This series is a total winner for me. After sitting on my shelf for over a year, I finally hunkered down to read the first three volumes. 3 hours later, I was finished and felt empty inside.

There are no other words to describe his series than wholesome. Wholesome, wholesome, wholesome. Set in the present, we get wonderful flashbacks of our protags meeting in high school. During their formative years, Wako and Meguru form a friendship over a shared love of aesthetically beautiful self-expression. Love then blossoms, and true acceptance of each other is achieved.

You can tell that the author wasn't confident that this work would progress beyond one chapter, let alone one volume. The writing style matures as it progresses, so hanging in there through the rustic first chapters is recommended.

While I can understand that in a Western context, the depiction of Enbee characters can be problematic in some manga series, I feel Tamekou has done one of the better jobs in being respectful. There's a change in the wind for LGBT+ rights in Japan (remember, 80% of Japan's queer community are estimated to be closeted due to fears of societal rejection or abuse!) - at least I hope there is when representation like this gets marginally better.