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#manga reviews
troythecatfish · 5 months
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Here’s my personal Manga Recommendation: Dinosaur Sanctuary by Itaru Kinoshita. ( No Spoilers ). It’s a amazing Slice of Life Story. The characters have a lot of depth and life to them. The Story is rather unique. This Manga has a Ton of Beautiful and Surprisingly Accurate Paleo Art. 9.8/10 Absolutely Recommended to everybody, especially to fans of dinosaurs and prehistory.
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beneaththetangles · 2 days
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It’s a big day for manga, manhwa light novel releases, and we’ve got reviews for you of a number of those hitting shelves today! Romance, slice-of-life, fantasy, and all manner of series crossing these borders are on the docket. Check out our thoughts below!
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The Alchemist Who Survived Now Dreams of a Quiet City Life (Vol. 1) • The Eccentric Doctor of the Moon Flower Kingdom (Vol. 5) • Honey Lemon Soda (Vol. 5) • I Want a Gal Gamer to Praise Me (Vol. 1) • Maiden of the Needle (Light Novel, Vol. 2) • Maiden of the Needle (Manga, Vol. 2) • Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint (Vol. 2) • Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon (Vol. 2) • The Remarried Empress (Vol. 6) • The Uncanny Counter (Vol. 1)
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I'm the Wicked Stepmother, but my Daughter is Too Cute/Not-Sew Wicked Stepmother
Okay. I wrote this review and saved it as a draft but because Tumblr is a garbage dumpster the draft is gone. So, I'll try and write it the same but ugh.
It starts at your typical transported into another's body/reincarnation story. The premise being the MC is now the wicked stepmom of snow white (they call her Blanche, which isn't the worst) and since in the MC's previous life she was a dress designer she's delighted to have a daughter to dress up. So lots of "holy shit I love my new daughter/how do I feel about her dad" found family tropes which I love.
But about 50+ chapters in it changes a little. The MC's original body was slightly overweight, and in her new body she again begins to struggle with her weight (more like just perception of being larger than she is because she's quite normal).
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The setting plays a strong part in this, since women are trophies with value in their appearance only.
Since she was chubby in her previous life she struggles with finding value in herself even though she's a different person. There's an internal struggle as she thinks she isn't worthy of love because of her weight but she slowly begins to see the error of this as her daughter starts to mimic her dieting and worries about weight.
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There's an emotional bit where she realizes that both her and the original body owner died trying to be beautiful/loved. (It's unclear how OG body owner died, but it's the kind of world where a woman might use arsenic to make herself seem more pale).
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I almost cried at work. It really was well done and accurate to my experiences, but if course she realizes her value is more than her figure eventually, though she's still under confident.
There's some bad writing, lots of moments where I was like: yea this is a fantasy romance, real people are better communicators and have higher perception of how their words can have multiple meanings. But for a slow unrealized romance with found family tropes it was better than expected.
7/10 likely to read again. Though there were 108 chapters.
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aliceinmangaland · 5 months
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First Impression: Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten
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Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten is about Sabu, an abandoned kitten who gets picked up by Jin on a rainy winter day. Despite being rescued, Sabu finds everything about Jin to be scary, from his scarred face to his gruff way of talking! Yet behind Jin’s terrifying façade is an animal lover with a heart of gold. Will Sabu be able to adjust to his new life with an ex-Yakuza?
Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten is very fluffy, and I’m not just talking about Sabu’s fur. We get to see the story from Sabu’s perspective and it’s full of humorous misunderstandings on his part (perhaps he is just too young to fully appreciate the joys of ✨gap moe✨). The humor in this manga definitely reminds me of The Way of the Househusband.
Ex-Yakuza & Stray Kitten is a relatively short series at four volumes, so I do plan to finish it in the future. If you enjoy yakuza manga and cute animals, then give this manga a try!
Thank you for taking the time to read this review! I hope you will check out Alice in Mangaland for more manga reviews in the future! Arigato gozaimasu! Thank you!
