I really love this story, each couple is just perfect❤️ but I truly, deeply hate Yuki and Ugetsu, gosh, they were/are such manipulators and egoists... I hope Ugetsu won't piss me off again😒

Overrated. The plot makes completely no scene and mafuyu’s voice is awful

... Last updated on April 22nd, 2022, 2:14am

I only watched the anime & movie… just starting the manga…
Overall, I can say that I really liked this, but I have some issues with Mafuyu’s past relationship…
1st, the reason and method of Yuki’s death wasn’t clear enough. In the first scene, it seemed like he was hanging midair, so I assumed it was suicide by hanging, but later they said he “drank too much alcohol@, so alcohol poisoning?!
In the end, I just made the hypothesis that he got drunk & killed himself. In that case, he must’ve had a pretty serious case of depression… despite his young age & while being in this supposedly “ideal” relationship with his so called “soulmate”…
Here’s my other question: why was Mafuyu the first one to find him?!?
They were in the middle of a fight, & being a student, I assume that Yuki lived with his family, so the most likely reason that Mafuyu found him first is probably that Yuki actually called him over…
Now this is my problem.
If Yuki really called his lover to find his dead body, even while drunk, it couldn’t possibly have been a healthy relationship, but the author romanticizes this relationship to a ridiculous degree!
I might be over sensitive because one of my best friends’ boyfriend actually did something like this recently. Calling/texting your lover over after taking pills… you wouldn’t do that to someone you care about… the feeling of helplessness, the guilt they feel about not having helped & the overall hollowness that remains with them… I’ve watched this from up close and I really don’t think there’s anything to romanticize about a relationship that dealt this much damage to one side’s psyche…

Again, I may be a bit defensive because this is a recent experience that my friend is still struggling with, so a bit of bias is inevitable, however, I do believe that if we get past this extreme romanticization and accept it as a plot device, everything else is quite beautifully expressed, so I definitely do recommend this~

& I’m gonna post another comment after I finish reading the manga~

I always love Gusari works esp oiwa and kurobas dj, when I read her original character manga I was excited. The music is brought to life in the anime, so... I enjoy the anime more. But sensei way of telling stories are what makes it beautiful. And I love her art too.

... Last updated on February 25th, 2021, 3:34am

Seriously. I watched the anime first, then read the manga because I knew it went way past the anime's story. Well... I liked it, it's not like I was disappointed. But the manga didn't have half as much feeling as the anime.
In any case, this series is almost perfect. There are indeed a few things that could've made it better, but it's so properly thought out, so put together, that I can't give it any less than a 10. I'm obsessed with it like I haven't been obsessed with anything for a long time. The characters' growth throughout the series and interpersonal relationships are extraordinary, so are their friendships, and even the side characters. I started off not liking Uenoyama's sister, and by the end of the manga, I completely understood where she was coming from. And the songs in the anime are absolutely perfect and fit the manga immensely.

So here's the things I think could use improvement:
- I still don't understand what exactly happened between Yuki and Mafuyu. We can guess all we want, but it seems like we'll never be told straight up, it'll just be hinted at. There also seems to be some confusion regarding how he died. From my understanding, it was from drinking too much, but I've seen people saying he hung himself. Who knows for sure?
- Same with Akihiko and Ugetsu. I still don't understand what happened with their relationship, why they ended it or why it was so painful. I think it would've been a beautiful angle to take on that I don't think I've ever seen in BL before, how a relationship comes to an end because they want different things despite their feelings still being mutual. I understand Japanese people are very...ethereal, somehow. A lot is implicit, but sometimes it's a bit too much and we need more to be able to fully grasp the concepts.
- Similarly, I don't get how or when Akihiko fell in love with Haruki. He seemed to be hung up on Ugetsu, and then suddenly in love with Haruki, with no explanation given whatsoever. Because of that, I was dissatisfied with the way their issues were resolved. It's like there was this great expectation of when they were going to be together, and then it didn't deliver, they just got together all too quickly, they didn't ease into it, Akihiko didn't develop his feelings slowly, nothing. They just suddenly weren't together, there wasn't even a hint of it, and then they were.
- The "yaoi" part of things. I think maybe Kizu Natsuki is trying to show sex scenes only between 18+ character, because she has no problem including that in the story line with the older couples' relationships, but when it comes to Mafuyu and Uenoyama...we got only two kisses, I'm extremely disappointed. In fact, there is basically no romance whatsoever, other than a few very chaste scenes here and there. While it's refreshing to see a manga that doesn't focus so heavily on sex instead of the relationship itself, they are so detached from each other that it seems like they are just friends, still. I mean, at one point Mafuyu doesn't even HANG OUT with Uenoyama, choosing to spend his free time with Akihiko instead.
- The timing of it all. I love how long Haruki is in love with Akihiko before anything starts to happen between them at all, or how much time passes with Ugetsu and Akihiko not being able to figure out their relationship, or how long it takes for Akihiko and Haruki to finally get together. I love when manga choose to showcase the passage of time because it's a lot more realistic this way, things don't generally happen overnight in real life - if you're into someone, it may be months before anything happens. With that being said, Mafuyu met Uenoyama WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too soon after Yuki died, it was absurd! There was no way he could get over him so quickly, it would've taken a least a couple of years. I think it was done this was because they wouldn't be in high school anymore if too much time passed, and that was important for the story. Furthermore, Mafuyu and Yuki couldn't have gotten together any younger than that (they were already very young when they had sex), so there was no way around it. But it still seemed rushed, and so did Mafuyu and Uenoyama's relationship altogether. They'd only known each other a couple of months before they started dating, and that felt very unrealistic to me. I think Mafuyu should've carried a lot more guilt before he was able to move on, this process should've taken months.

