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(3.78/5)Read with the WK book club!
Language learning: This is a good choice for beginners due to the repetitive setup in each short chapter. The text density is not too high and contains a lot of highschool and everyday vocabulary. Sometimes there are casual contractions but there's a book club thread to help with any difficulty.
Content: This was pretty cute, and I enjoyed reading it with the club. I liked the art style too. I preferred the silly chapters (skiing!) to the romantic chapters. I probably wouldn't read this one on my own, although I may still keep the later volumes on my list for when I'm feeling a chill easy manga.
Cute
This is a cute, simple manga. I'd read it before in English and enjoyed rereading it. It is slice of life/romance and slightly repetitive (Izumi is unlucky/clumsy/etc., Shikimori-san does something cool/saves him) but the volume showcases the overall development of their relationship and has decent art, which helps. Also, the characters are endearing, at least for me. Overall, it makes for a nice beach or travel read where you shouldn't have to look anything up.
Disclaimer: I am biased — this is the first manga I have ever read.
It is not like I feel like I have lived one more life while reading this book. It is more like I have seen someone's life, that now is gone, only to be repeated over and over again with each reader picking up this manga. I am still sad I had to separate – to stop snooping on their careless comforting lives. Its just... it leaves reader with realization that one just spent 20 volumes on watching some characters having a life instead of living one's own.
Anime on the other hand lacks agency. It just copies a tiny slice of the beginning of the manga. It does not express manga's character. Art style is meh, so is animation and voice acting. Manga is weirdly so much more expressive.
Language wise I am glad this was my first manga. The stories started more episodic, and longer plotlines – as well as additional characters – were introduced later. The experience gets gradually smoother through familiarity.
The mixture of structure and episodic stories is very good. The comfortness of the episodes is by far not something too fake to be immersive.
What bothered me a bit more than how vain/empty/meaningless all 20 volumes felt after reading them, was that some background/episodic characters I liked a lot did not get enough attention. That is both Kamiya and coffee shop student lady Rika.
My attitude towards this manga is as mixed as it could be. I would like both to keep experiencing this life, to meet the characters again. And never to think or dab into this meaningless time sink ever again. To be attached to the lives of characters that are neither real nor present some truly impactful story... This is certainly some strong impression, even if not intentional.