The coupling of the outgoing playboy/bad boy and quiet, artistic girl is such a cliche but the story departs the shoujo stereotype of typical high school drama and love triangles, after the first few volumes. The story matures, personal traumas are unveiled and darker themes are explored. There's an unwavering sense of fear as the characters always feel like they're on the edge of death especially when there's a motorcycle in sight. I have no knowledge of motorcycle racing let alone have been on one but Soryo translates the feeling well onto paper. I could feel the adrenaline. I really adore Rei and Kira but I did wish there was little more focus on Kira and the romantic aspect of their relationship. I'm very content with the ending even though they weren't literally riding off into the sunset.
The art is also lovely. Rei has the face of Björn Andrésen in Death in Venice (1971) which was a little distracting. I discovered this manga after seeing the scene of Rei kissing the statue on Pinterest (I seem to be having a lot of luck finding new manga on there)
"A human life lasts such a small amount of time. But humans minds are limitless, like space"
