orange 1

I picked this up because I remembered enjoying the anime adaptation back when it came out. Maybe it's just not my genre, but I found it kinda uninteresting. It felt like it was the same couple of concepts repeated over and over. IMHO, it's not a particularly great depiction of trauma/depression either - over a decade later it didn't really age well, for instance considering how mental health professionals are never mentioned in the series. Again, maybe it's just not my cup of tea (or maybe I couldn't catch all the subtleties due to my rather rough understanding of some dialogues).

If you also watched the show before, note that volumes 6 and 7 postdate the adaptation, and I found those the most enjoyable. You might want to skip straight to those two!

As for language learning, I think it's good (as long as it engages you!). Some dialogues/thoughts are quite abstract and might prove challenging. The furigana helps a lot, but you should have decent kanji recognition skills because there are quite a few important handwritten passages which do not have it.

Beautiful story and well executed

I found these books for 110yen a piece at a Japanese second hand bookshop. Moreso because of the price, I got the whole set on a whim and I'm so glad that I did.

Yes, it's a high school story of romance but it's far from sappy and cheesy. The characters are fun, unique and genuine. The story is pulled along expertly with a sense or unknown and mystery. The language is casual and everyday but still great for learning. What a gem!

I just finished the second book whilst on the shinkansen to Kagoshima. It hits even harder than the first one. Really enjoyable and well done. Perfect for language learning!