No es que quiera que no terminen juntos... pero este volumen me gustó mucho por esa misma razón.

4 de 5 estrellas.

Strong character development and good pacing.


I've been sick today, so I read ALL EIGHT VOLUMES. Just my speed. After awhile, though, all the sweetness and love was starting to make my teeth ache. As usual, "Cue complication". It's manga. There has to be a complication when things are going well. What surprised me, however, was that the rival love interest—a traditional complication for shoujo comics—was only a minor complication. It was no more than a small hiccup. The real culprit was Mizukawa's studies. Mizukawa put their relationship on hold so he could prepare for college entrance exams. How perfectly responsible, but if their relationship was a cozy raft on a lazy river, Mizukawa's new priorities fell on them with a bellyflop from the highest diving board. The entire tone of the series changed.

I've never seen school used as the villain in a romance before. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, but I was delighted. What a novel use of school pressure. Poor Koshino. I was happier than Mizukawa's brother the more miserable they became. What can I say? I've got issues.

4,5 Stars

Finally, volume 8 is here in my hands. This series being one of my favorites, it was hard to wait for it to finally come out in French.

“I opened my eyes, ready to start a new day…secure in the knowledge that I love you”

Azusa Mase is good at showing different periods a couple will face throughout their relationship. Serina and Mizukawa have been together since the first volume, so you would expect the mangaka to already have shown everything she could, and yet, I’m always surprised that she manages to introduce new things without it being repetitive, too much, or echo previous problems the couple has faced.

The volume starts where it previously ended, Mizukawa has been studying a lot therefore he and Serina have been seeing and talking to each other a lot less than before. Of course, it does raise a lot of questions. This one really stuck with me because I’m in a long-distance relationship, therefore there are times when I’m busy or my boyfriend is busy so we can’t talk to each other as much as we want but it doesn’t mean that the feelings aren’t there. But being anxious and an over-analyzing human being, I always have a hard time during those periods and always expect the worst. I could relate to Serina so much here, just like her, my actions don’t always match up with my feelings and I hate feeling this way.

“I don’t need you to make more time for me. I want to be your girlfriend, not your burden. And I enjoy the time I get to myself. But the thought that maybe I can live without you makes me so sad.”

You want to be a supportive partner and yet, you hate being in this situation. It creates doubt and you start questioning yourself and I think that Mase perfectly portrayed that through Serina. I loved it since it felt realistic and not over the top like I’ve seen in a lot of shojos.

This volume focuses more on Mizukawa and Serina as individuals rather than them as a couple. You get both of their thoughts regarding their relationship and what they want from it but also their own future. Since Mizukawa is in his last year of high school and that he’ll be soon a university student, that kind of reflection made sense, even for Serina. The end of the volume did make me cry because once again, I could relate so much to Serina there.

I hope that it doesn’t really show that I had a hard time putting into words how this volume made me feel. To put it simply, I loved it and can’t wait to see how the story is going to end. This series is definitely one of my favorite and I’ll cherish it for a long time.

*I’m kind of confused about the French translation though. In Chapter 29, Serina says to Mizukawa: “Je me dis que tu n’as peut-être plus de sentiments pour moi.” which we can translate as “I’m starting to think that you might no longer have feelings for me”. It confused me a lot since it doesn’t really make sense, especially considering how Mizukawa reacts to it. So, I went and check the English translation which is the following: “I begin to doubt I even have feelings for you”. The subject in those two sentences is not even the same and the meanings are completely different! So I’m kind of mad about it!