Yesterday wo Utatte
Sing "Yesterday" for Me

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I revived my MyAnimeList account just to write this review after just having finished the manga, because I think some manga lovers will skip it through misunderstanding of what it is, and as a result will miss a great story.

This is not a standard manga, whose purpose is to provide fun light reading, mainly for kids and teenagers. It's more like a long serious novel, whose purpose is to move adults emotionally—in this case by telling the story of how several characters grow into adulthood. That's a big job, and I imagine Toume Kei took it on in part because she knew her drawing skills ... were strong enough to depict characters realistically and hold readers' interest in them. The fact that the manga continued to run in Japan from 1997 through 2015 suggests that she achieved her goal in that respect.

The story can essentially be summed up by saying that it's about a love quadrangle. There are two young men and two young women, just starting out in life after school, and we follow them as they try to discover who will marry who and what each will do as a career. Not easy for them, and more so for us at the beginning, because none of them seem to know much about the opposite sex, and of course we don't know anything about them.

Lots goes on, and eventually who will be with who is decided, and in the process of reaching that outcome the characters learn lots about the opposite sex, themselves, and each other, and we the readers take a long, suspenseful roller coaster ride. The story is that simple.

But the characters are the opposite. They are complex and determined people and as such they are very interesting and often mysterious. Why is she doing that? Why is he that dense? Etc. It's a lot like real life, where you can never get the real lowdown on the people you know and care about. And that's the essence of the greatness of this story. It uses manga to tell a completely realistic story and tell it well.

In short, this is a highly realistic depiction of serious young Japanese people as they pass through the most crucial early stage of their lives, and as such it's a very absorbing read.

This is getting an Anime adaptation around April/Spring 2020 so I wanted to know what the story was about.
Main question: Should you read it Yesterday wo Utatte?
Short answer: YES.
Long answer: IF you are tired from the same tropes being overused with the series that it practically feels that if you have read one, you have read them all, try the really old ones and you might find something interesting.
At least that was the case for me. I hope it's the same for others.

Meet Ruiko and Haru, our protagonists.
Ok, not really, that seems very misleading.
Let's start all over.
This story does not have A protagonist, ... but rather follows the story or daily life of SEVERAL protagonists.
This manga is a rather different take of the Romance/Slice of Life/Seinen.
Or maybe not, it could be that all shows today convey things in a different fashion.
Keep in mind that this series is over 20 years old, so this may have been the norm way back when.

It's one of those old manga, that are considered obscure due to nobody talking about them, however that does not mean that you should just glossed over it.
The art it might be an acquired taste at first, as in most old manga, but you get accostume to it rather quickly, up to the point that you no longer care after a couple chapters once you are fully invested in their stories.

That's the best part, the story, is very rich, while using the slice of life concept to a tee the character development and story progression do happen to exist and have a very good pacing and makes feel everything organic and natural.

The main cast have to deal with many psychological struggles due to their rush or abrupt decisions and atone for their past mistakes along with the romance (Which is the strong and major point of the story), that oddly enough, is portrayed within a more realistic scenario of what it represents to be in an adult relationship with all the conflicts, misunderstandings, pitfalls and those small moments of happiness.

It would make you feel like it hits home on an emotional level if you have been through something similar, which, if you are a proper/full on adult, chances are you most definitely have.

The ending is subjective.
I hated it, but does not mean it's an objective opinion, that's just my personal preference.
Certain events were developed in a way that felt unexpected or forced although that could have been the author's purpose all along.
It's an ending that provides a closure for the characters and the hope for a better and brighter tomorrow for all of them as well.

I was really disappointed with this. It was repetitive. Characters I liked were largely ignored in favor of characters who did not progress despite an abundance of screentime. Relationships were forced and drawn out to a point where I could no longer suspend my disbelief that nobody was calling bullshit. Around chapter 60 things had gotten a bit over the top and pathetic. Shinako is one of the most repulsive characters I've come across in a manga like this. She's excessively toxic and part of the ending, while ambiguous, has some upsetting implications. It left a bad taste in my mouth and soured what goodwill ... I had left for the series. I don't think these situations are "just like real life". I think these at least two of these characters have serious problems and need professional help. I don't know how it took the author so long to complete this, because the writing wasn't very good.

I thought the character designs are good, despite some rough art in some spots, especially at the beginning. I liked Shinako and Haru's designs the best. Simple and memorable. I enjoyed a lot of the interactions throughout the manga, but I felt that the progression (or lack thereof) and payoff of the various relationships were underwhelming at best and disturbing in one case.

If you like it, that's great. Nothing against you. Maybe I'm wrong about all of it. I just wanted it to be different than it was.