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tokidokitokyo · 2 years
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Natively - Japanese Book Tracking
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What is Natively?
It's like Goodreads, but for Japanese language learners reading books/manga/etc. in Japanese. You can track books you've read, and mark books that you want to read using Read and Want to Read lists. You can follow other users and select books to browse by level and type. This way you will know before you even pick it up if the book will be suitable for your own level. If you don't know your level, find a book that you've already read and check it's level, then find books with the same level. You can also find suggestions for books that you might never have heard of, and see a book's ratings from other users (and sometimes a review).
Grading Books by Level
When you add books that you have read, you can grade them with a qualitative grading system. You compare two books that you have read at a time and assign them a relative difficulty. The system will then use these ratings from all users to give the book a relative level.
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This is very useful because even as a relative system, you can get a feel for whether or not a book is going to suit your current level. And while there are many manga suggestions to choose from, there are also actual books, as well as light novels and even textbooks.
How I Use Natively
I have been trying to use it to keep track of my reading (like I do with Goodreads) as I have been reading more manga, and then grading the manga I read to help populate the level database on Natively. I also would like to use it to find a novel that suits my level that I can read when I have more time, and write reviews on books I've already read. If you would like you can follow me, and you can also follow your friends who have accounts.
Check it out!
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ice1ettuce · 19 days
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Season 2 of the anime is airing right now!
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atthequillsmercy · 27 days
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Lenni Reviews: "Mr. Villain's Day Off" Vol. 2, by Yuu Morikawa
(Image Source) As The General has more little adventures on his days off, we also get to meet the Rangers, heroes who are in constant battle with the alien forces.  So far, this series is a great palette cleanser in-between the action and horror I’ve been reading lately. I do wonder if this will stay similar to other slice of life manga or have a larger story line going forward. Also, a bit of a…
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trueanimerecap · 2 months
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Weak Boy Becomes The Strongest Assassin Ever After He Joins A Clan With The Strongest Assassin
In this thrilling story, a weak boy named Tatsumi becomes the strongest assassin ever after joining a clan with the strongest assassin. The story focuses on Tatsumi, a young villager who travels to the Capital to raise money for his home only to discover strong corruption in the area. The assassin group known as Night Raid recruits the young man to help them in their fight against the corrupt Empire.
Follow along as he trains, learns new skills, and rises to the top of his clan. Action-packed and full of twists, this is a must-watch for all fans of the assassin genre!
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The Geek Ex-Hitman, volume 1 by Ko-dai
(Warning: Spoilers)
With the popularity of The Way of the Househusband there has come a trickle of “former bad guy now in new cutesy role” protagonists, which is not unwelcome as long as each work brings something new to the reader. The Geek Ex-Hitman appealed to me for two reasons: 1. The serious-looking, tough grown-up man liking things that we assume men like him don’t like, and 2. The perspective of a foreigner obsessed with Japanese culture and living in Japan.
The comedy is pretty good, the main character former Italian assassin, Marco is usually calm and confident with life but amusingly giddy and silly when it comes to his hobbies. Also introduced is Viviana, an efficient and serious Italian secret agent with a weakness for Boys Love manga and an overactive imagination whenever two attractive men speak to each other. Then there’s Andre, the antagonist Italian secret agent… who goes from being scarily horrible to being prisoner to Marco and Viviana’s geeky obsessions. The scene where Andre is forced to draw Marco and Viviana’s fan manga because he’s the only one with drawing skills is particularly funny.
The problem is the art. It’s so ugly. Now tastes vary and if some people like this art style good for you. But for me, it’s too ugly, it’s mainly the faces; their angles and proportions are all over the place, it looks less like a stylistic choice and more like bad drawing skills. As much as I want to follow these characters as their story develop I just can’t get over the art, so I’m going to pass on this series.
