Why you should read/watch it: It's just a great series, with three-dimensional characters - even among the ones you'd expect to hate. No character is without some level of sympathy, and even though you generally end up rooting for the main pairing, there are always those moments when you find yourself leaning the other way. This series is also one of Takahashi's most complete - many of her other series lack the closure that is available in this series, which follows its main characters for something like six or seven years, from beginning to beginning. Incidentally, I very much recommend the manga over the anime, especially now that it's being rereleased by Viz in its entireity (including stories that they cut out originally because they felt cultural explanations would be too difficult); the anime is not bad, but it loses a lot of the subtlety of portions of the manga. Also, the dub? Not good. Really not good.