The characters don't do "silly" shonen-ish things, there is nothing heroic, outstanding or whatever of the sort about anything in this story. The story is just a story about a few people whose lives intertwined and how they go on about those daily lives as such.
This was a weird manga. For the stuff that matters to me, and I don't really think there was anything else, it is oh so very realistic. Everything was down to earth, without a single thing that shaked the sync at which I was in with the story.
Out of all the characters, Tohno Touko etched herself the most in my mind, but I am happy to feel that by saying that I am doing somewhat of an injustice for Hirose and Kusakabe. Even Kayo, even all the rest. But yea, the two of them were wonderfull in different ways.
I could describe this manga satisfactory enough with a single word: "Gentle".
Everything that went on was.. Just girls, young ones, on the verge of adulthood, living their lives, growing up. I even grew to appreciate the male lead, Tomonaga, and very much so his techer-friend-colleague.
Some characters were somewhat minor in the story, but they had their role, and were not suddenly dead by the time it was over. Those characters too are realistic. Some people in life aren't there all the time, but they are sometimes and they are the people we know and are friends with. That's what I mean. The minor characters are consistently existent, and were not single-use tools. Just like in real life.
Now, as regarding the thing that stuck with me intensively for days back when I had just read this, and that I can get in the mindset of back easily through a song;
Tohno Touko.
There's a music album that I'd been listening to as I was reading the story. It ended up as the music I think Tohno likes. In particular, one song became associated with Tohno in my mind. I fantasize about how she walked outside alone while listening to this song, how she liked to listen to this song as she walked alone outside without a place to go to.
Just wandering alone like a hidden gem that can't shine..
The song (【東方ボーカル】 「モノクロ インザナイト (CYTOKINE remix)」) was beautiful to me and that's why I was actively listening it, but through Tohno's character the beauty of it developed into strong melancholy. Whenever I listen to the song now, images of Tohno wandering the streets, alone and doing her best to stay strong, flow through my mind.
Oh how the song was seemingly happy, before I started hearing the notes of uncertainty and concern, even fear and tears, the interpretation of which was brought to me by Tohno.
Tohno Touko is amazing to me, I love her.
Kusakabe and Hirose are angels are none the less wonderful themself.
I have a special feeling about the both of them. But Tohno's character touched me the most, I feel like I can sympathise with her the most.
This is a 10/10 manga for me. I love it because of how gentle and beautiful the story is, without being unrealastic. Like, such beauty, such gentle beauty (that the whole story is), I can beleive to be real. It's nice to have that feeling. Helps me live by helping me believe I'll perhaps meet such people one day, but yea; It's undoubtedly far too late for me to find such bliss.
Also, I am not stuck on describing the story as gentle because of its title. The story, the feel of it.. It was for me like being in a fluffy blanket during a cold winter. I don't think that I wouldn't have described it the same way had the title been something entirely different, if it did not include the word "gentle". :)
The art is beautiful, the characters are love, the story is realistic, and I was looking forward to reading the story rather instead of feeling burdened with the obligation to read it.
10 all around.
