Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru
A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow

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“I’m okay. I’ll be all right by myself.” - Konatsu Amano

Loneliness, what is it even about? How does it feel to be special to someone? Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru contains those answers.

The story starts off calm and fresh, beginning with Konatsu alone moving to Nagahama, a seaside town located in the Ehime prefecture. Transferring to Nanahama High School, Konatsu meets Koyuki, a 2nd-year student and a president of the Aquarium club, then their life begins to change forever.

The story is mainly about the junior-senior relationship between Konatsu and Koyuki. Having them together makes the story great, separating one of them apart makes the story ... feel incomplete.

The story goes on not being too rushed and not being too dragging, simply at the perfect pace. The storytelling is surprisingly beautiful. Along the way, as the relationship between Konatsu and Koyuki develops, many cute and worthwhile moments arise. The story is able to express the characters’ emotions to the fullest, joy, happiness, loneliness, sadness, and pain, all seem real and effective.

I love how the manga contains a hidden meaning. It was right there at the beginning of the story and continued influencing the story towards to conclusion. I also love how Konatsu compares the salamander to Koyuki, as well as the manga itself representing it as loneliness. The overall story might not be that outstanding, but the storytelling is something remarkably beautiful and worth mentioning.

As for the characters, I love how the characters like Konatsu and Koyuki are designed to be imperfect, both being incomplete and having their flaws. Koyuki is portrayed as a character who looks perfect from the outside, being hard to approach, trying her best to hide her flaws and weaknesses, but somehow, Konatsu is the only one to who Koyuki showing those things. As they spend time with each other, they get to know each other more. Another worth mentioning character is Kaede Hirose, Konatsu’s classmate. From the outside, she is energetic and cheerful, yet something is lurking within her mind. Kaede adds a dimension to the story, making the manga more complete.

As for the art, it is simply gorgeous, rendering characters cute and charming. Not to mention that the cover is pretty much appealing. The moment I saw the cover, I became interested in the manga. The only complaint is that the art started to get a bit rough in the 7th volume and clearly noticeable in the 9th volume, anyhow, it is filled with much more details and the volume cover is incredibly beautiful.

Lastly, since the story is set in Nagahama, Ehime, this manga has done a great job portraying this element. Many places are being referenced from real-world places, take the Nanahama High School being referenced from the Ehime Prefectural Nagahama High School for example. Also, by reading this manga in the Japanese language, you can experience the Iyo dialect, a dialect spoken in the Ehime prefecture, feeling strange yet attractively unique, although it is a little difficult to understand. Furthermore, as the story is set in the seaside town, a calm oceanic vibe is being given, which truly represents the beauty of Ehime itself.

Overall, Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru gave me a great reading experience. I love every moment between Konatsu and Koyuki which I find cute. I consider the first 4 volumes amazing, following by the 5th and 6th volumes which might feel a bit lackluster, but the 7th volume has an astonishing moment and has made a comeback, then the story progresses toward the ending in the 8th and 9th volume, reaching a sweet and satisfying conclusion. This manga has become something special to me. I am looking forward if this manga receives an anime adaptation. Hope you enjoy it!

Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru is a tender story about growing up and accepting oneself, both the good and the bad. As a romance, it relies more on implied feelings but as a human drama it is quite open in its primary theme, that being loneliness and how it affects people differently. I believe it is successful in displaying realistic characters with relatable problems and improves in quality as it goes along. I recommend this manga.

Story: 8/10
The story isn't very attention-grabbing at the start with slower pacing of events and no big moments, but like the characters it improves steadily as it goes on, becoming ... a genuine page-turner later on. It thankfully keeps most melodrama out of it, only relying on it when it becomes slightly believable. The major focus of the story is about growing up and accepting yourself which is displayed in both leads and the supporting cast. The feeling of loneliness, even when surrounded by others, is honestly displayed and well written. This manga isn't a tearjerker but it definitely has emotional weight.

