What do you think?
Rate this book
Wakaba no #1
A New Season of Young Leaves
Cool, friendly Mariya is the undisputed king of his year! But why does he always hang around with shy and painfully awkward “Mr. Mannequin” Nachi? Can these boys withstand the non-stop judgment of a school filled with jealous rivals and confused classmates?
A New Season of Young Leaves follows every sweet high and lonely low in the growing relationship of unlikely best friends. How will the most popular guy in class deal when his wallflower confidant suddenly steals the social spotlight…and a beautiful girl’s affection?
A New Season of Young Leaves follows every sweet high and lonely low in the growing relationship of unlikely best friends. How will the most popular guy in class deal when his wallflower confidant suddenly steals the social spotlight…and a beautiful girl’s affection?
ebook
First published April 26, 2012
4 people are currently reading
129 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
March 30, 2015
Ever since reading the description I was kinda curious about this one, so of course I ended up ordering it.
Mariya is a handsome and popular high school student, while his classmate Nachi is always expressionless and keeps to himself. Still, the two of them are apparently friends, and both don't like it when the other pays too much attention to anyone else..
I have to admit I found it a bit difficult in the beginning. The language was a bit too casual for me to be easily readable, and the art made it a bit difficult for me to distinguish between Mariya and Natsume. However, I of course stuck with it and ended up loving this a lot.
Stories where one of the characters is the "expressionless, difficult to read type" are among my favourites, and I found Nachi really fascinating. I loved the flashback to middle school, and the way both Nachi and especially Mariya's feelings were all muddled up and still difficult to define for them. I also really liked the art (despite the above mentioned difficulty). I'm definitely looking forward to the continuation.
(4.5 stars for now, I'll round up or down depending how the story continues.)
Rounded up to five stars because I loved the conclusion.
Mariya is a handsome and popular high school student, while his classmate Nachi is always expressionless and keeps to himself. Still, the two of them are apparently friends, and both don't like it when the other pays too much attention to anyone else..
I have to admit I found it a bit difficult in the beginning. The language was a bit too casual for me to be easily readable, and the art made it a bit difficult for me to distinguish between Mariya and Natsume. However, I of course stuck with it and ended up loving this a lot.
Stories where one of the characters is the "expressionless, difficult to read type" are among my favourites, and I found Nachi really fascinating. I loved the flashback to middle school, and the way both Nachi and especially Mariya's feelings were all muddled up and still difficult to define for them. I also really liked the art (despite the above mentioned difficulty). I'm definitely looking forward to the continuation.
(4.5 stars for now, I'll round up or down depending how the story continues.)
Rounded up to five stars because I loved the conclusion.
January 13, 2019
This one started off hard to get into but actually gained momentum and got more interesting to me towards the middle and end. The characters look pretty similar to each other in the beginning and it's hard to know who is who and follow the storyline which is a bit confusing. But again it did improve and I may check out volume two at some point.
February 2, 2022
Well, I'm annoyed to discover that this is actually Volume 1 of 2, which I didn't realize before I finally tracked down a copy and bought it...but it doesn't seem like there was ever an English publication of the second half. Reading/collecting manga sure is an exercise in frustration.
I really, really liked Seven Days: Monday → Thursday, so while this had a different artist, I was hoping for some of the same magic from the author. The art itself is pretty decent - although the cover art is quite different from the panels inside - but it does seem like the artist must be a little less experienced in putting storyboards together, because some of the speech bubble placements were pretty confusing, and it got hard to tell characters apart at points. Plus there was the one set of panels were it looked like Mariya was standing inside a giant shoe...
The pacing's a little off, too. We start in the present tense, I guess - not actually sure what year of school they're in, since they've known each other since grade 8 and been best friends since grade 9, but it seems like that friendship is supposed to have lasted multiple years at this point, based on their character designs and the way they interact with each other. There's also some muddying about who knows what when it comes to their friendship, and it's a little hard to keep track of the characters. I'm not sure what happened to Mariya's former best friend, and I have absolutely no idea who Kashu is and why he'd be angrily reading a bunch of mystery novels to get revenge on (presumably) Nachi.
The Kashu question probably gets answered in volume 2, but unless I can find it online to read, it's currently left in a very unsatisfying state...
The last few chapters were pretty interesting, though, and demonstrated more of that thoughtful, emotionally complex storytelling that I'd really liked from Tachibana's other work. Nachi is definitely very weird, but not as robotic as he initially seems; the flashbacks about him deciding to befriend Mariya are a lot more interesting and are developed much better.
