December 31, 2022

A good, surprisingly atmospheric one-shot

Isagi-Kojima follows 戸田裕司 (とだ・ゆうじ) an honors student tired of his life who's still haunted by a childhood accident; one day at school he runs into an estranged childhood friend of his, いっちゃん, and the two gradually begin to reconnect. The premise is fairly simple, but I thought the execution was really well done in terms of showing 裕司 and いっちゃん's differing (but strangely compatible) worldviews. 裕司's inner thoughts and monologues are often broken over several lines, and the art style and atmosphere give the whole work a rather gloomy edge to it, leading to a rather subdued feeling throughout the work.

I've been slowly re-reading through this author's earlier works, and it's always so much fun to see how her art improves and moves towards her current-day style. Isagi-Kojima is her most polished work so far of her three early one-shot releases, which is really impressive considering it takes some authors books and books and books to show much change and/or improvement in their style.

Vocabulary is nothing special; school and daily life vocab are pretty much the bulk of it. Grammar probably isn't really going to go above N3, but there's a whole bunch of word shortening and slurring common to high school students. It can sometimes be difficult to keep track of the thread of 裕司's thoughts as well, due to them sometimes be broken over a page or two.

Interestingly, the original '96 physical release has full furigana, while the '23 digital release does not. The digital release includes all the color artwork ever released for the story, as well as a new two-page oneshot at the very end. It's pretty interesting to see the changes in the artist's style over an almost 30-year gap.

Gradings:46
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eefara graded
on December 21, 2024
eefara graded
on August 28, 2024
eefara graded
on December 28, 2023
eefara graded
on December 27, 2023
similar in difficulty to罠―杉浦志保短編集L25
eefara graded
on December 3, 2023
similar in difficulty to夏目友人帳 1L25
eefara graded
on October 27, 2023
eefara graded
on October 27, 2023
similar in difficulty to魔法少年なつき×らびっツ 1L24
eefara graded
on July 18, 2023
similar in difficulty to帝国兄弟 1L25
eefara graded
on May 26, 2023
eefara graded
on April 11, 2023
eefara graded
on March 21, 2023
easier than待つL30
eefara graded
on March 21, 2023
harder than赤い手袋L22
eefara graded
on March 21, 2023
eefara graded
on March 20, 2023
eefara graded
on January 26, 2023
eefara graded
on January 22, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
easier thanSUPER LOVERS 第1巻L28
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
easier than幻惑の鼓動 1L29
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
similar in difficulty toG・DEFEND 1L26
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
similar in difficulty toHIGH & HIGH 1L25
eefara graded
on January 10, 2023
eefara graded
on January 1, 2023
similar in difficulty toDEVIL SURVIVOR2 the ANIMATION 1L25
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
easier than仁獣芳烈伝 1巻L26
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
similar in difficulty toPURE BLOOD 1L25
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
similar in difficulty to氷の魔物の物語 1L25
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
similar in difficulty to獣の王国 1L25
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
similar in difficulty toアスタリスク 1L25
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
similar in difficulty toMOON・TRICK 1 L25
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
similar in difficulty toD.Gray-man 1 L25
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022
eefara graded
on December 31, 2022