Reviews

There's a lot to like about this manga, but there's also something that I really hate. What I liked was the relationship between Tetsuo and Akira. It had a very strange chemistry that worked really well, with Tetsuo being incredibly awkward and often selfish, but Akira making up for that with kindness and understanding essentially. It was incredibly nice, so even though after it developed it was just them living their lives while being together without much development, it was enjoyable to read through. However, in the end it decides that it wants to take things in another direction, and throws in Hanami, who throws their relationship into chaos. I felt that such an arc that tests their relationship wasn't really necessary at all, and while it was written pretty well, I think that the way it was ultimately handled was downright awful. The story never felt like it was really about character development, as Tetsuo and Akira never really grew over the course of the manga. There were some subtle things that I thing were attempted to be emphasized upon towards the end, but overall it really felt like it wasn't the focus. Rather, the relationship between the two is what really matters. Hence, the way that it ultimately ended, with their relationship abruptly changing and not really any explanation of the aftermath, made the ending feel completely hollow. It definitely does hit a very strong sad emotional note and is consistent with the overall plot, but just being able to do that doesn't make it a good ending. Rather, having such an ending begs the question, what was the point of the plot, what was it trying to show? A relationship that was interesting, but in the end left the main character exactly the same as they were before, gaining nothing? That, while perfectly realistic, just doesn't make for a very good story in my opinion. The art had some really good shots of characters, especially Akira, but in general I don't like the criss cross style of shading that it was using, especially for the backgrounds. 

tl;dr: An interesting story focusing on the relationship between two flawed characters that has a very unsatisfying ending.