About the Mangaka

Not a lot if info available on Aoki Ume, or rather none From what I have found, this seems to be her first work. She does have a personal website with a cute Yuno on it!!

About the Manga

This is one of the titles i’ve been eagerly awaiting, and it dosen’t fail to live upto expectations.

What took me totally by surprise was the demographic this series is aimed at. After reading the first volume I could of sworn it was shonen, like Aria. However it’s Seinen of all things!!

Like Shoulder a Coffin I reviewed earlier this series is done in yonkoma format, as in 4 panels read top to bottom. This format was something I wasn’t looking forward to to be honest. I’m not a fan of the format, it feels to comic strip for me. (For an explanation on Yonkoma, hit the spoiler tag!!)

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However I have to admit that Aoki-sensei does it extremely well, and after a few pages I was loving it once again.

Aoki’s art is for the most part, beautiful. It lacks the soft and expansive beauty of say Amano Kozue. But what it lacks in that area, it makes up for the characters themselves.

It’s clear that Aoki-sensei loves her characters and has gone out of her way to draw them as best as she can. Sadly it’s not perfect, there are a few occasions when the characters feel off. Not so much as looking off, but rather just feeling it.

In a way this series puts me in mind of Maharoba ~Heartful Days~, in the art style at least. The chibified characters are done in the same style, giving that impression to me.

The story is interesting, and in a way, a bit like Aria, as in nothing happens (at least as far as volume one shows anyway). The story is simply following Yuno as she goes to school, and goes through her daily life. After reading volume one, I have to say I love this easy going feel the story generates.

However, blending the art and story together is where Aoki-sensei excels. Individually the art and story, while good, are nothing special, however blended together they have a perfect feel to them. In other words, they’re a perfect match for each other.

After everything however, there’s one thing lacking in this title, and it’s the same thing I didn’t like about Shoulder a Coffin, it’s to damned short!! It’s around half the size of normal manga, and when I got to the end I was disappointed that it was the end. For series like this I kind of find myself wishing they’d release it as two volumes in one.

As with all Yen Press titles, I was highly impressed with the release. Like Shoulder a Coffin this one is over-sized, with nice glossy covers. I love these more than anything else. The crappy paper covers other publishers use always feel bad.

Yen also keep the colour pages at the beginning intact. These eight pages of colour art are awesome, and a great introduction of Aoki-sensei’s style. I think these pages more than anything else got me over the yonkoma style layout.

Translation wise, there was nothing wrong as far as I could see. Rather I liked how the honorifics, names, and other labels were kept in. Nikuman is a prime example, frequently this is translated as steamed meat bun. However Yen leave it as it was originally, and add it to the translation notes. It’s little things like this that make me love Yen more and more.

They seem to have settled on the paper quality now as well. Though it’s not the pure white they used originally, it’s still better by far than any other on the market.

Needless to0 say, this one easily goes onto my Essential Read list!!

Where to Buy

As always, here’s the three sources for Yen Press titles: The Book Depository, Little Brown, and Waterstones.