Is S.A: Special A Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Quick facts
Format	Manga (shōjo)
Run	completed
Where to read	VIZ — official

Overview

Hikari Hanazono has lost to Kei Takishima at literally everything since the day they met — every test, every race, every contest, without a single win to her name. Rather than give up, she's spent years chasing him anyway, determined to finally come out on top just once. Both of them end up at an elite academy's Special A class, reserved for the school's seven top students, where everyone around them can plainly see that Hikari's obsessive rivalry has long since curdled into something else — everyone except Hikari.

S.A: Special A runs almost entirely on that gap between what the reader (and every other character) can see and what Hikari refuses to notice.

What it does well

The central joke works because Maki Minami commits to it fully. Hikari's obliviousness isn't a single running bit — it's structural, driving scene after scene where Kei's increasingly unsubtle affection bounces off her completely, and the gap between the two readings of the same scene is genuinely funny more often than not. The rest of the Special A class backs that energy up with a big, exaggerated cast — each with a distinct comic personality — that keeps the group dynamic entertaining even when the main couple isn't center stage.

Framing the romance as a rivalry also gives it a different shape than the genre's more passive will-they-won't-she setups: Hikari has active goals of her own, even if beating Kei is a slightly ridiculous one, and that keeps her from feeling like a bystander in her own story.

Where it falls short

The joke that carries the first stretch of the manga does start to wear thin the longer it goes on. Hikari's inability to notice increasingly obvious signals shifts from charming to a little exasperating well before the manga is ready to let her catch up, and some readers will lose patience with the delay. The large ensemble cast also comes with side romances and family drama subplots that don't always earn the page space they take up, pulling attention away from the central pair without adding much.

This is also a manga that stays broadly, loudly comedic throughout — if you're looking for quieter emotional beats, they're mostly not the point here.

Verdict

S.A: Special A is a big, funny, unapologetically broad shoujo rom-com that gets a lot of comic mileage out of one very stubborn, very oblivious heroine. It asks for patience with its central joke, but if that kind of loud, rivalry-fueled romance is your speed, it delivers consistently.