Now, some of the amazingly good highlights:
- My favorite character, of course! Hiiragi. He's just...I cant, I wanna squeeze him! I loved him since the first time he showed up, and I didn't even know he was eventually going to form the third couple of the manga! I'm sooo happy, but I do hope we get to see more of them - I think it will happen, since the manga's still on going.
- The metaphors. There are the obvious ones, which are pointed out - love being like music, heart strings and such. But I don't think people who don't speak Japanese notice the other ones, and it's such a shame, because it's so well constructed. All the members of "the seasons" have kanji in their names for the seasons, and they explain that, but it doesn't stop there. Yuki means snow, and Fuyu means winter. Mafuyu was winter, Yuki was his snow. But Ritsuka (Uenoyama Ritsuka) means summer. So he melts away all of the coldness inside of Mafuyu's heart. It's a very poetic choice of names.

As for the art, it is indeed beautiful, and even characters who aren't my type look cool and gorgeous. My only problem with it is that sometimes they look so similar that I have a hard time telling the characters apart.

I can't get enough of this series, be it the manga or anime!

I love this manga so much but I can’t read it without almost crying because Yuki really was Mafuyu’s soulmate and it’s so heartbreaking🙁 it’s still really nice to see a story that talks about moving on like that at such a young age but wow.
And even though Mafuyu says he loves Ue now and Ue is also experiencing his first love idk, I just feel like Mafuyu can’t actually get over such a deep love that quickly(hasn’t it been less than a year? And it was only around 6 months when he met Ue? Compared to the 10ish years with Yuki). Their story is so so so so so soooooo deep compared to the other couples in the manga, and I can’t read it without thinking about YUKI AND WISHING HE WERE ALIVE UGH. not fair

But hey, it then became thoughtful character development.
Also, superb art.

it's true. The real tragedy in this series is that Yuki really was Mafuyu's soulmate. But he's gone now. How can you possible recover from that? This manga shows that journey for Mafuyu and also how Uenoyama stumbles into his first love. There is minimal drama so far from this couple, but I appreciate that since this is about how to move on from the ultimate heartbreak. I just read the strawberry swing chapters and GODDAMNIT WHY SENSEI

on the other hand, the other current couple, Akihiko and Haruki, I'm going to keep my eye on how it develops further. STILL side-eyeing the shit out of Akihiko (HOW DARE YOU HURT MY SON YOU BASTARD) and I feel like his arc with the other violin guy isn't quite done yet.

the most recent couple to develop, between Mafuyu's friends, is definitely my current drug and exactly the shit I live for. GIVE ME MORE OF THIS PLEASE.

As much as I like BL genre it's full of extreme melodrama and bizarre plot tropes so I wasn't certain how the story would work out but no regrets. There are many stories that deal with the deal of a LI but few that capture the feeling of loss and moving on from the event as well as Given. I like how there's more than romance though as it's about the band's struggles and achievements.

Art is simple and clean which translated well into the anime which is faithful to the original. Although I'm not that into music but I was moved by the lyrics and unique piece composed by the characters. There's less drama for the main couple vs the side couple which is nice for a change of pace. Some people may dislike the slow pace but it felt realistic and characters didn't spend 20 vol debating if they really liked someone.

I read until chapter 29 far. It’s a cute story indeed but I kinda don’t sympathize with Mafuyu and Ritsuka so far. I like all the other characters a lot tho, especially Kaji and Ugetsu. Maybe the story isn’t anything new or special but what I really enjoy about this is Manga are the jokes that randomly appear. It made me laugh out loud a few times even when I was on the train.