July 4, 2023

Ended up binging the first volume in one sitting

Well, this was a surprise. The Absolute Beginner Book Club over at WaniKani forums selected ホリミヤ as their next book club choice, and I was vaguely interested -- so I checked it out since the first three volumes are free for a limited time on BookWalker.

The story really drew me in from the first chapters. The two main characters seem more real than you'd expect in a romcom, with private hidden lives and teenage insecurities providing rich soil for storytelling. The flow of the story and slow but steady progress made me keep turning the pages. I'll definitely keep reading.

The amount of lookups was very modest, as the language is as simple as it gets and the setting is a school environment, something most of manga readers have an incredible overexposure to. Certainly a good pick for Absolute Beginners Book Club in this regard.

However, there is another facet to consider, and a word of warning about the quality, if you're considering buying digitally: 振り仮名 is almost completely drowned out in compression artifact noise in the BookWalker release. It's extremely hard to read in places. This is far from ideal for someone who is just starting their native manga-reading journey.

Gradings:9
2
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eagleflo graded
on March 7, 2025
similar in difficulty toとなりの猫と恋知らず(1)L24
eagleflo graded
on March 2, 2025
eagleflo graded
on February 24, 2025
harder than疑似ハーレム 1L20
eagleflo graded
on January 20, 2024
eagleflo graded
on January 20, 2024
eagleflo graded
on August 1, 2023
easier than五等分の花嫁 1L23
eagleflo graded
on July 4, 2023
eagleflo graded
on July 4, 2023
eagleflo graded
on July 4, 2023