Also, a significant portion of the story takes place in Kagoshima, a major city on a southern Japanese island with its own distinct culture and climate. At one point Kanae is distressed over which snack she should get, but I had no clue why because I couldn’t read the apparently relevant Japanese labels. While for the most part the story is pretty universal, there are a few things the really could have used clarification. There are also no translation notes, either between panels or at the end of the book. I never got a good impression of a major character from the third act, Risa, because in almost every scene she’s in, it is very difficult to tell the difference between her and Tohno’s words. But, while these two most significant hurdles are overcome with ease, the book runs into a number of small potholes, likely due to the fact that Yukiko Seike, while talented, had never made a manga before.įor one, none of the speech-bubbles are marked, making it difficult, if not impossible, in some scenes, to tell who is speaking. On the technical side, the quality of the art is very good, and the writing effectively elicits almost every emotion the reader is supposed to feel. Which is why it’s so impressive that the manga can tell us to give up on such a dream, without sounding cynical. It’s all very sweet and sad, and even as Tohno becomes more closed off and distant you have to sympathize with him because of what a pure-hearted romantic dream he has. He can’t open up or reciprocate their feelings for him because he’s hung up on this first crush. We don’t see much of Akari again, instead there are different girls and other people in Tohno’s life who end up getting hurt because of his promise. Most of the story follows Tohno after that day, as he moves through middle and high school and eventually early adulthood. It turns out that’s a really hard promise to keep. He promises to be strong and maintain his feelings for her no matter how long it takes for them to see each other again. To his surprise, Akari waited, trusting he would come, and in exchange Tohno promises he’ll wait too. Tohno carefully plans the long, lonely night of train rides to Akari and back, but a snowstorm makes him hours late. He decides that, before he leaves, he has to see Akari and tell her, in person, that he loves her. Sadly, it isn’t until Akari moves away that the two are finally able to express their true feeling in letters.Īfter months of writing to one another, Tohno learns that his family will be moving to an island on the other side of Japan.

The two quickly become inseparable friends, bonding over a mutual love of books and science. The story starts with the main character, Takaki Tohno, as an elementary schoolboy who has just fallen for an elementary schoolgirl, Akari Shinobara.

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