I like the flip where we discover that Nachi's borderline controlling behavior about Mariya and his friendship isn't remotely one-sided, and that it's actually Mariya who's pretty solidly in love with him. It's most likely mutual, but there's a whole mess with a girl who liked Nachi and tried to pull him away from Mariya, and it's hard to tell if Nachi liked her or if he was just enjoying having a second friend. (The way she got him to go out with her was by telling him it was all or nothing - he had to date her or she wouldn't talk to him anymore.)
Honestly, both of these guys need more friends, so it's kind of a good development that in the present timeline, a couple of other guys are trying to hang out with both of them, and there's a girl in the library who understands Nachi's relationship with Mariya and likes talking to him still.
One kind of dissatisfying note is how Nachi's interest in Mariya initially came from Mariya telling a girl that his friendship with her boyfriend was much more important to him than the possibility of dating her - since she was willing to break up with her current boyfriend to be with him instead. Nachi clearly saw that as an interesting display of loyalty and wanted to know what that felt like, but in the process he ended up pulling Mariya away from his friend...so is their dynamic healthy? Not really. Interesting, though.
Not the best manga I've read, even if the second half wraps up all the dangling threads, but there's something about it that's weirdly intriguing. Kind of like Nachi, I guess...this is how Mariya fell for him to begin with, right? It's a puzzle you can't quite figure out, and then you suddenly realized you've gotten hooked somewhere along the way.
I really, really liked Seven Days: Monday → Thursday, so while this had a different artist, I was hoping for some of the same magic from the author. The art itself is pretty decent - although the cover art is quite different from the panels inside - but it does seem like the artist must be a little less experienced in putting storyboards together, because some of the speech bubble placements were pretty confusing, and it got hard to tell characters apart at points. Plus there was the one set of panels were it looked like Mariya was standing inside a giant shoe...
The pacing's a little off, too. We start in the present tense, I guess - not actually sure what year of school they're in, since they've known each other since grade 8 and been best friends since grade 9, but it seems like that friendship is supposed to have lasted multiple years at this point, based on their character designs and the way they interact with each other. There's also some muddying about who knows what when it comes to their friendship, and it's a little hard to keep track of the characters. I'm not sure what happened to Mariya's former best friend, and I have absolutely no idea who Kashu is and why he'd be angrily reading a bunch of mystery novels to get revenge on (presumably) Nachi.
The Kashu question probably gets answered in volume 2, but unless I can find it online to read, it's currently left in a very unsatisfying state...
The last few chapters were pretty interesting, though, and demonstrated more of that thoughtful, emotionally complex storytelling that I'd really liked from Tachibana's other work. Nachi is definitely very weird, but not as robotic as he initially seems; the flashbacks about him deciding to befriend Mariya are a lot more interesting and are developed much better.
I like the flip where we discover that Nachi's borderline controlling behavior about Mariya and his friendship isn't remotely one-sided, and that it's actually Mariya who's pretty solidly in love with him. It's most likely mutual, but there's a whole mess with a girl who liked Nachi and tried to pull him away from Mariya, and it's hard to tell if Nachi liked her or if he was just enjoying having a second friend. (The way she got him to go out with her was by telling him it was all or nothing - he had to date her or she wouldn't talk to him anymore.)
Honestly, both of these guys need more friends, so it's kind of a good development that in the present timeline, a couple of other guys are trying to hang out with both of them, and there's a girl in the library who understands Nachi's relationship with Mariya and likes talking to him still.
One kind of dissatisfying note is how Nachi's interest in Mariya initially came from Mariya telling a girl that his friendship with her boyfriend was much more important to him than the possibility of dating her - since she was willing to break up with her current boyfriend to be with him instead. Nachi clearly saw that as an interesting display of loyalty and wanted to know what that felt like, but in the process he ended up pulling Mariya away from his friend...so is their dynamic healthy? Not really. Interesting, though.
Not the best manga I've read, even if the second half wraps up all the dangling threads, but there's something about it that's weirdly intriguing. Kind of like Nachi, I guess...this is how Mariya fell for him to begin with, right? It's a puzzle you can't quite figure out, and then you suddenly realized you've gotten hooked somewhere along the way.
December 19, 2019
I decided to pick this up after seeing that Venio Tachibana is doing the story of Seven Days: Monday-Sunday. I wanted a feel for their work.
