In the world of manga one of the biggest genre's is the "one guy surrounded by a bunch of pretty girls" genre. This genre is popular for several different reasons depending on who you are. Some people love the comedy that goes with the situation at hand, some love the pretty girls, some like the guy, some like the fanservice that is (usually) dished out, and some genuinely get caught up in the love triangles in these series. Like most genre's in Japan, this genre has two kinds of the "one guy surrounded by a bunch of pretty girls" genre: The good kind and the bad. "To Heart," which is actually based of a series of dating sims for the computer, is the bad kind, the very, VERY bad kind! The story of "To Heart" revolves around a teenage boy named Hiroyuki, who is just starting high school with his life along with his female best friend Akari, only to find out when they get to school that there are no men around, no teachers to be seen, and all these weird girls are all in love with him.

Okay, so the story doesn't exactly go like that, but I had to scrape for that description because as God is my witness, I have read all three books of "To Heart" (bargain sale at Right Stuf), and I swear to God, NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS STORY!!!! Seriously. All that I could make out is that this boy goes to school, a bunch of weird, strange, and downright creepy girls fall in love with him, and the climax of this series involves Hiroyuki picking one of the girls (although you can't figure out who he'll pick, seeing as how he doesn't really seem to be all that interested in any of them). While in most of my reviews for series I didn't like I would surgically tear apart series I don't like, I can't really do that here. There is no story for me to canalize, all the girls have one note personalities (which makes grading them pointless since they all would be graded F in my book), and the only thing really to talk about Hiroyuki himself. Hiroyuki is the star of this series. It is assumed, since everyone in this book falls in love with him, that he would be a good character to get to know. No such luck. I would love to say that Hiroyuki is a nice guy, that (like Keitero from "Love Hina") you just can't help but root for the guy, but Hiroyuki instead rubbed me in the wrong direction every single way he could. Hiroyuki actually has so many personalities, that it's hard to figure out how the guy is supposed to actually act.

Hiroyuki is always helping other characters out in this series, yet he never seems to interested in anyone but himself. He is constantly embarrassed to hang around with the friends he has, he always has this look that looks like he is self-aware of how loved he is, and when he DOES help someone out he usually follows up by saying "I'm not sure why I'm helping you out. I guess this just must be my personality or something." Right, I can see you'll make a FINE husband mister! In a dating sim it the main characters personality doesn't matter because the person playing the game is supposed to supply the personality for the character. But when you are not in control of the characters destiny, you have to give him SOME sort of personality for the readers to work with! Hiroyuki has none, and he comes off as being an uncaring jerk 95% of the time. The artwork in this series is also nothing to brag about either. The characters all look exactly the same as every other person, backgrounds are sloppy, and...well, I guess the teddy bear is cute, but that's about it. I don't know whether or not the dialog is translated properly or not, but if it IS a good translation then the writing is extremely poor for this series, as the dialog in this series sounds like a second grade fan translation. There are characters that talk a lot, more so then many series I've read recently, and yet they don't ever say anything intelligent or important. They can't even seem to say anything comprehensive. Hiroyuki thinks to himself "If humans are so good, why are we putting you to sleep. We might as well be killing you."

I'll give you all a moment to digest what it is he just said. I'm telling you, poor dialog like that shouldn't make it through the "idea pitching" process. Somewhere in this mess is a talking teddy bear. No, I have NO idea what the purpose of the teddy bear is, it's just here okay?! This manga has been released by ADV. I'm assuming they picked this series up because they have rights to the anime (which I hope is at least a little better then this). ADV did a good job with the release of this book. ADV doesn't get enough credit for the work they do on their manga, but (in my humble opinion) ADV actually releases the best quality books right behind Del Rey. Paper is of the highest quality, binding is perfect, color pages are left intact, and the release is excellent overall. Makes me feel sad that such a good effort was wasted on this series. At the end of the day I can't find a single good thing to say about this series. I hope to bury this in my backyard someday(I know I can't sell it), with the hope that no one ever digs it up. I have to admit that this is the easiest review I've ever had to write. Most reviews take me around forty-five minutes to one and a half hours to finish. I wrote this one in less than thirty-five minutes, whish is a new record for me. Of course, it DOES helps when the series doesn't really give me much to talk about, so...

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -