Read this series' tags.
I'm well aware of the tags.
This is a slice-of-life work, so there probably isn't gonna be much in the way of exposition.
This isn't s-o-l. This is more like iyashi-kei. I'd say, that the s-o-l tag is outdated and misleading, but that's a different topic and don't belong in the discussion thread.
The aim here isn't to tell a traditional story, but to create a mood or a sense of place as the characters go about their daily lives.
It's not a matter of storytelling, but rather the lack of experience of the mangaka.
The art is superb, no doubt. But there's more to a manga than art. Look at Honey & Honey. The art is simple, but the characters are developing (w/o ecchi, yuri, etc) and that keeps a manga going.
You see, you don't need extravagant storytelling or anything for character developement, but when there's nothing but art, I could as good sitting in the garden and watch the gras growing. There's more developement in every single straw.
This is Hijiki's first work (i know s/he drew a lot of doujinshi, but they're totally different from normal manga so i didn't count them) where s/he is author and artist.
His/Her first work was a co-op and s/he was only the artist.
Let him/her get some more experience and together with the art s/he'll be a great mangaka.
If you keep that in mind, you won't mind the relative lack of traditional storytelling.
Well, there're manga with the same 'tags' who handled it way better. And I'm not the only one who noticed that.
And just to be clear, i don't mind (extremely) slow paced stories.
I read/watched quite a few iyashi-kei/daily life manga/anime, and they got into my fav-list (e.g. Tamayura Hitotose, Aria, etc).
