Back to emilyluna's Profile emilyluna's Profile

There are 15 out of 21 volumes physically released in English. As of right now I have completed the 7th volume and will likely update it when I'm either on the 15th one or finished with the series entirely.

A brief thought of my feelings on it: It's absolutely mesmerizing, I think anyone who has the opportunity to read it should read this beautiful piece at least once. The captivating artwork is the closest thing to angelic as you could possibly get. Watching Masumi climb to the top when she is lacking even down to fundamental points is so enthralling, every volume has me wanting ... more.

Now onto my fuller feelings.
I wasn't necessarily sure what to expect when I first saw Swan. I randomly searched up the name on the database out of curiosity and clicked on it. Seeing as the physical copies can be a bit harder to get and that the online scans only went up to a bit of volume four; I decided to get the first volume just to try it out. To my surprise, even the first volume had me in awe, desperately wanting to know what would happen next. Hijiri Masumi a 16-year-old ballet student is shown a whole new world of ballet than known before. Previously Japan in comparison to the other countries during this time period has a great disadvantage to ballet (according to the manga) since it is generations newer to Japan.
Some of the characters like Kyogoku aspire to create a whole new world of ballet for Japan internationally. Whereas Masumi tends to just be dancing as it is her passion to.
Masumi has a great number of self-doubts but still attempts to push forward despite even her own body pulling her back at times. With the characters Kyogoku, Masumi, and Masumi's instructor Sergieve there is visibly an achieving amount of character depth and it builds an interesting dynamic between each relationship.

All in all, I would not like to give too much away but would like to vocalize how incredible I believe this manga is. I'm just as surprised that I'd be this drawn into a manga about classical ballet as I feel the next person could be once they start this title. Ariyoshi Kyouko is truly brilliant for this piece and I hold high respect to her, not only for how majestic the performing scenes are but for the brilliant dialogue that goes into it as well. It's very clear that Kyouko fully comprehends or at least has done an extensive amount of research on ballet performances as well as the dances and techniques in order to write about them in this manner.

Because the publisher went defunct and there is no copyright for this manga I will be physically scanning my copies and putting them online. If you are interested in where they will be privately contact me, as I would rather not publically spread it.

This manga is a compilation of short stories that all have a relation to an Angel. Some people are able to see this angel and some are not. Most of the people that are able to see this Angel all have sort of issue of their own and when at their worst the Angel essentially makes them feel better.

Although this is only 9 chapters and very short I am surprised to see that this is a really unknown manga because the quality of it is honestly very nice. Definitely glad to have picked this up and definitely recommend anyone to read this uplifting story!

I will just be rating based on the two chapters I was able to read.
The only English translations I could find were for Chapter 2 Visitors and Chapter 4 Joyful Bell.

Satoshi Kon is an excellent director and has written some nice work as well. Generally, I praise his work but because this is not finished I think it was decent but enjoyable to read.

Visitors was an interesting chapter to read where a family moves into a home in a good area that is accessible to the train for a surprisingly good deal. The owners who lived beforehand left after 3 months of living there. Not ... only is the house haunted but the only one who says anything about it is the youngest girl and the mom tries to shut her down whenever she mentions it. This was a nice short read.

On the other hand, I can't really say much about Joyful Bell. There wasn't enough substance for me to really say much about it.

In all honesty, I did not expect Takane to Hana to be this good. I expected it to be a pretty decent shoujo among the rest but I was very wrong.

From the synopsis, it is understood that Hana went to her older sister's Miai/omiai with Takane (wedding arrangement) in place of her older sister. Everyone is in the arrangement meeting is unaware that Hana is the wrong person for this arrangement.

The story is unique, to say the least. Before reading I assumed that Hana would just be a typical shojo MC where she fawns over the guy and its cliche but that couldn't be farther ... from the truth. In this story, you won't get a ditzy girl who drools over the coldhearted guy and waits for his approval. I wouldn't even say "Hana has the pants in the relationship" because it's an equal balance of teasing back and forth. You get something so much more satisfying and pleasant over the course of what is currently 79 chapters. It takes a slow approach from the start but gradually gets incredibly more enjoyable to the point I can't even wait for new chapters to release.

Each character has an important role in the creation of this story and you will not be dissatisfied with reading this. Once you pass the first 30 chapters everything is just straight bliss.

Takane to Hana is the one example of a RomCom that actually doesn't screw it up. I've never laughed harder at any manga in my life. Hopefully, once this manga is nearing its end I will feel exactly the same because even now I have to hold myself back from rereading every chapter.

I don't write reviews but since this doesn't have any I might as well.

A Log Day of Timbre This is just another short 2 minute that has no meaning whatsoever. The title has nothing to do with the actual ONA itself. The ONA is just random colors and shapes that progressively gets more "chaotic" during the ONA. I didn't have good expectations, to begin with, but I was hoping for an ONA that would have at least had some source of entertainment.

If you're looking for something just to get over with then this is it but if you're looking for something you'll actually enjoy then ... you don't wanna watch this.