When one girl gets rejected by her best friend in a dream, she starts to reevaluate her feelings! Is the dream a premonition or a spark to set a romance in motion? Find out in this friends-to-lovers Yuri/Girls' Love romance manga!Tsukushi has always cherished her deep friendship with Hinoka, never imagining it could evolve into anything more. But when a vivid dream leaves her heartbroken by Hinoka's romantic rejection, Tsukushi is forced to confront feelings she never knew she had. Was the dream a warning, a premonition--or a sign of something she's been blind to all along? As her mind spirals with questions and doubts, Tsukushi begins missing the subtle signs of Hinoka's own feelings. Caught in a whirlwind of confusion, Tsukushi must Is this the beginning of something beautiful--or the end of everything she thought she knew?
Despite being best friends since second grade, and completely inseparable, Tsukushi and Hinoka are nothing more than besties. And then Hinoka dumps Tsukushi in a dream, see title, sparking a sexual awakening that implies you really don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Even asleep.
The charm factor of this one is ridiculously high. There’s a certain amount of inherent fun in watching two people desperately figuring out how to win another’s heart when they’ve already won it and then some.
Even the little flashback we get shows that Hinoka and Tsukushi have always been super tight. Still, it soon becomes clear that, while Tsukushi’s eyes are now open, Hinoka’s have been open for much longer. These two have it bad and are struggling to convey it, which proves to be a darn good time.
Part of the fun is definitely that Hinoka is just as awful at this. She’s the shier one, but that just turns into Tsukushi leading her into awkward situations which the latter doesn’t realize are driving the former nuts. These two raise indirect kissing to an art form, with Hinoka’s own lame excuses for doing so just adding to the silliness.
Still, this was just a bit above baseline for me until the cast expanded out by two other girls who are already pretty clearly nuts for one another themselves. The exuberant Sara and the more stoic Yuu provide that little bit extra that took things up a notch.
Not only do they decide to meddle in things, especially Sara, but they’re a great couple on their own terms. Sara’s advice column at the end was a funny addition too. I do think the main couple are the attraction here, but those two really helped.
Without those two, it’s a lot of Tsukushi going a bit too far, though not really, and Hinoka being sullen when Tsukushi catches herself. The mangaka iterates on it enough and the art is solid enough to make it all work either way.
There’s also a clear escalation as things go on, which makes it all the better. I wasn’t sold on the boobs scene, actual lesbians can correct me but I cannot believe that ever happens like that, but as the chapters goes on it all gets a lot warmer and more believably spicy.
I think the best mini-arc involves Tsukushi’s lock screen, which starts out as a little bit of overstepping and thirstiness that Hinoka winds up making incredibly sweet by the time it all works out. This finds a fun balance as it moves forward.
Despite liking a smattering more realism in my yuri, it’s pretty hard to resist watching these two dance around themselves. There’s nothing here that will suddenly make you a genre convert, but it is a very satisfying read that starts okay and gets far better on the way.
3.5 stars - I’m just going to round it up because, while it might be fluff, we don’t tend to get fluff that’s this good. Really fun and I suspect the next volume will be equally enjoyable, if not more so.
As I continue looking into more GL series I saw this one and thought it was cute and sure enough when I opened what I got was cute. Theres a lot of potential here for more but this volume for me was just cute. Not bad not fantastic.
заждіть, але це було справді класно? я була переконана, що, окрім як миленькою та не надто змістовною, я цю манґу до кінця інакше й не назву. втім, дуже скоро — особливо після того, як на горизонті з'явилась сара зі своєю дівчиною — історія заграла для мене новими барвами. мені дуже сподобались і вони самі, і їхні підначування цукуші й хіноки. також шалено милими були всі ті світлинки та ніяковіння. first love/crushes at its finest!
p.s. мене дженьюенлі посмішив той момент після прохання хіноки запитувати, перш ніж торкатись
actual rating: 3.75 — okay!!! that was cute! i definitely see the appeal of this series, it's very fluffy so far. super lighthearted and not too serious or plot heavy, just character development and vibes more than anything else. both of them are really sweet and i like their developing relationship! also like the two background characters/friends that we were introduced to :) the exploration of sexuality and understanding your identity felt appropriately pg-13 and not too weird or anything (given the 13+ target age demographic). i will probably be continuing at some point!
More of a 3.5 star rating; The premise of the story had me genuinely worried but my worries were almost immediately dismissed by the end of the first chapter. Both Hinoka and Tsukushi are adorable, separately and their actual dynamic, and both make it difficult to not root for them. Their friends are seem like likable side characters and from what was shown so far, I’m curious about those 2 as well. Overall, this was a nice and amusing start to what seems like a very cute series.
Just two days ago I was writing about how good creator Hijiki's omegaverse series Hate Me, But Let Me Stay, so imagine my delight when I realized that Seven Seas was translating another one of their works! This one isn't quite as poignant as the other, but it's still a delight as our two heroines stumble and misunderstand their way to love.
An absolutely adorable, fun read. The side characters have immediately been established with their sharp personalities and I absolutely love how they immediately caught onto the main girlies feelings towards each other (not that its that hard haha, even a blind woman could figure out the tension between them) A very enjoyable read