However I’m not quite done with this genre, The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting by Tsukiya has caught my eye…
Review by Book Hamster
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ram-reads · 1 year
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Blue Flag was the perfect book to end the year on. The manga follows a third year high schooler named Taichi Ichinose. One day he decides to help the shy girl from his class, Futaba Kuze, even though he doesn’t like her because she reminds him of himself. That leads to him finding out she has a crush on the popular guy in school, Toma Mita, who happens to be his childhood best friend that he is no longer close with. After seeing how determined she is, Taichi agrees to help her and as he helps her he starts to fall for her. Unbeknownst to both of them though is that Toma actually has a crush on Taichi and Futaba’s best friend, Masumi Itachi, has a crush on her. I absolutely loved this story. I was invested from beginning to end. All of the characters were so lovable. Taichi was a great protagonist. He’s a little pessimistic, but I like seeing negative people become more positive. Futaba was so adorable. Her eagerness to grow and achieve her goal was inspiring. Toma was a sweetheart. Watching him try so hard to continue to be friends with Taichi, who believes they live in two different worlds, made my heart ache. He has such a good heart for a jock. Masumi was admittedly kind of a jerk, but I still ended up liking her because of how protective she is of Futaba. I hope she’s as prominent in the story as the other three. For someone who doesn’t like love triangles I’m enjoying this one so far. It helps that it’s not obnoxious and that I like all the characters. The way I would prefer it to go is Taichi ending up with Toma (that bus scene!) and Futaba ending up with Masumi (I’m a sucker for protective characters). I would love to see two queer couples be the main relationships in a shoujo manga. I’m gonna keep my expectations low though because I’m sure with Taichi already falling for Futaba they’ll end up together. Both of them are great too, so if they are endgame I won’t be too salty. The art was great. I liked how most of the character designs felt original. After reading a lot of shoujo manga it starts to seem like there are many similarities between the main characters of each, but this manga managed to avoid that. Both Futaba and Taichi were such little cuties. Futaba was often compared to a hamster and it definitely worked. I loved the height difference between them and Toma because he is a giant. I’m glad this was the last book I read in 2021 because it had everything I wanted. I want to read volume 2 right away but only if I can get my hands on a physical copy. Why am I only reading manga that my store doesn’t have volume 2 of? This is the second one this month. Why am I doing this to myself? I definitely plan on snatching it up as soon as it comes in though.
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sixteen-sugars · 5 months
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ashidaka - a review
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If you liked; Kill la Kill (anime), Jungle Juice (webtoon), Neon Genesis Evangelion (anime) You would enjoy this manga. Written by the person who did MADK. But, don't be scared off by that. There is none of the depravity of the fromer found in this gem. Multi-mech-armed people (based on spider species) fight massive mech-centipedes to save the world. It is very wholesome with the main character, Ashidaka being a absolute ray of sunshine. 
The story is simple and straightforward, giving more wiggle room to the beautiful art and linework. The lines are expressive yet precise, with the perfect balance of thickness to spot-black. All of the character designs are unique along with their move/power sets. 
Cons:
Simple Story, not good for re-reading. The plot is a very fast and loose bible re-telling. Side characters get very little screen-time. No female characters in combat roles, and basically none in general. The little romance Ashidaka does have seems forced and a un-needed ad-on. 
Pros:
Wonderful art, drool-worthy mech arms. Honchi. (the things I would do to that man). Easy fun read, you don't have to dig super deep to read, just be there for a fun time. The arm designs for the supporting and main cast are all unique and reflect their characters and allegories well. Isn't too long, about 3-4 hours overall. 
Art: 10/10
Like I said earlier, beautiful amazing etc. Adds to the story without distracting never a bad panel. The spreads are well-composed in such a satisfying way.
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Story: 6/10
Simple, I wanted more from the religious notes and tones throughout the story, could have been elaborated on
Characters: 6.5/10
Not too much development from characters outside of the main 3, the others seem to fall flat towards the end.
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beneaththetangles · 1 month
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Mages and androids, househusbands and detectives, rakugo and alternate dimensions: This week’s offerings run the gamut and cross over boundaries, like high school romance x horror, coming of age x fantasy, and mystery x sci-fi. We’re sure one of these entries will catch your eye! Read our reviews, maybe pick a volume up, and as always, let us know your thoughts on any of these volumes you’ve also read!
