Jun 30, 2023
"Natsukawaaa! You remember our promise, right?! Just you wait and see! I'll beat you this time for sure!"
Good ol' Adachi Mitsuru. Certainly no stranger to the meeting of sports and romance, this time he brings us a oneshot about a kendo rivalry that revives every summer. Each year, Hikaru comes to town and tries to defeat Rin, and each year he fails.
Honestly, I love this story. Some oneshots try to fit way too much into their limited page count; Rakugaki doesn't have this problem. It seems to tell a fairly straight-forward story until a well-timed flashback reveals the hidden layers that the plot has had
...
all along.
The character designs are fairly textbook Adachi, which doesn't bother me at all. They suit the characters, and Hikaru is a nice variation on the usual Adachi male protagonist that works as a little bonus for the experienced Adachi reader. And the backgrounds and scenery are lovely as always, with a gorgeous full colour blue sky on the first page and a subtler greyscale firework-lit night sky on the last.
Adachi shorts and summer go together like peanut butter and chocolate, and Natsu no Rakugaki is just another example to prove it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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