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(4.38/5)Great coming of age drama
What a wonderful little journey this was. Admittedly when I started reading it my expectations were a bit low as I never had read this type of manga before and while arguably some story points didn't hit me as much as they were intended to I still found myself reading for hours a day which speaks for the pacing as it never felt too slow but always building up to something. Having just finished it I even feel this sort of sadness you feel after finishing a good book or TV show. Glad I found this one.
As for language - I struggled a bit being N3 level. I know the suggested level is just that, a suggestion but I had parts where I was flying through due to how straightforward it was and then other sections of multi-layered double negative sentences that just threw me off. But Yomichan helped a lot with immediate look-ups.
This is, together with "Girl Friends" and "徒然日" is one of my favorite Girlslove/yuri manga. I think its one of the most popular and well known ones, as it even has an anime adaptation (which is okay, but didn't adapt the eding, so you should be prepared to read the last volumes of the manga.). There is also a 3 volume spinn of novel by the author of 安達としまむら.
I think most people should be able to enjoy this as a good drama, even if they aren't into Girlslove. In that aspect I think it is similar Given which is a Boyslove manga/anime which can be enjoyed as a good drama even by people that arent't into Boyslove.
Slow start but pays off in the end
The manga is a slow-burn romance. The first volume or two was pretty slow-paced but it is worth the pay off in the end. As I read more, my reading sessions kept getting longer because I couldn't put it down.
The story starts off with a semi-interesting premise. Our protagonist 侑 likes love songs and shoujo manga but she herself does not understand the feeling of "love". In the opening chapter she meets 七海 and sees her turn down someone. They talk and both realize that they can't fall in love with anyone. Or so they think, as 七海 immediately falls in love with 侑 after finding out she can't love anyone but the feeling isn't mutual.
The difficulty kind of spikes throughout both grammar and vocabulary wise. I don't think there was any obscure type vocabulary but there were some chapters about the student council, giving speeches, doing a play, screenwriting etc so depending on what you've read before this could already be familiar for you.
Most of the hard grammar parts came during monologues where they were talking about their feelings and whatnot. I had to look up some N2/N1 type grammar points but the spoken dialogue tends to be on the easier side. Generally, I didn't have to look up that much grammar points when it was spoken dialogue but the monologues I spent a decent amount of time on.
I think this manga might be too hard if it is your very first reading experience, but I think it'd be fine as your second one or beyond. If you want a yuri manga that has cute moments and a lot of deeper, emotional-impacting ones, then I definitely recommend this! I should also note that while I gave the first few volumes a 4/5, for vol 6-8 I gave them all 5/5s so it is worth reading the full thing as those last couple volumes are amazing.
a coming of age about two girls figuring out their identity and what "love" means to them
the language used shouldn't be particularly difficult if you're around N3, though theres still some specialized vocab (mostly theatre)
maybe not as your first manga (it was mine, i suffered) but i 1000% recommend it! it's such an incredible experience :-) especially the last few volumes
one of my favorite manga, first time reading in japanese but my 4th or so reread in general, will definitely reread again lol