Chasing After Aoi Koshiba is a sweet manga packed full of romance and incredible illustrations.

The cover photo and internal coloured pictures alone make this book stand out. It's so pretty and elegant for being a manga. I like seeing these kinds of books around! Then throw in some LGTBQ representation, a sweet and romantic storyline with those illustrations? This book just screams awesome. On top of all of that, I just really enjoyed it. I wish I had the opportunity to sit down and slowly read through a print copy, it's that sort of good. You'll soak yourself up on this fantastic story and not want to leave.

Side note: I like the dresses in this book. It's a weird, quirky thing that stood out to me. Pretty manga dresses = my thing.

This book is going to be hit or miss for some people. It's definitely a more artsy book with a "will they? won't they?" story line. Overall, I think it's just a fun manga read to slip away from reality into.

Three out of five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange of an honest review. ( )

A questioning college student returns to Tokyo for a high school reunion looking for a chance to reconnect with the woman upon whom she had a confusing crush in high school. Most of the book flashes back to her high school days and her awkward pursuit of Aoi Koshiba which gets a little nonconsensual, harassing and stalkery at times but is not entirely unwelcome.

The scenario is a bit too mild and the set up a bit too dull by just a hair. The characters seem promising, so I'll try a couple more volumes in because-it's-there mode. ( )

Blog Review: https://trishadoeseverythingbutstudy2.wordpress.com/2021/05/06/may-reviews-2021-...

I received a free e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review!

I liked it!

I found this book so hard to categorise in my shelves; I try to categorise by trope, but I couldn't put it in anyone. The reason for this is that even though we had a romance, I don't think we were given enough to go off on.

Aoi Koshiba and Sahoko become good friends yes, but we never get to know if they ever get past that. There was one kiss, and then I think they were only friends, which makes it so hard to write this because WHAT DO I EVEN WRITE. What I was waiting for was only hinted, and the present bits didn't completely make sense because, again, things were only hinted at.

I loved the pining, and the awkward bits, a bit of the meeting the family, and l ots of doing stuff you're not even interested in to feel close to the other person, but we had like no romance.

So, this is a seriously short review (I can't believe this is only 5 paragraphs), but I'm definitely waiting for more. ( )