I was kinda confused on who was who or what the plot was but by the time I got to the end, I was hoping there was more. Luckily there is, but not in English and I dont know if/when we will get it for me to read it.
Overall, I like the drawing style the plot was alittle slow but there is nothing wrong with building things up.
I was kinda confused on who was who or what the plot was but by the time I got to the end, I was hoping there was more. Luckily there is, but not in English and I dont know if/when we will get it for me to read it.
Overall, I like the drawing style the plot was alittle slow but there is nothing wrong with building things up.
March 21, 2022
This was an ok read.
June 8, 2022
This manga is going for right under $300 on Amazon I paid about $7 and I just want to say save your money. This manga was so flat.
April 14, 2023
The plot was kinda meh and the characters as well. 🙄
November 15, 2014
3.5 stars
the characters are very real and they make the romantic story flow, especially around friendship and relationships (like rivalry, not the dating kind). side characters, main characters - both are well done and depicted with great depth and emotion. i especially liked how the guy who got close to Mariya (to use his popularity) - i forgot his name - came to like Nachi after spending some time together.
the story is rather predictable, but in a good way, though that relationship with the girl who liked Nachi in middle school was quite a twist. i felt pretty sorry for the way she ended up. usually female characters in BL books (whether manga or novel) are flat, only to be used for familial purposes or to set the main characters up; it might have shown that cliched result, but she was used well and very fleshed out. i appreciate good female characters who aren't easily discarded after a few scenes.
i'm not a big fan of the art, and that's the only downside for me. Gilcai's review (on amazon) is spot on. remember this volume is about budding feelings and friendship, not romance yet.
the characters are very real and they make the romantic story flow, especially around friendship and relationships (like rivalry, not the dating kind). side characters, main characters - both are well done and depicted with great depth and emotion. i especially liked how the guy who got close to Mariya (to use his popularity) - i forgot his name - came to like Nachi after spending some time together.
the story is rather predictable, but in a good way, though that relationship with the girl who liked Nachi in middle school was quite a twist. i felt pretty sorry for the way she ended up. usually female characters in BL books (whether manga or novel) are flat, only to be used for familial purposes or to set the main characters up; it might have shown that cliched result, but she was used well and very fleshed out. i appreciate good female characters who aren't easily discarded after a few scenes.
i'm not a big fan of the art, and that's the only downside for me. Gilcai's review (on amazon) is spot on. remember this volume is about budding feelings and friendship, not romance yet.
July 28, 2017
this is actually really cute, full of feelings, and characters who resemble real people? score another one for 2015, i am on a book ROLL here
so basically you've got these two boys: mariya and natsume who are friends and a little oddly possessive of each other
everything is confused feelings and friendship, it is super great
also there's a girl and she's important which ngl, was basically the entire reason i even tried reading this. i am very pro yaoi that treats girls as people, i am like 1000% more on board with m/m ships when they don't come bundled with narrative sexism
4 stars
so basically you've got these two boys: mariya and natsume who are friends and a little oddly possessive of each other
everything is confused feelings and friendship, it is super great
also there's a girl and she's important which ngl, was basically the entire reason i even tried reading this. i am very pro yaoi that treats girls as people, i am like 1000% more on board with m/m ships when they don't come bundled with narrative sexism
4 stars
November 29, 2014
Okay, there is supposed to be a sequel to this and I need it, because it leaves it open for it. I really liked seeing the characters become friends. The art is nice and light and while it may seem like a typical school story, it's not. The characters have their insecurities and idiosyncrasies that most do not in this genre. I liked how straightforward Nachi was. Reading it I got the feeling that he was on the spectrum because he is so unaware of social cues, but I'm not sure. Interesting! I hope they release the next volume or I'll have to really study my Japanese again and just order it.
June 19, 2015
Iffy black content
It's not a bad read at all, however I was hoping for a more romantic story and events. The characters didn't have the strong emotional tether between each other. But of course that's just one option among others. Worth checking out, maybe not for $10 though :/
It's not a bad read at all, however I was hoping for a more romantic story and events. The characters didn't have the strong emotional tether between each other. But of course that's just one option among others. Worth checking out, maybe not for $10 though :/
March 17, 2015
Cute, but I wish I'd realized there was a sequel before I picked this up since this volume was about their friendship and contained ZERO kissing. Boo.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews