Junsui Adolescence

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Junsui Adolescence (or Pure Water Adolescence) is a sweet manga about two women in love, a school nurse and a student on the health committee. I feel the need to state that it does not have any sexually explicit material, which is actually very refreshing - this is all about the characters. It's about their emotions, their insecurities, and their baggage.

Story: 8

Now technically, there is another story in addition to the school nurse one, and it's about two best friends that love each other but don't realize it/can't express their feelings for each other. I thought this story was just as good as the first ... one, and both stories progressed rather nicely. There's drama because of the age difference between the first two girls in their story, and because of the insecurity and jealousy of one of the best friends in their story. All of this comes to an acceptable end, which I had no problems with. You won't find yourself staring at the last page and re-reading it a million times, but it wraps things up nicely. The worst part about the story is that events can be a bit unclear; I found myself going several pages back on a few occasions, trying to connect the dialogue to what was occurring. That aside, I really enjoyed the story, it was heartwarming and kept me reading for the 8 chapters it lasted. I wouldn't have minded a few more chapters, but that would just be extra, the story is complete as is.

Art: 6

I'm no art critic, nor do I care much about the art in manga, so I'll keep this section short and it won't have much of an impact on my final score. The art is okay, the girls look nice, but not particularly impressive. The scenes are well-drawn and I never found myself distracted by the art, but at the same time, it didn't stick out for me at all. As I mentioned before, certain events are not completely illustrated, leading to a bit of a disconnect between the dialogue and the story. For instance, there's a part in the story where the nurse whispers something to her girlfriend, and gives her something (I won't spoil it). Before this happened, the nurse was talking to another student, who is not drawn during this exchange. The student appears to not hear the exchange or see it, but since the background in the exchange is not clearly drawn, the reader is left to assume that the nurse and her girlfriend left the room, which is apparently the case. But as I read this, I thought: "Huh? Did he see that? Did they just reveal their secret? They look like they're doing this right in front of him!" It's unnecessarily confusing. Okay, that went on longer than expected. Moving forward...

Character: 8

This manga is all about the characters and their romance, so the success or failure of the series is largely dependent on how developed the characters are. Obviously, with only eight chapters and two different stories contained within them, there's a limit to how much we can learn about each character. However, I thought the mangaka did a very good job of making the reader understand the weaknesses of each character and their motivations for making the choices that they've made, not to mention their personalities. The mild drama that develops between the couples is very believable and sincere, and the balance of what each woman wants for herself and what she wants for her partner is well done, providing the reader with a better understanding of the selflessness (or the selfishness, depending on the character) of each woman. By the end of the manga, I felt that I had a decent grasp on the feelings and personality of each of the characters, with the exception of Abi, one of the two best friends in the second story. I think she could have used a bit more development, as the second story was more focused on her best friend Kiiko. Regardless, both stories had strong characters that I actually cared about.

Enjoyment: 9

I thoroughly enjoyed this manga. I thought it was very tastefully done, was a real-life scenario (well, the parents don't ever show up, but honestly, I don't think that matters all that much, we only have 8 chapters here), and most of all, had a strong romance that hooked me. Actually, I should say romances - I went into this thinking that there would be only one story, but I got two nice, heartwarming stories that left me with a good feeling and a sense that I had finished reading something worthwhile, at least worthwhile enough that I could write my first review on it. I'm always impressed by short stories like this that manage to win me over; I used to always think that a story needed to be long in order to make me care about the characters. However, stories like this have shown me that this is not the case at all. This is a great example of a short yuri manga that isn't short on plot. It is a delightful read that leaves just as quickly as it came, and at only eight chapters, I can't see why this isn't worth a shot for anyone who likes yuri or wants to at least give it a chance.

Overall: 8

Junsui Adolescence is a pretty fair look at being in an age gap relationship. It skeevs me a little because of the specific ages of the protagonists, but as someone who's been in age gap stuff before... I can't complain, it just creeps me out now. It honestly has a lot to say about the relationship insecurity that a gap in maturity can breed in a person, and the kinds of things we feel we need to leave behind in order to grow up. Things we'd be considered 'childish' for doing as an adult, etc. Adults can legitimately be like big children sometimes, depending on ... the topic, and we all have some kind of inner child that never really goes away, as much as we may try to ignore or repress it as adults. What separates us from children is our breadth of experience, in the end. That's why I honestly avoid the hell out of age gap romance stories these days, but while I initially disliked Junsui Adolescence, I have to give it a fair shake for doing the thing justice.

The art of Junsui Adolescence is reminiscent of middling BL, and the author's background in drawing men was something that didn't surprise me at all, as I kind of had an inkling that that was the case. It's not bad, and the characters do look like women, but the style is a blend of shoujo and BL that hasn't aged amazingly well, in my opinion, compared to older art styles (Utena, Kaze to Ki no Uta).

The principle conflict of the manga is the forbidden romance between a student and the school nurse. That's... fine, whatever. Not pedophilic in the slightest /s. It does happen. It usually doesn't end well. This manga acknowledges that to some extent. Nanao is maybe 16 at the start of the manga, I think? She becomes a senior later, and then has to worry about graduation, so... 16-17 based on Japan's school system? It's kinda creepy, tbh, but on some level I also feel it's important to portray things like this, because it does happen. It happened to me, though I was a year or two older. So when I say the feelings portrayed in Junsui Adolescence are pretty accurate, I really do mean it. You can love someone ten years older when you're at the end of your teen years, and it can work long term, but it's also often a scary and deeply confusing experience, as you have less knowledge of how relationships work at that age. It's very much a 'in at the deep end' kind of experience, and Nanao's confusion and erratic behavior in the early chapters were very relatable. On the other hand, looking at it as someone who's no longer that confused young adult, I see that and my insides shrivel up in anxiety, wanting to tell her 'no, no honey, that's a bad idea'. It can work out. But it can easily not, and that older person can take advantage of you much more easily due to usually having experience in relationships that you will not have at the time. Even if they don't intend to, it can have some toxic effects on your relationship unless both of you are very careful. At least this manga isn't presenting it as an absolute walk in the park, but at the same time, it also presents those problems as far easier to deal with, and far less risky, than real life.

Essentially, this is a thing that happens, and it's not wrong for this manga to depict it, but even with its attempts at realism, it presents these kinds of age gap relationships as a bit too safe for my tastes. It's kind of like when YA novels acknowledge a risky relationship dynamic as dangerous, but then show it pretty much working out mostly okay. Like, that's fine, but over time also normalizes the idea that the base relationship dynamic was fine to begin with, especially if it gets popular and other authors start copying the trend. And that breeds complacency towards those risks the story originally brushed off. You can kind of see this in action in how romance fiction shapes our early perceptions of real life romance as teens, which is when someone might read this manga and conclude that their irl crush on a teacher will work out.

Overall, I'd say Junsui Adolescence is worth a read if you're starving for content, or you otherwise have no problem with large age gaps in the main pairing. Just... be prepared for some skeevy content at times.