Tropical Rush!! Vol. 1, (Light-Novel): When I Decided to Study Biology in a Tropical Country

by Ren Saito

Miyuki Kashiwagi is a brilliant but shy university student from Japan who decides to do an unexpected move and pursue her biology studies overseas, following the invitation from a famous marine biology scientist. However, to follow her dreams, she must go to a completely different a Tropical Country on the other side of the world, with a different language, customs, climate, and people…. How she will fare in this extrovert and aggressive country?

212 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 18, 2021

Reviews

[Talia · Rating 5 out of 5]

This amazing story about a Japanese university student travelling to Rio to study and further her career as a scientist made me go on a long emotional rollercoaster. I felt sadness, pain, happiness, joy and became inspired by all the main characters. Miyuki, a humble, introverted, demure, hard-working, intellectual, goal-oriented and approachable young lady worked hard to adapt to not just the major transition of moving into a foreign country, but to also adapt to a whole different culture. Unlike Japanese people, Brazilians tend to be outgoing, extraverted and they like attention. They don't always seek it in the most humble ways, but it was one thing that Miyuki had to fully understand to better her relationships with her peers, including her neurotic, bubbly, gregarious, sensitive, committed, attractive and feminine best friend Maria. Maria had her own mental health issues to sort out throughout the story, and Miyuki was doing her best to always be there to support Maria. Miyuki couldn't always do that and she struggled to lay her down gently. The tremendous amount of responsibilities that Miyuki had made her feel overwhelmed and stressed, which from time to time impacted her beautiful friendship with Maria. Despite the ups and downs Miyuki experienced in the story, Miyuki never gave up and did all she could to be both academically and socially successful.

Miyuki, Maria and I relate to each other in many different ways: we are both sensitive, wanting to do better in life, we've been through hardships that were worth overcoming, we've had friendship/relationship dilemmas and we share similar personality traits. I'm an ambivert which means I share characters of both an introvert and an extravert. Just like Maria, I can be super friendly and not be afraid to speak my mind, even though one might be reticent and quiet. On the other hand, I can also be withdrawn and submissive. Because of the introverted and reserved side to me, I can also grapple with speaking my mind and I sometimes run away from the problems I have with peers. That being said, being an ambivert doesn't prevent me from chasing my dreams and being a good person.

Tropical Rush by Ren Saito is a perfect book for first-time anime light novel readers. The language isn't too tricky and it's not too simple. The story is not too complex and not too basic. It's give you the right level of challenge, while enabling relaxation and escapism for readers!