アオのハコ 1

This is a really wonderful slow burn romance, and surprisingly may be my favorite romance manga I've read (I'm in the middle of the vol 13). I'm not really into sports, so sometimes those sections felt a bit slow to me. But otherwise it's really well paced, has very organic characters, and is at times unpredictable. It also makes very good (and sparse) use of misunderstandings as a plot device, and is very sparse on backstory (the few times it's included, it's usually brief and isn't there for the sake of filler). Another thing that's nice about it is seeing characters and/or their teams lose sometimes, and seeing them take it in stride, as something expected, while they remain dedicated to their goals.

There's furigana throughout the manga, and it's usually easy to tell who's talking. There's also a lot of out-of-box writing, which can be hard to read, if you're not very familiar with the handwritten forms of kanji. No dialects, or weird role speak. Certainly lots of sports specific vocab (badminton, basketball, and gymnastics). I feel like the current L23 rating is a bit low, but maybe it's just that I don't usually read this sort of thing.

Overall I've really enjoyed it, and know I'll definitely come back and reread it once the series is finished!