Alright I just finished Haru and Midori and it was okay. I really enjoyed premise and the theme of loneliness was well presented through the protagonists character making her very relatable; the plot of overcoming grief (as a daughter losing her mother, and as woman losing an absent love) was very well told. The art was very clean the characters were expressive. All that being said, the ending was rushed and limpwristed—most likely due to cancellation as hinted by the author. Which is a shame. The reveal that Tsugumi did see Midori as more than just another friend was touching and Midiro's prior sadness of thinking the opposite gave a lot of depth to her character and the actions she took towards Haru; Haru's facade of maturity—brought about by the absence of her parents during childhood—crumbling under grief and intimacy made for a compelling character narrative. The scene where Haru felt that in order to grow up and change she had to swallow her sadness and throw away her mother's things only to breakdown after Midori puts up the sentimental curtain was a good display of this. I also enjoyed how the circumstances of an orphaned girl living with a relative stranger never gets brushed under the rug for the sake of easier story telling: they remained awkward and unsure of how to approach one another (parent's evening, the final choice of her moving back with her aunt(which was stupid)). Unlike a lot of drama manga there were very few contrivances and every progression felt organic and natural: Haru learnt about her mother by going out of her way to go to her school; the conflicts are never built on misunderstandings; the letter at the end felt naturally and was found in a logical way and didn't serve to alter the path of the story. Overall, a good premise with well written characters that have interesting dilemmas that was cut short and rushed at the end. I'd still recommend it but it does make one feel a little sad the ending wasn't better

I just finished Run Away with Me Girl and I thought it was great. At first I was surprised by the style but I got over that pretty quick: It's a really interesting premise that rarely (if ever) gets explored. I enjoyed how they didn't over vilify Tazune, which made Midori's final resolution more about love than hatred or fear; you could really relate to both of the characters and how suffocating there lives are, which makes for great juxtaposition to the periods of escape—building on themes of dreams and reality: as when they're enjoying their dreams on the island and the inn their reality always looms over them (Midori returning to her relationships and pregnancy; Maki being left alone again). I think the manga had a great sense of time and urgency through Midori's pregnancy and the changing of the seasons, which really gave the story a really consistent pacing and further added to the tension of the plot. Overall I found it to be a very mature story that doesn't shy away from uncomfortable situations being solved in realistic manners. I'd recommend

Alright I just read I Hate Things Like Love and I must say it contained elements that were likeable but I can't help but feel unfufilled reading it. While there is a certain freshness to sticking to the idea that Emi hates, or is incapable, of "things like love" I'm left hungry for more after their fight and Yuu's attempt to allow Emi to sexually engage her. The whole story orbits Emi's obsession with Yuu as well as Yuu's poor taste in men. So when Yuu finds out about Emi's obsession and possessive nature it's hard not to get excited by how their relationship will develop except at that moment the curtains are drawn. The final moments of the manga offered many interesting emotions and a unique relationship dynamic that could've been explored. The manga ultimately feels unfinished.

Alright I just finished Irrational Us and I thought it was quaint. As usual Takemiya Jin's art is clean and although not as stylized as their usual stuff; the story is more of a character piece, which does mean the plot is noneventful a lot of the time. Being one of their works not released in anthologies, its structure is a lot tighter and more focused, but Takemiya Jin's typical form does bleed through in the work's writing, as many of the chapters begin and end similar to a short story would. This isn't a complaint but rather serves to display Takemiya's style more pronouncedly. As a character piece it works quite well—complimented by these structuring quirks—as Yamanaka was a quite interesting protagonist and I think how her façade of indifference remaining private to her was a nice touch to the core theme of her narrative.

Alright I just finished Unrequited Love and it was a little disappointing. It had been on my backlog for a while and the premise (girl falls in love with sister in law) was pretty novel. This isn't to say it was terrible but I feel like it suffered from a lack of commitment, and didn't do more with its ideas. It had very consistent art and the characters were human(most of the time) and realistic enough. It was a little drawn out and the ending was extremely unsatisfying; the story almost concludes with Uta giving up on her "unrequited" love only for the very last page to suggest this was not the case—this destroys the one reason that might excuse the other flaws of the manga. The poor pacing was a result of the story juggling all these different character's relationships(which often went almost nowhere) and the protagonists beating around the bush about their own feelings for far too long. I am glad they didn't vilify Kaoru's husband (which often do to justify the removal of the male character from the equation). But despite the lack of yuri closure between Uta and Kaoru, Kaoru does indeed get divorced (the reason being was quite good and didn't make either of them the perpetrator), but this doesn't really serve any end besides its own as no real romance for either of them result from this. The general lack of yuri, despite all the build up would have been forgivable as part of the story's main themes (unrequited love) were it not for the tease at the end. Risako's story went no where, the waitress girl x rich girl went no where, the slutty girl's back story wasn't worth anything, Uta's parents didn't result in anything. Of course the stories of the supporting cast doesn't always have to be more than interesting or consolidating themes and messages either to us or the protagonist, but all these inconclusive stories drew things out far too much, making the ending that much more unrewarding. I feel like so much could have been done with such a premise: a pseudo incest cheating story, the familial aftermath of Uta dating Kaoru, Uta struggling with the immorality of wanting to/actually cucking her brother, feelings of jealousy. I think during the period where Uta suspected her husband of cheating, I thought it would have made for an interesting story if Uta and Kaoru's relationship had been initiated almost as a way of Kaoru getting revenge in secret, only to learn that her husband had never actually cheated. The story was drawn out, lacking in romance or closure, but not even committing to that much; the premise was poorly utilized and there were too many things that went nowhere. It's hard to recommend an almost 40 chapter romance with almost no romance.