The concept of romance which dazzles around the eyes of an adolescent in hope of an ideal high school life accompanied by an relentless anticipation and an unexpected introspection.
'Is Love the Answer" or locally known as 'Kimi no Sekai wa Nai is a one-shot manga by Isaki Uta who have also created other works tackling with similar themes of asexuality in adolescents and people around them.
The story is somewhat promising with its profound concept of promoting asexuality in the mind of its readers but fails in many prospects to make it a success. The story follows Chika Hanai, an college student who wasn't able to fathom the concept of romance throughout her high school life constantly hoping for validation but as she starts college, she finds people who finally understand her and a psychology teacher who is on the same boat as hers which eventually lead to her long awaited affirmation with identifying her condition of not feeling romantic attraction towards other people as 'asexuality'.
One of the reasons why this manga fails in its promising theme is the lack of character development which is usually bounded to occur in the one-shot formats. The characters in this manga are heavily stereotyped to their archetypes which makes it rather blend and lackluster which isn't stopped at the characters. The idea of 'asexuality' and 'romance' are heavily stereotyped which makes any prospects for a deep understanding of its core theme unlikely. The manga tries to connect the idea of LGBTQ and Asexuality together which are technically two really different concepts.
The manga explores the themes of unrequited love, identity, self discovery, desire for acceptance, intimacy and so on.
What makes this manga unenjoyable is its recurring cliched themes and blend characters which can be ignored to some extent if you are looking for some nice change of pace with a short story about an obscure theme in animanga that may appeal to romance manga fans. The artwork is somewhat mediocre still not bad.
In conclusion, Is love the answer? is a manga which lacks direction for its themes it has tried to navigate.
