Hajimari no Haru

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"Beginning of Spring" is a chaste but deeply personal yet relatable read about the experience of our diffident heroine Miyako when she has a chance meeting with her long time crush Takeshi before a pre-arranged group meeting. Here's an opportunity to take the leap... if only confessing at the end of Junior High was as easy as bungee-jumping off a ledge! There's no safety rope which will make the free fall experience end smoothly and you may just end up ruining the nice status quo along the way.

It reads like a journal entry, every moment of their shared experience, how the initially shy conversation leads ... into a running April Fool's day joke and allows Miyako and Takeshi to discover and reveal more about each other. The comfort in their dynamic is established at a nice pace which is rare in any story, let alone a oneshot. Dialogues and expressions range from kooky and moody to lighthearted joshing around, again reminding you of the possible verisimilitude of the situation.

Art feels more josei than shoujo in that it's more mature, less sparkly. It evokes an overall pleasant but subtle feeling. Not too high on the "Kyaaaa" factor but the final few pages definitely make your heart race and face grow warm when you recollect the mortification of growing up and confessing all over again.

Both characters are free from stereotypical shoujo tropes and are neither overly edgy and unpredictable or maudlin little sissies. Their frankness and confidence in certain moments endears them to the reader and makes you wish they would just get together already, shyness be damned!

Overall a light and refreshingly free of misunderstandings read. Good for the occasional 5 minute distraction from life. Highly recommended for shoujo romance fans, but could be considered mediocre by seasoned readers. This one had the potential to end not quite so quickly and perhaps be fleshed out better in a couple of chapters, but it manages to redeem itself with decent pacing and innovative delivery.