Indeed, it was my very first Inio Asano and it is clear that it will not be the last! This manga has clearly awakened my curiosity about this author and his unique style.
This manga tells the teenager straightforward intimacy between college students, who are looking, experimenting and sometimes not know how to express their feelings, which are awkward without pretense and often bruised.
At first it was very confusing for me because I was not used to this style. Everything seems so real, so true that we feel almost a little "voyeur-who-looks-with-a-hole-in-lock" ...
The story mainly revolves around Sato (the girl) and Isobe (the boy), the 2 main characters (surrounded by secondary characters that are found here and there in small doses). There are no real action as such and yet it was a fun at any time here, one uses the sensitivity to sensations, it is often raw, brut. The author does not embellish things. We feel melancholy, the mood pretty special, sometimes heavy, "unhealthy", mysterious and hard to describe that highlights the author brilliantly through his drawings breathtaking! We feel by all the pores ill-being of these teens and their difficulties in their quest for identity, experience, unhealthy side by the time of their sexual experiences.
The author has a unique style, very deep and Successful much in the way of telling the story in his drawings. His talent impressed me clearly!
Drawings of talking (I think I still am not called me as they literally taped me !!):
The author combines seaside landscape, interior chamber, portrait, bodies ... each with a play of shadow and light, very impactful contrast shades of gray, black, white more as grabbing, a finesse and incredible precision! I do not imagine the immense work that there is behind this manga!
Some landscapes are larger than life, near-photographic accuracy with a crazy, details down to the last ... breathtaking!
The protagonists' faces are very juvenile (well, after all they are middle school students but they really even younger in the drawing I think) which often contrast with the erotic scenes where the author hides nothing (but without falling into porno-trash, exaggerated) and the overall depth of the manga itself.
/ \ Warning /! \:! This manga contains sex scenes (rather numerous) could not be more explicit (which the author knows sometimes suggested by more sober contours, simpler lines as it happens some of chewable these scenes with precision).
Do not put all hands :-)
When the text, just as drawings, it is often crude, direct, author does not bother to "beat around the bush" and it gives a "real" and authentic side of this manga. It is very, very far from a simple superficial romance between teenagers.
The translation is faultless (neither messy nor shells or oddly turned phrases, very fluid, flawless).
Inio Asano mastery its history, his style, his drawings when taken in history, it's hard to let go.
Besides, in the end, there is still much intrigued! Deeply the second (and last) volume!