"Even if a parting is inevitable, its not as if those memories would just disappear..."
The central genres of this manga are Slice of Life and School-Drama, NOT Shoujo-Ai. I will touch on about this statement later though.
STORY: 6/10
The story takes place between Yano and Aya and their day-to-day interactions during school-club activities. Yano Is a quiet and introverted girl who moves schools often because of her parents, she is the newest transfer student in Aya's classroom. She often doesn't socialise much and has learnt to not open up from her past and avoids personal interactions with people as she deems it to be all pointless. Aya is the complete opposite, she is child-like and an enthusiast for swimming and is constantly thinking of being in the water, she can actually swim too, unlike Yoru. Her thoughts go right through her head and tends to have no filter when speaking to people
The two are clearly polar opposites, and their dynamics are set to play off each other. I liked this with the many references to both the moon and the ocean, almost as if they hold a mirror to each other. A good metaphor for them both reflecting on their own thoughts on one another. I felt like this was focused too much on smaller nice details rather that the main themes. It felt very missing considering they didn't really come to each others issues that much, they kinda just floated around lol.
The pacing felt alright but the story wasn't long enough in my mind, with the way this was being written, this could have ended up as a 5 volume series at least. I hate to say I but it felt kind of rushed towards the end. I think proper arcs of the summer-break, festival, final exams and graduation/post-school could have all been way longer and would have deepened the story more. This would have fleshed out the characters, story and their relationships a lot more, was a bit sad over this to be honest. The other side-characters were okay. I wanted more time with them to feel a better connection so again, longer story. Drama between said characters also would have been less shallow if there was previous exposition for me to actually care about them, some things just seemed lack-luster due to having little panel time. The key themes could have been built upon more and GL should have been more relevant in their relationship thus couldn't give anything higher than a 5/10.
ART: 10/10
This series has some of the best artwork I've ever seen. If you enjoy other manga such as Ran and the grey world you'll for sure enjoy this one! The panel structure is also easily a Top 10 from any manga I've read, it flows very nicely and almost every page is beautiful. I love the symbolism in the art too, great to pull apart when reading.
CHARACTER: 5/10
This is objectively the weakest part of the series to be honest. I liked both characters as I could relate with them, but the progression of their relationship together was disappointing so to say. Not to mention they barely change, both as a "duo" and separately. My overall rating for this section wold have been higher but other databases listed this as a "Girls-Love" manga so I was kinda confused, could just be MAL being MAL again. Aya does show interest throughout the manga and literally announces her liking towards Yoru, yet nothing happens? It was really frustrating considering its labelled "shoujo ai" to begin with...
So I thought it was slightly disappointing to see not much happen in their dynamic together considering the tropes they were assigned from chapter 1. By the time there were a few chapters left she explicitly mentioned that "just because others said they get along well, doesn't mean we are friends." The final chapter we get a time-skip to them starting work, Yoru becomes an Oceanographer (dream job) whilst Aya becomes a Oceanic-Photo/Videographer, she doesn't show any affection towards her old friend.
ENJOYMENT: 8/10
Personally, I really liked the manga and its simplicity. The art is beautiful and each page is breath-taking. Thank god the author has more works. I enjoyed this a lot despite the lack of emotional-bonding with each other.
I'm just going to assume it got a rushed ending or something...
Its a good chill-out manga.
OVERALL: 7.25 (7/10)
Ironically, this manga only goes toes-deep with its theme on Girls Love, If one would even consider it that.
So, If you're the type of person reading romance stories just begging the characters to finally kiss one another and get together
then this isn't the story for you. Think of it more as a Slice-of-Life about misinterpretation, understanding others and self-doubt between some girls :3
