[Warning - Spoilers Abound]

This is one of the few narratives in romance manga that tries to capture teenage sexuality. Through the unique perspectives of five girls, and occasionally one boy, we are privy to the anxiety, angst and temporary euphoria that comes with a maturing body and newfound focus on satisfying the innate desire to be loved.

However, an attempt at realism in fiction does not necessitate a pleasant experience, nor does it make a reading convincingly realistic. Araburu utilizes NTR in a rage inducing love triangle for the purpose of evoking an emotional response from the reader. Unless this is your fetish, it is not an enjoyable experience to watch two "friends" chase after an indecisive boy who has no apparent redeeming features and isn't worth the attention. Araburu features an illegal student-teacher "relationship" that is entirely inappropriate in a realistic scenario. No matter how many times sensei tries to convince us that he's just not into children, it is never comforting watching an adult engage in the sexual stimulation of an underaged student. There's really no point to this relationship existing other than to appeal to the audience who enjoys being teased by the sensei-student forbidden romance trope.

Many of the reasons that readers dislike Kuzu No Honkai should apply to this manga - you must watch characters you grow to love suffer. The narrative grows progressively darker. The characters grow progressively melancholic with no signs of emotional relief in sight. but Kuzu No Honkai is a superior version of what this manga is trying to accomplish. That manga and it's adaptation carry a somber tone from the very beginning so there is no confusion over what general direction it will take - you know to brace yourself for the impending avalanche of pain. There is NTR and a student teacher relationship there too, but the instigator is a self affirmed nymphomaniac who fully embraces her depravity, unlike the dynamic in Arabaru where the student-teacher are merely tip toeing around a uncrossable line. Unlike the dynamic in this love triangle where the cheating parties shy away from acknowledging their roles in betraying the companion who they claim to love. You can appreciate, if nothing else, the brutal honesty exhibited in KnH, while there is very little reprevie for the the underhanded deceit in this manga. Furthermore, the characters actually have sex in KnH, in one case with the same sex, early in the narrative and quickly learn that it doesn't fulfill them a single iota, whereas in Arabaru there is lots of talking and nil action.

You are deceptively given some hope that Arubaru will be heartwarming with a tinge of bittersweetness by the inclusion of goofy comedy in the early chapters and the innocent reliance upon literature as a vehicle to explore a subject that is uncomfortable to communicate otherwise. It is was fun to watch them come up with code-words to describe sex, because saying it outright is just too embarrassing, and to form genuine bonds over the mutual curiosity of eroticism. This makes it all the more jarring that those bonds are so soon shredded apart, in some cases irreparably so, and those laughs are swiftly transformed into groans. It doesn't even feel like I'm reading the same manga anymore, and it's hard to justify so dramatic a tone shift that feels more manufactured than genuine.

Any serious attempt at capturing teenage sexuality is invariably prone to an overdose of slow burning indecisive love triangles, stupid teenagers, fractured friendships, hormone driven decision making and misunderstandings. That is not inherently a fault of Araburu. But initially presenting itself as something other than what it becomes, seemingly stirring up drama for the sake of evoking a reaction, and not being realistic in spite of a premise that tries to capture realism, is. I appreciate the attempt here to capture an adolescent experience that is usually glossed over in this medium, but not so much the execution. I'd rather just read Kuzu No Honkai again.

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Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo is an interesting read. It’s a shounen title about a group of girls’ sexual awakening through literature written and drawn by a duo of women. It charts their course from learning love and sex on paper to learning what it feels like for real with sensitivity towards the girls’ experiences and emotions that are often overlooked or sexualized in books of this type when they’re written by men.

That is not to say that the girls in this book are not sexual, they most certainly are, but they are not objectified. Rather, Okada-sensei introduces us in each chapter to some new emotional development which ties into their sexuality. She tackles difficult subject matter in the series with sensitivity and subtlety while glossing over or skipping altogether other typical “drama” that one usually finds in shounen and shoujo titles to instead focus on subtler issues that gives the manga a sense of realism and higher purpose.

This title is really an overlooked gem. It is so layered. What strikes me most is how the author knows how to visit them at just right the moment. Each moment pushes the story along without it feeling sparing, rushed, lagging, or over-editing. It has such a natural flow and the author has such a wonderful, natural sense of pacing that leaves the reader wanting more with each successive chapter.

The art is likewise wonderful. It has a natural airiness and simplicity to it which on its own is exceptional, but together with the story is genius, perfectly complimenting the story and the personalities of the young characters.

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