Art: 9/10
This manga's art style is at minimum influenced but possibly inspired by Yoshitoki Ooima's Koe no Katachi. The main character at times looks exactly like Shouko Nishimaya, the latter series lead, which brought a chuckle or two out of me. Its possible inspiration aside, this manga is very well drawn, and when it comes to characters and emotional moments, it's gorgeous. The artist Makoto Hagino is very talented at character art and expression and the best shots in this manga generally involve completely white backgrounds with only a single character in the shot. These special panels generally come at emotional high points and majorly assist in letting them land. The aquatic critters are also drawn quite well, with even a smiley shark named George.

Characters: 8/10
This series has two female leads, Konatsu and Koyuki and they are about equal in development and depth, but I prefer Konatsu and her struggle with loneliness more than Koyuki who has had to live a life as someone she isn't truly. Kaede is a jolly friend of both who is a fun character in her own right with her own feelings. The family members of both girls also have a decent-sized presence which is appreciated. My main issue with the characters is the lack of an explicit answer about what type of relationship the leads are in.

Enjoyment: 9/10
I read this series because it popped up on recommendations with Bloom Into You, a yuri romance that was quite good, but the two series have few similarities. This manga isn't focused on romance, but more on other feelings and due to how well it handled its primary themes I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected. I didn't cry reading it but it hit hard and was relatable. The art is excellent and being only 34 chapters it wasn't overlong.

Overall: 8.5/10
This manga is excellent and I strongly recommend it.
This is my first review so my own writing is meh but I hope to improve.
Thanks to the Author, Makoto Hagino for making this manga.
Have a great day ya'll!

So the mangaka claims that this is a story all about *friendships* as in, platonic relationships. Which is fair, because there are platonic relationships in the manga. And I'm all for healthy platonic relationships, whether they are between a male or a female, or a male and another male, or a female and another female.

But that's the thing. The two protagonists' relationship is not a healthy platonic relationship. They grow a dependence on each other, so much so that when they stop talking to each other, they get extremely depressed.

At this point in the manga, I thought, "Wow, this is getting really serious!" The two ... protagonists are always thinking about how they feel for the other person, and I'm sitting at the edge of my seat just waiting for one of them to confess.

Except there is no confession, at any point. These two eventually lay their feelings bare in front of each other, but they never acknowledge the fact that their love for each other is beyond a platonic relationship.

Apparently it's purely platonic to be extremely jealous whenever your friend hangs out with somebody else. Or get really sad that you're no longer the only one that makes them smile. Or mutually pine for each other in the middle of the night.

The overall story doesn't have a satisfying conclusion. The two protagonists walk away from each other like they didn't spend the entire year falling in love with each other and we're supposed to be okay with that? There's no fallout, there's no getting together, there's nothing!

What was the whole point of showing these two characters wallowing in self-pity about how they feel about their friend for half the manga when the solution they both come to is literally "get over it."

The frustrating part is that I don't even need the two to be together to be satisfied with the ending. I'd be satisfied if they just admit that their feelings are beyond friendship. They could agree that maybe it's best that they stay friends. Or they could try being partners. Or one of them denies the other. Something, anything!

Notice how I haven't used any gendered pronouns in my review? This is why it's getting a 6. It doesn't matter who the protagonists are. Whether they're two boys, or a boy and a girl, it doesn't matter. I would still give this manga a 6. It is absolutely insane to claim that the two protagonists has a completely platonic relationship with each other.

I'd give it lower because it's basically yuri bait, but I'm giving the mangaka the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they truly believe platonic relationships go like this.

Art: 9/10 - This manga is very pretty. The mangaka is really good at showing what the characters feel through visuals.
Characters: 6/10 - Nothing out of the ordinary. The characters go through some character development but nothing outstanding. They are likeable characters at least.
Story: 3/10 - All I got from this story is that you should ignore your feelings for your best friend.