Manga Review: Sweet Blue Flowers, Volume 1, by Takako Shimura

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5-4

Publisher: VIZ Signature (VIZ Media)

Release Date: September 2017

Volumes: 8/4 Omnibus.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Akira Okudaira is starting high school and is ready for exciting new experiences. And on the first day of school, she runs into her best friend from kindergarten at the train station! Now Akira and Fumi have the chance to rekindle their friendship, but life has gotten a lot more complicated since they were kids…

Fumi is glad Akira is back in her life. Even in kindergarten, Akira knew how to stand up for herself, and she was always willing to stand up for Fumi too. But Fumi’s first love recently got married, and Fumi is grappling with a broken heart and the fact that her sweetheart was another woman… Can Akira’s open heart help dispel the gloom Fumi has been caught up in?

Review:

I'm actually upset it took me so long to get to this book. Because it was so good.

We meet Akira and Fumi, who knew each other when they were kids, and they run into each other by coincidence. Fumi is a crybaby, and Akira was always there to help her.

Just recently Fumi's crush got engaged to a guy, and she's still coming to terms with that happening, let alone that she might like girls. And then Fumi meets Sugimoto at her new school, and they suddenly start dating.

As Akira learns to accept that Fumi likes girls, Fumi and Sugimoto are attempting to grow closer, but they're both hiding something from each other. Rather similar secrets about their broken hearts, in fact.

The way all of this is told is so sweet, and light, and thoughtful. It's not dramatic and big and angsty. It's very heartfelt and realistically so. Akira tries to help where she can, as Fumi deals with her relationship issues. There are also a lot of unrequited crushes in this series, and most of them don't go away without a confession of some kind. There's struggle, but there's also an openness about it. They say what they need to.

This was a really sweet, easy volume to read, and I really enjoyed it. Quite a bit happened in this omnibus, too. I want to find out what happens next.

This does have me interested to read her other series. I'd never really looked at Wandering Son before, despite hearing good things, and now I really want to pick it up, too. This volume seemed to handle things so well, I want to read that one, too.

A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!