Boy Meets Maria
it's a shame the author passed away so young. based on this debut work, it was clear they were very talented. i was so surprised to learn a 23-yo (or younger) conceived this touching story.
Our Not So Lonely Planet Travel Guide
they are such perfect complements to each other. asahi grounds mitsuki who in turn soothes him with his love and adoration. the kind, knowledgable, and sensitive tsundere x emotive, affectionate ball of sunshine. giving this work any less than 5 or even 4 stars is a crime bc the sheer heartwarming-ness this story emanates is so palpable it makes you optimistic about the good nature of people and envious of an adorable wholesome relationship even if you arent looking for one.
Kimi wa Natsu no Naka
lovely. just lovely. it so cute how they started a friendship over a shared interest in something mundane like film, and then developed this relationship into something profound and special and sweet. the story focuses on their relationship and developments, with the film interest as padding and high school as a backdrop to convey the feelings of youth, and with the way the story is told via the atmospheric angles and paneling, the natural banter, all of it together really embodies the theme of "summer youth romance". it's so down-to-earth and simple but also quite romantic. the days passed and time marched on after the summer, but mc was still stuck on his relationship with ml, and couldn't move on. it should have ended, but he couldnt forget the beautiful and fun memories and the longing. truly reminiscent of "summer".
Koisuru Psycho no Shirayuki-kun
first chapter was good, but quality went downhill. it falls short of three important aspects: haruki's character. his character in the first chapter was good and relatable, but then after that he gradually just becomes a victimized tool for the revenge porn. the pacing is awful; the revenge was speedrunned and it wasn't cathartic at all cuz the ml dealt with them very easily. given how horrible they were to their victims like haruki, it would be better to explore in depth their characters and the psychological aspects (such as reona). that last was the shock value. it's simply not gory, or disturbing much. this goes hand in hand with pacing. the individual plot points were good, but i felt the author didn't have enough time to develop them, so we got a shallow piece of work like this.
Hidamari ga Kikoeru
great mana with complex respectful and nuanced depiction of hearing disablities and the developments were great and story was genuinely heartwarming at first but it really frustrating with the lack of communication and stagnant growth of taichi and the ml. it falls for the standard cliche/trope and storytelling of shoujo manga where they suppress their problems until it just boils over in this very dramatic emotional scene. taichi and the ml's relationship was steadily growing (ie. taichi talking about his own childhood and becoming more comfortable with intimacy), but the characters themselves, especially taichi (after he gets the job at sig-n) doesn't grow and his character becomes a caricature. the ml as well. the entirety of ml's reasons can be summed up with "I love/admire him so much but don't want to burden him so I wont tell him my problems" while taichi was just naive and not telling stuff either. I felt this particular arc (volume 3) was misplaced and was just incredibly stagnating. i understand a relationship between a hard-of-hearing and a normal person has relatively more issues than normal one, but that's no excuse for not having a talk to lay bare of their insecurities. like it completely just sets back all their progress. so I do think if the manga just leaned more on the heartwarming/healing aspect instead of creating unnecessary drama for the sake of it, it would be a masterpeice
Sangyang:The Wanderer
the flow and directions of the story feels natural, the writing/prose is great. the characterization of each character are vital to the story and its themes and their dynamics with each other and especially with their heir/guardian are all well-written and engaging. the mystery, despite being so slowburn, remains interesting bc unraveling all of the families and different characters' stories is very integral to solving this mystery, and it is done in a way without feeling like a info dump. the plot is rather simple and plot points and twists not unique, but the author manaing to weave them into such an engaging story demonstrates a skill in storytelling.
Here and There and Us