Nagisa Furuya

*reviewed from uncorrected eARC via netgalley*

teen/adult manga translated from Japanese - 18 y.o. dark-haired awkward loner Akito "Eito" Tachibana meets light-haired, apparent social butterfly Tomoya (nicknamed "Hachi" because his name Hatta has the character for eight in it) and both can finally relate to being endlessly teased about their names by their highschool classmates. They're in separate tracks (Eito in sciences and Hatta in humanities) so they would never interact ordinarily, but all of a sudden Eito sees Hatta everywhere and he has trouble keeping his cool.

This was an adorable, fun read for ages middle-grade and up, showing the awkwardness of that first boy crush (and eventual first kiss). If there ever was a reason to not want to leave high school, these two characters have found it. Don't miss the translation notes at the end, which explain how the characters of Akito are commonly misread as Eito.

February 2024 bingo challenge: graphic novel, published in March (12 Mar 2024; originally published in serial January-October 2014 plus bonus chapter), takes place in winter and through the spring into graduation; debut manga.… (mais)

I have only read a handful of manga books as I am just getting into the genre. This one, in particular, I found to be just okay. It didn't rock my world, but the art was good, and it was a quick read, which I go to graphic novels specifically for, but it somehow felt incredibly slow-moving. overall, like the few other mangas I've read, I have found that the main characters look so similar that I got them a little mixed up sometimes, but as I am new to the genre and drawing style, I can honestly attribute some of these flaws in my reading experience to be overall user error. but the plot wasn't that engaging and i didn't feel very connected to the characters as i have in the past for other books with similar themes.… (mais)