, but with further consideration I think it would do a disservice to existing 10s if I were to give Lemon a 10 as well, and I have bumped it from a 8 to a 9 in the past. I think, for what it's worth, this series is deserving of a high 9, and will likely be the standard to beat if any future series wishes to get a score of 10 edit 2: how many p's are we at now? 4xpnc idkac here, i trust ppnc idkac. we're bumping it up with a big caveat, its probably a 9, but my heart wants to give it a 10.
Edit 3: its the next day. I think its a bit unfair for me to not write a review/summary of my thoughts on this manga, given that I've basically done the same for all the other mangas that I have given a 10. When I think about my enjoyment of this series, I feel very conflicted. On one side, I think Lemon is one of the mangas that I genuinely loved, and was a college romance manga done right. Similar to gayge, it was a story with real characters, real drive, and real personalities that really made you believe they could be real. And of course, the art was some of the best, while being exceptionally stylized and stood out from anything else that I've seen. Yet, when I think back to the ending of the story, I can't help but feel a bit disappointed, mostly for the fact that I think Lemon deserved a bit more happiness than what was given to her. Realistically, there's not really a reason why I should give this manga a 10, I think I am influenced by the fact that I've basically been following this manga since the very start, and that theres a physical copy of this manga right next to my desk (special discredit to 2.6 hog rider). Hope you're happy, Lemon is a exceptional story, and it's astounding that this series was the first full serialization that the artist/author worked on. And so, just like how Lemon ended her story happy for what she has, and not sad for what she's lost, I am glad to have followed this story to the end, and have come to terms with what the idkac curse has taken from me. Hope you're happy, Lemon is an amazing story with a satisfactory, but not perfect ending, and for that, I must leave this series on a 9. It must also be said that all other 10s are series that gave me no need to deliberate on whether it is worthy of a 10, and I believe it should stay that way. Once again another thanks to the author for producing this (almost) masterpiece, and I look forward to their next work (where hopefully a Lemon-lookalike will get the perfect ending they deserve). 5xpnc idkac, signing off.
With that being said, I just wanted to dump some of the screenshots I have taken while reading this manga, I guess as a sort of appreciation:
.JPG)