I really really like this manga. There's something about it that feels really unique. It feels like it's not playing into tropes clearly to tell you what direction it's going, it's too invested in what it's actually doing to try to signal that to you. It feels very earnest, and I think that contributes to the believability of it. Like what Soprano is doing is kind of dramatic and out there, but with how messy it is, it keeps breaking in different directions.
I think mirei's feelings are also really well-done. Like you can never fully tell if what she's feeling is actually fear, and the way she's stuck on and ruminates over her feelings without them being like. Positive, or particularly nice, but there's something that makes her trace that groove over and over... It feels very real. My own experience of realizing I was queer wasn't like. Oh I feel these undeniable feelings, and what does that mean, or just Knowing how it is. It was an experience of just getting stuck on stuff, and kind of tormented by it, and feeling a lot of complicated emotions. I think there's a way "straight girl realizing she's gay" typically goes in yuri manga, and something about the narrative in those stories has like a constant awareness that this is the kind of story it's telling. But this manga isn't doing that. It's taking Mirei in the moment she's in, and that's weird and messy and scary and complicated. It almost feels wrong at this point to say it's her realizing she has feelings for a girl, because even that is allowed to not feel like a foregone conclusion.
Usually I really dislike when yuri manga has another character cut into the action. But here, the pacing and sense of time makes it feel true to life. It's a story that's gradually unfolding over a stretch of time, and things happen in that time, and that's part of the whole process.
Something about the sketchy quality of the faces sometimes, and the way they sort of shift, but the killer shots really capture the feeling they shoot for, makes the art of it feel really good to read. I feel like it fits with the earnest messiness even as it's really effective at getting strong feelings across, without necessarily making them super easy to parse. It's a weird little manga and I love it.
last edited at Oct 8, 2026 2:34AM