I don’t want to be biased, but I really didn’t like this manga. So this review isn’t going to be very nice. I did like that the characters are introspective and that the manga really portrays the confusion that most pre-teens experience. I did actually like that the manga seemed to be more artwork than a story.
I did not like the inconsistency of the characters a new person would be introduced but you wouldn’t see them again. I did not like the stagnate plot- you know the ending already why drag it out? I couldn’t stand that the characters couldn’t express themselves, and that the reader was kept in the dark on their true feelings as well. By the end of each chapter I was even more confused by the love triangle than I had been previously. I also didn’t like that Yoshinori (Yoshi- main character) was having sexual thoughts about his neighbor (Hidari) starting when she was in 4th grade (perv much?). I thought it had too much unnecessary nudity- lots of nipples and such and most of it wasn’t called for. But WAY too much child nudity – or suggested nudity (the kids aren’t even in high school yet showing their pre-pubescent parts). However in a list of other things that totally freaked me out were: Yoshi making out with his sister, Hidari taking a bath and telling her dad she would do everything her mother did, Hidari’s friend in the weird relationship with that older guy, Hidari and her friends near lesbian relationship, and Yoshi’s kissing his best male friend and dating him. I surprisingly cool with Yoshi using his female alter ego Yuki to deal with harder feelings, situations and to get close to the other girl he had a crush on (but that was a bit weird).
Over all I didn’t like it. the ending was flat, and simply showed what Yoshi wanted to happen in the very first place. I guess you could view it as a study in teen and preteen sexual exploration with a favorable view towards extremes. Its mature audience is needed but it really needs a smut description.