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Akane-banashi (Vol. 4) • Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End (Vol. 10) • Heart Gear (Vol. 2) • A School Frozen in Time (Vol. 1) • The Way of the Househusband (Vol. 11) • You Are My Regret (Vol. 1) • Your Forma (Vol. 5) • Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead (Vol. 13)
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Tsukimichi: Moonlit Fantasy
This one's up there for me. We've got a MC who is appropriately afraid of the women who adore him, world building, Kingdom building, OP MC and OP harem, and I especially like that the girls do their own thing alot. Like, they're people with personalities and goals which can sometimes be missing from OP harem fantasies.
It took me DAYS to read this one (and I read at work so 6+ hours a day). The translation was well done, the typesetting got better with more releases. Honestly this is the second time I've read it and I was still enthralled. I might even take the morning off of reading to just digest and honor this work.
It's possible a lot of tropes in other pieces stem off of this, but it never feels too cliche or trope-y. I enjoyed this and want to tell others about it.
8.5/10
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aliceinmangaland · 1 year
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First Impression: Mr. Villain's Day Off
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Mr. Villain's Day Off is about the general of an evil organization whose goal is to annihilate mankind and take the planet for their home world. But even villains want to enjoy their days off in peace.
There really isn’t much to say about Mr. Villain's Day Off. The title perfectly encapsulates the premise of this slice-of-life manga. Each chapter is a brief snapshot of the main character’s day off, which is usually filled with good food and cute pandas.
Despite there being no real plot, there is still an emphasis on the importance of practicing self-care, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and enjoying your days off to the fullest, no matter how mundane they may be.
If you are looking for a wholesome and fluffy manga starring an extraterrestrial villain who enjoys his days off, then Mr. Villain’s Day Off might be worth a try!
Thank you for taking the time to read this review! I hope you will check out Alice in Mangaland for more manga reviews in the future! Arigato gozaimasu! Thank you!
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The Story
The story is about a young priest who meets an immortal vampire who wants to die.
The story is definitely original and very enjoyable. It isn't like the usual vampire stories written nowadays, it is taken very seriously and it keeps the original lore intact and it has very original spins on the vampire lore.
Some people maybe put off by some of the BL undertones of this series, it's very similar to 'The Betrayal Knows My Name', so if you've seen that and don't mind it that much, you will survive this no problem.
The Characters
We have only a few characters, but they have been given a lot of development in just three volumes. The character, Yzak, reminds me of Kaname Kuran from the later chapters of 'Vampire Knight'. So no problems here.
The Art
The art in this is really well done. I have only a couple of complaints. 1, some of the characters look to similar to each other, making it hard to tell who is who in each scene. 2, sometimes, the angles in a scene are a bit off, making it hard to tell what is going on in some scenes.
The Translation
I have never talked about a manga's translation before. I have read the original Japanese version of this manga and the English release is bad! The problems I have with the English version is that they butchered the translation very badly. It's very similar to the Fire Emblem:Fates translation where the changed most of the dialogue to make it more simpler and changed the characters personalities, with some of the dialogue sounding stupid.
Another problem I have with the English release is that the coloured pages in this series are in black and white. It wouldn't bother me usually, but another series (The Demon Prince of Momochi House) which runs in the exact same magazine and is also published by Shojo Beat, has coloured pages! Why doesn't Bloody Mary have coloured pages?
If you can read Japanese (Hiragana and Katakana), I strongly recommend that you buy the Japanese version from yesasia.com. It's much cheaper than getting the Japanese volumes from Amazon.
The only good thing that I can say about the English version is that the English volumes are definitely bigger than the Japanese volumes, but if you actually spill some milk onto the English version (like I did), there will be no dust cover to save it! (Luckily, it was spilt on the Japanese version and after drying the dust cover, it was absolutely fine and the manga volume itself made it out okay.)
