Ranked #1553

Golden Days (Manga)

I really enjoyed this manga! Although my Japanese is probably so-so and it's likely I didn't understand the finer points if the dialogues, I understood the story and I could tell it was very well-done for its genre.

The art was very consistent (if you liked the art in just about any panel or even on the cover you'll probably like it throughout the entire manga) and had an appealing clean feel. The character development was really satisfactory, and my favourite part of this manga was getting deeper into the characters and seeing their feelings change and grow. The pace is gradual, not too slow and not too fast, although I was surprised when it had already ended by volume 8! I was expecting a somewhat longer run...

If you're looking for graphic BL this is definitely not your manga, but it's got a very touching story more along the obsolete "shounen-ai" genre lines, which is what I read it for. Despite the historical setting, this is also not really a historical manga. That's not to say that the taisho era is not a part of this story! It'd be more accurate to say that it is a manga with a "historical setting" which is woven into the background of the story (and is pretty accurate as far as I can tell) but aside from the generation difference is not directly involved in the plot. (As a side-note, there is also nothing really supernatural outside of the time skip, so it's fairly realistic otherwise.)

Overall, I would recommend this manga highly to anyone who misses lighter BL or just wants to read a good character story or something set in the taisho era. It's easy on the eyes and suspenseful - I found my self in love with every one of the characters, and worrying about what would happen to all of them next! read more