YA graphic novels

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Lenni Reviews: “Sakura, Saku” Vol. 6, by Io Sakisaka

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Saku remembers when she met Iryu as a child and he is starting to have feelings for her. At the school festival, Saku plans to spend time with Haruki but Iryu also wants to see her.

Oh, we’re fully in love triangle mode now. Iyru and Haruki are wasting no time pursuing Saku, who is mildly annoying with her passivity and milk toast reactions. She’s just going along with whatever each guy is doing at the moment. I like her but I’m hoping she’ll be a little more active in all this in the future. The boys clearly have no issue with this. 3.7 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Rainbows After Storms” Vol. 2, by Luka Kobachi

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Nanoha and Chidori’s relationship is still a secret from their friends and Chidori thinks back on her past love.

This volume continues the very light, slice-of-life tone. Just a bunch of cute moments of their relationship as they study, hang out, etc. Since we still don’t have any particular stakes, it’s a cozy read where the reader can just enjoy seeing these girls be happy with each other and live life. I appreciate the positivity after some of the depressing stuff I’ve been reading (you’ll see those reviews soon) but it can get repetitive. Every chapter starts with how they’re keeping their relationship a secret; as if each one was serialized in separate issues so it could be picked up in any spot. It’s not as enjoyable when it’s all put together, though. 3.9 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Rainbows After Storms” Vol. 1, by Luka Kobachi

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

High school students Nanoha and Chidori are dating but they keep their relationship secret; only known to their classmates as best friends.

This is very slice of life, especially when compared to the same setting for yaoi manga. It’s just so cute and sweet. Not a bit of smut to be found. It gets repetitive because each little story starts out with “we’re dating and keeping it a secret” and there are no obvious stakes to them keeping their relationship a secret. It doesn’t seem like their friends are homophobic or anything. Everything is very lighthearted and calm; a lot of blushing and meaningful glances. It’s decent but maybe a little more depth to it would make me like it more. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Rainbow Days” Vol. 13, by Minami Mizuno

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Natsuki and Anna are finally at the school festival together but will he finally be able to tell her how he feels before the day is over?

Now that they’re together, we’re in the “figure out how to couple” stage and move on to other possible pairings in the series as they all head into summer vacation. These bits of slice of life scenes was so much better than it has been in the previous volumes. There’s something about the energy here that’s more entertaining and interesting. We’ll see if we get more pairings to follow in the future but I’m cool with we just get more of these teen shenanigans for a bit. 3.5 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Insomniacs After School” Vol. 8, by Makoto Ojiro

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

After the festival, Magari picks up her late-night radio streams again, confessing about the health issues she’s been dealing with most of her life. The previous astronomy club member, Shiromaru, gets more involved in helping Magari and Nakami start nighttime observations for the new club.

Kurashiki Sensei is so deadpan, I love it. Most of this is Magari and Nakami spending a supervised overnight at school for some stargazing but a storm blocks the skies. It’s very sweet and good to see them happy together doing what they love. It’s just a pure moment. We still don’t know what seems to be the deeper issue with Shiomaru, who clearly had more going on with the previous astronomy club that she’s still hiding. I doubt it will be very heavy or dark since that would be a major departure from the tone of this series so far. I honestly hope Magari having a heart condition is as dark as this series gets. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Let’s Do It Already!” Vol. 3, by Aki Kusaka

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Keiichiro has a packed summer schedule and Yuri manages to get a summer job just so she could see him more often. But when they attend an overnight study camp, through a series of misadventures, they end up in the same bed.

I’m glad the feelings between these two are genuine. There’s wacky moments and to me it’s a little much for Yuri to keep going so far for just a scrap of Keiichiro’s attention in his absurdly packed schedule but he clearly cares about her and is trying to do what he feels he can within the confines of his family’s demands. It’s sweet and nice to see with the other series I’m reading where one partner has deeper issues or ulterior motives. 3 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Wolf Girl and Black Prince” Vol. 11, by Ayuko Hatta

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

This time Erika falls ill and Kyoya takes care of her. After this, it’s time to plan for the senior trip and since Kyoya is on the committee, Erika gets a job to save up some money for it. But with Kyoya and Erika busy, it’s hard for them to have time for each other.

We also have the trope Erika getting jealous of a girl Kyoya is working with on the school trip which may be a standard YA type of deal and she’s a teenager, Kyoya is a lot of things but a cheater isn’t one of them. I’ve clocked a bunch of red flag behavior with him but not this so, I wasn’t that invested in that side of things. It was nice to see Kyoya continue to be a better person/boyfriend but we’ll see if Kyoya can keep that up since we’ve got some rivals: Kyoya has that girl helping with the class trip and Erika has a childhood friend who has confessed his feelings before. 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Like a Butterfly” Vol. 10, by Suu Morishita

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Suiren wants to be more courageous in her relationship with Kawasumi but she gets advice from Atohira who realizes he has feelings for her too and this gets in the way of their friendship.

Even though this series is supposed to be about Suiren and Kawasumi, the latter’s friendship/rivalry with Atohira is interesting. I genuinely want them to work things out and be friends again. And it’s not Suiren deliberately coming between them. She’s way too much of a cinnamon roll to be like that. It’s Atohira kinda reacting to the fact things have changed. It’s not just about the two of them anymore; now Kawasumi has Suiren taking up some of his time. I still feel like I know Atohira more then Suiren but progress has been made. 3.4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “Komi Can’t Communicate” Vol. 32, by Tomohito Oda

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Waka finally confesses to Manbagi, Ogiya teaches Komi tea ceremony, and Tadano and Komi struggle to have more time together that isn’t school or studying.

This volume is very episodic exploring a wide range of characters and situations. It’s fun, amusing, and reads really fast. With such a collection, I realized just how wacky a lot of these kids are more than normal. You kinda forget when Komi and Tadano are the focus when one of them has a creepy obsession with Komi and another wants to be a baby and will not remove the pacifier from his mouth. Absolutely wild. Oh, and Komi is now up to 80 friends! 4 out of 5.

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Lenni Reviews: “I Wanna Do Bad Things with You” Vol. 3, by Yutaka

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*This book was given to me in exchange for an honest review.

Fuji’s next idea for a prank on his brother, Koichi, is for them to beat Koichi on a test to lower his ranking. To do this, they must enlist the help of Kei, who offers to help Mamori study to get her poor grades up to par.

Kei is… An interesting way to work more fanservice into this but… Okay. This volume is one of those situations where it’d be better if Fuji didn’t care what his brother did and visa versa but I’m old and out of fucks to give. Teens think everything is such a huge deal so yeah, I get it. I also sympathize with Mamori as she struggles to make friends and has been used before. I do wonder what exactly Koichi stands to gain by snooping on Fuji and Mamori aside from thwarting the bad things they get up to but clearly this is building up to something. I just hope this adorable friendship doesn’t break. 3.9 out of 5.

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