Two first loves are finally reunited more than 20 years after distance forced them to break up. Suddenly finding themselves next door neighbours after all this time, is this the opportunity they need to rekindle their love?
You can check out a sample of this series for yourself below!
Author
Genre & Tropes
Info about this series (ongoing)
This series is ongoing, with seven volumes currently published in Japanese.
What’s this series about?
When they were in high school, Kuroki and Inaba were each other’s first love. Sadly, distance broke the couple up when Inaba’s family moved away from Hokkaido, devastating the both of them. Though they tried to move on with their lives, neither Kuroki nor Ibana could fill the hole the other left in their heart. Now, more than 20 years later, Ibana has gathered up the courage to move back to Hokkaido, if only to get a glimpse of Kuroki’s face.
My thoughts on this volume (Spoilers!)
I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed this manga. Dare I say it’s my favourite josei manga to date?
Let’s start with my favourite thing about this volume: we get to see just about every major event from both Kuroki and Inaba’s perspective. I actually don’t think I’ve seen a mangaka so dedicated to telling all sides of a story before! As both Kuroki and Inaba act a tad aloof around each other—they are both hyper-aware of their own feelings and don’t want to make things awkward—being shown both of their reactions after interacting really brought this story to life.
We revisit several important scenes multiple times, being given more context and different perspectives each time. For example, at the very start of the manga, we are shown Inaba knocking on his new neighbour’s door to introduce himself. When Kuroki of all people opens the door they’re both left speechless, and from there we get Kuroki’s point of view. We learn her thoughts after coming face to face with her first love after more than 20 years of no contact, and are then treated to a lovely flashback of when they first met in high school. The story moves on from there, and we watch as the two of them slowly re-enter each other’s life. Eventually we go back to Inaba’s point of view, and we get to see exactly what happened to cause him to move back to Hokkaido. We then go along with him as he moves into his new apartment, and sets out to great his new neighbours, then knocking on Kuroki’s door.
Seeing things from multiple perspectives also brings in a lot of comedy, as while both of them are a bit aloof when they’re aware that they’re being perceived by the other, their reactions when they think no one is looking tend to be adorable. They’ve both somewhat reverted to their high school selves, and their reactions tend to reflect that. Watching Inaba wonder where he went wrong when Kuroki didn’t invite him into her apartment after their date, only to forget everything and become overjoyed to the point of shouting “Chan-Kurokiiiiii!!” when he sees her invitation to dinner that upcoming Friday was just too cute.
Moving on, something I found to bring extra charm to this volume were the side characters—especially Kuroki’s daughter, Maimi. I feel like their relationship shows just how good a person Kuroki is, and how much she deserves happiness! Kuroki, ever the good mother, seems to place her daughter’s opinion above her own, leading to a potentially difficult time for Inaba. As she clearly wouldn’t give the time of day to someone her daughter isn’t comfortable around, Inaba first has to show his sincerity to Maimi before his relationship with Kuroki can really start.
Thankfully Inaba seems to be a genuinely good guy, so he is able to win Maimi, or should I say Maimin over rather quickly.
Ohhh I just can’t wait to see where the story goes from here.
Maddies Manga 
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