lavendermarch's review against another edition
3.0
There were some elements of this that I really liked, such as the main character, and his friend Shota, and the MC's family. I thought the inclusion of leukemia added some nice depth to the story as well. However, the romance (what little there is so far, which is basically none) honestly didn't really work for me. So not sure if I'll continue the series, but an okay start. 3 stars.
misssusan's review against another edition
3.0
today i have learned a lesson about prejudice
i have ignored this series for ages because yaoi! yaoi which does hyper heteronormativity without even giving me a girl to root for! no i refuse, nyet, nyet, i will not have my fumi yoshinaga love so tainted
oh miss susan, where is your faith? did you really think fumi yoshinaga was going to write the stereotypical seme/uke tale of rape culture? shame on you, what kind of fan do you even call yourself
this is my longwinded way of saying this is hella cute and i should really work on that kneejerk reaction i have against yaoi
i mean honestly, as though there isn't terrible shoujo out there. do we judge shoujo by the likes of miki aihara? no we do not unless we want to hear miss susan give a ten minute enthusiastic lecture on better examples of shoujo to read
do we know why we have suddenly switched pronouns? mysteries!
anyways i'm actually not sure if this is gonna go the full yaoi? it's more gen slice-of-life with subtext atm. but either way i entirely approve of hanazono/mikuni. hanazono is highly relatable here, mikuni is ridiculously cute and i'm pretty sure i'd also end up doing p much anything he asked
3 stars
i have ignored this series for ages because yaoi! yaoi which does hyper heteronormativity without even giving me a girl to root for! no i refuse, nyet, nyet, i will not have my fumi yoshinaga love so tainted
oh miss susan, where is your faith? did you really think fumi yoshinaga was going to write the stereotypical seme/uke tale of rape culture? shame on you, what kind of fan do you even call yourself
this is my longwinded way of saying this is hella cute and i should really work on that kneejerk reaction i have against yaoi
i mean honestly, as though there isn't terrible shoujo out there. do we judge shoujo by the likes of miki aihara? no we do not unless we want to hear miss susan give a ten minute enthusiastic lecture on better examples of shoujo to read
do we know why we have suddenly switched pronouns? mysteries!
anyways i'm actually not sure if this is gonna go the full yaoi? it's more gen slice-of-life with subtext atm. but either way i entirely approve of hanazono/mikuni. hanazono is highly relatable here, mikuni is ridiculously cute and i'm pretty sure i'd also end up doing p much anything he asked
3 stars
misssusan's review against another edition
2.0
2 much majima 2 handle
i know the 'man's fantasy' stuff is meant to be funny but uck. i don't need that misogyny in my fluff manga
sumiko is great though. :D someone who tells majima off! a girl after my own heart
2.5 stars
i know the 'man's fantasy' stuff is meant to be funny but uck. i don't need that misogyny in my fluff manga
sumiko is great though. :D someone who tells majima off! a girl after my own heart
2.5 stars
misssusan's review against another edition
4.0
like 90% of this volume was great
i love hanazono and mikuni's friendship, i love how hanazono envisioned their fight as an old school shonen battle, i super adored everything that happened with sumiko this volume (nerdy girl goes shopping, acquired friends, still doesn't really like shopping! sumiko gets me). and yamane-san is super cool, i totally understand aya's friend crush
sadly however shigeru/mikuni. i do not and probably will never understand the appeal of teacher/student stories. still, it was a p short part of a otherwise excellent volume. 4 stars
i love hanazono and mikuni's friendship, i love how hanazono envisioned their fight as an old school shonen battle, i super adored everything that happened with sumiko this volume (nerdy girl goes shopping, acquired friends, still doesn't really like shopping! sumiko gets me). and yamane-san is super cool, i totally understand aya's friend crush
sadly however shigeru/mikuni. i do not and probably will never understand the appeal of teacher/student stories. still, it was a p short part of a otherwise excellent volume. 4 stars
zquill's review against another edition
3.0
I continue to be a fan of Yoshinaga, but it's rough going from a series like What Did You Eat Yesterday? with its compassionate and realistic depiction of an average middle-age gay couple to one where the joke is that . I still found the style and "earnestness" I guess you'd call it of the manga, and I'll keep reading the series.
Spoiler
the high school teacher is a flaming gay man who flirts with his students, and then THAT joke morphs into the teacher being a woman all along (who still flirts with her students) which distracts from the affair she's having with another married teacher on schoolgroundsbluenicorn's review against another edition
3.0
It's cute- not yotsuba cute, but high school kids sort of cute.
lilyghost's review against another edition
4.0
Strange manga about a kid who has leukemia and is one year behind in school. He makes friends with a fat kid and his teachers are having an affair. Typical.
ladydewinter's review against another edition
4.0
I remember that I tried reading this before, but since I had seriously misguided expectations when I did, I couldn't get into it at all. This time it was different. It's a great coming-of-age story, funny and moving and with lovable characters and Fumi Yoshinaga's great art.
ladydewinter's review against another edition
4.0
Bought this in the oldest comic bookstore in the Netherlands :)
juliemawesome's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't really know what I was jumping into when I started to read this. I chose it because it was written by Fumi Yoshinaga, who did Ooku (which won the Tiptree), and because I could borrow it through ILL. I guess I expected some interesting gender stuff, and I did get that.
So far, this series is about a new kid in high school. He's a year older than everyone else because he had leukemia. He has some weird teachers and some weird classmates. He joins the manga club, knowing not very much about how to draw manga. Except that he does, because he's very very good. He just doesn't know all the things like what tools to use and techniques and things.
At the very beginning, I had a little trouble understanding what was going on and who the characters were, but as I got into it, it was easier to understand. I will definitely read the next two volumes to see where the story is going. Especially as I have them right here already.
One thing I just realized is that there were no endnotes to explain some of the Japanese words or culture things. I really appreciate them when they're included. I only have a vague sense of what 'moeh' is, for example, and it would've been nice for the translator to tell me.
So far, this series is about a new kid in high school. He's a year older than everyone else because he had leukemia. He has some weird teachers and some weird classmates. He joins the manga club, knowing not very much about how to draw manga. Except that he does, because he's very very good. He just doesn't know all the things like what tools to use and techniques and things.
At the very beginning, I had a little trouble understanding what was going on and who the characters were, but as I got into it, it was easier to understand. I will definitely read the next two volumes to see where the story is going. Especially as I have them right here already.
One thing I just realized is that there were no endnotes to explain some of the Japanese words or culture things. I really appreciate them when they're included. I only have a vague sense of what 'moeh' is, for example, and it would've been nice for the translator to tell me.