Manga Review: Sweet Blue Flowers, Volume 3, by Takako Shimura

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: VIZ Signature (VIZ Media)

Release Date: March 2018

Volumes: 4.

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 2. 4.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A genre-defining saga of love and friendship between girls.

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…

It’s time for the Fujigaya theater festival again, and this year Akira and her friends have chosen an ambitious Japanese play. Not only will it seriously challenge their acting abilities, but the number of characters in it means they’ll need all hands on deck to pull it off. But ever since Fumi admitted that she had feelings for Akira, their friendship has been a little awkward. Will the forced intimacy of collaborating on the play help them work things out, or make things worse?

Review:

They perform the play in the first half of this volume. The costumes are really good, and a few of them are much better actors than they expected. It goes off really well, with only a little mess-up. I'm not fully sure what the meaning behind the play for this book was, but it was there for a few of the characters.

In the second half, it's another girls vacation. Only, this time, there's more feelings and embarrassment between Akira and Fumi. Fumi is struggling with their relationship, as she knows how she feels and what she wants to do; Akira is very inexperienced and clueless about all of it, though.

There's a surprise move in the second half of the volume, which I didn't see happening so soon. I rather like how it's handled, though. Same as when Fumi talks to Ono about what happened in the previous volume. Fumi is reluctant and unsure, but she's also honest and rather upfront about herself, and I respect that. This isn't a thing talked about much, and could easily cause problems for Fumi, but she's being honest about it, while also quiet and private for the most part. That takes a lot of courage.

I really like this series, it's soft and sweet, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it wraps up in the next volume.

Manga Review: Sweet Blue Flowers, Volume 2, by Takako Shimura

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: VIZ Signature (VIZ Media)

Release Date: December 2017

Volumes: 4 (Omnibus).

Spoilers?: No.

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

Volume: 1. 3.

Goodreads Synopsis:

A genre-defining saga of love and friendship between girls.

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…

Kyoko’s fiancé invites a group of her friends to join them at his family’s summer home. But the trip ends up including more than just ghost stories and horseback riding—Fumi can now confirm that she has feelings for Akira. And Akira learns more than she wants to about Kyoko’s private life with some accidental eavesdropping. After this, how can the girls just return to school like nothing’s happened?

Review:

The first half of this volume seemed rather slow-paced. We get to know the characters a bit more, including two of the boys, but also the group of girls and their friendships. They're on a trip, so they play some games and stay up late talking, before school starts again.

We get some hints regarding Kyoko and her family, which could turn into drama later. We also see Sugimoto for a brief period; there's some drama there, some hard feelings, but mostly it seems like a farewell.

In the second half of the volume, a new school year has started, and a new school play has been chosen and so has the cast. There are new members now in both schools; there's quiet, library club member Ueda, who's sweet and shy. Then there's Ono, a younger, tiny girl, who's blunt and honest and straightforward in her wants.

Ono has me intrigued, and I think she's a character that both Akira and Fumi need to meet, to give them some perspective. At the same time, there are some confessions. Fumi is honest with Akira, but possibly more than she meant to be, or more than Akira knows how to take. It's made things a little awkward, though this could be good or bad for them.

I like how sweet and subtle this series is. It's rather realistic in how it handles its issues, without being dramatic or exaggerated. The girls discuss these topics sometimes, and they have to consider how to respond to these situations, but also how to talk about them.

This is a rather short series, and I'm looking forward to reading more and following it to the end.

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

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!