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(4.70/5)I'm writing this review while I'm at volume 9 and it can be considered a review to up to that point.
I privately considered 押見修造 to be rather overrated, but this manga has completely turned me around on him. His visual language, the way he lingers on the smallest details and uses it to pace the scene, it's incredible. The same story from another artist, might not even hold my attention. Just for that I will give it easily 5 stars. The art here to me, is more important any other aspect. All manga is visual storytelling but it is doubly true here. Most of the storyteling here is done through art, not dialogue. There are long stretches of pages with no text at all. There are many, many pages where you only see the characters faces, hands, eyes, and only one word spoken.
Which means, on one hand, it can be argued it is even simpler than something like yotsubato, on the other hand, when there is dialogue, it can feel like a huge difficulty spike. I don't think this is a good choice if your goal is primarily to learn rather than to enjoy the manga itself. However while other manga volumes take me a week in this I can read several volumes a day without feeling exhausted. So in a way, it is also motivating.
tl;dr:
+good manga
+mostly very easy to understand
-some difficulty spikes
-not a lot of text
+easily accessible official version to double check your understanding
I enjoyed this series even though the psychological trauma the main character goes through, the whole time I was thinking this kid needs some therapy.
It gets more difficult as the setting changes. In the juvenile detention centre terms like 弁護士 repeat. Medical terms can be specific but they only show up once in hospital.
A big note is that like a few of 押見修造 other works it features 群馬弁 which confused me at first.
Warning beforehand: This manga has no Furigana. The text is usually very easy to detect for tools like YomiNinja's MangaOCR, though. For the most part, the sentences are extremely simple and you will find lots of art-focused panels with the occasional "はあ"s to give you some breathing room, as is typical for Oshimi's works. Apart from one backstory-heavy volume towards the end, you will fly through the pages. Whether that's motivating for you or a negative because you don't get as much text exposure for your money is up to you!
Given the realistic scenario and the easy language apart from some law and medical sections, it felt like an ideal manga for less advanced learners to me - especially the exposure to mostly very basic Kanji can feel motivating for readers who are still scared of it after constant Furigana exposure.
The story itself starts extremely intriguing, but I felt my interest waning towards the middle and didn't find the ending particularly satisfactory. It does have some interesting twists and turns, and at times very strong introspective sections showing how characters deal with their experiences and character dynamics. A lot of this storytelling happens through the art, though, especially with facial expressions. So ultimately it's up to the readers to fill a lot of things unsaid, which might not be for everyone.