Final Thoughts
Overall, this series has quickly become one of my favourites! If you enjoy series like Vampire Knight, The Betrayal Knows My Name and No.6, you will definitely want this series in your collection!
I will definitely continue the series, but I'm not sure I will be following the English releases though. But I will definitely be following the Japanese version!
The Story 5/5 The Characters 5/5 The Art 4/5 English Release 2/5 Japanese Release 5/5
Overall*
Japanese Version 4.5/5 English Version 4/5
*The series is definitely a 4.5/5, but the English release definitely ruins the experience, both in paper quality and translation. It even has the cool, calm and collected Maria saying "Bingo" in the English version! That is the most stupid thing I have read in a translational comparison!
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brainbuffering · 7 months
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Love's In Sight Review
A: Uoyama, T: Nova Skipper, L: Kyla Aiko, E: Jack Carrillo Concordia 
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[ID: English Cover for "Love's In Sight" Vol 1. A teenage girl in a pink sweater vest and skirt school uniform presses herself up against a teenage boy dressed all in black. He has a black emo style haircut that covers one eye, but shows off a large scar across the other. She has wide blue eyes that are not looking directly at the boy. In one hand she holds a cane. Her other hand is feeling his face, a thumb stuck in his open mouth. He looks Incredibly flustered.]
"Love blooms between a tough delinquent boy and a spunky girl with a vision impairment! Morio Kurokawa is the toughest-looking tough guy around. Yukiko Akaza is a self-possessed girl with a vision impairment attending a school for the blind. The whole city fears Morio, but Yukiko sees the real him-he's a soft sweetheart who's just searching for his place in the world! Mori the Black Panther has won over a hundred fights. He's beloved by his goons and feared by the public. But now, he faces his biggest challenge yet when he meets Yukiko...and falls in love at first sight! Can Morio outgrow his delinquent roots and turn over a new leaf for his unexpected love?" 
When I first heard about this book, my immediate thought was that of complete and utter dread. I assumed from the plot summary and the cover image that it was just going to be a series of jokes at the expense of the female protagonist. Because haven't we all seen that before? Disabled people being the butt of all the joke and never the one making them, despite disabled people being some of the funniest folks around? 
But upon finding out via Twitter that the translator, Nova Skipper, had low vision as a child which was partially corrected by surgery, and that the book was inspired by the mangaka’s experience with her father's sight loss, I became more interested. If the translator understood what it was like to be visually impaired, then I could at least rely on some level of authenticity. 
And boy oh boy am I super glad I gave this series a shot! Disclaimer as always, whilst I am physically disabled, I am not Visually Impaired. Or rather, my Visual Impairment comes in the form of double vision that is corrected by medication and only requires I sometimes wear an eye patch/black out lens. Therefore I cannot confidently say whether the series is ableist towards visually impaired people or not, but without a shadow of a doubt it absolutely has its heart in the right place! 
The series takes a real hard look (no pun intended) at the different struggles people with visual impairments and other disabilities face all whilst being genuinely funny and heart-warming. The jokes are never at Yukiko's expense, if anything they're targeted at the able-bodied people around her! And when her visual impairment is used for laughs, it's in a way that feels natural and that she can own. For example, when she bumps into Morio because he is wearing all black and she cannot differentiate between him and a tree, so he runs off to buy fluorescent clothing resulting in an easy to spot boyfriend but a man she doesn't want to be seen dead with. 
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[ ID: Morio and Yukio stand outside a clothes shop. Morio is dressed in a pair of jeans, a long sleeved TShirt, and a mesh vest with a smiley love heart on it. The TShirt is labelled as being orange, the jeans red, and the vest black and day glow yellow. "Spar-KILL" sound effects dot around him. M: "How's this, am I easier to see?" Y: "You're easier to see… but harder to be seen WITH." ]
The series does a wonderful job of explaining what it means to be visually impaired, and the different forms that can take. Uoyama uses her medium superbly to give the reader an excellent idea of just what Yukiko's level of vision is. And whilst the fact that it started out as a Pixiv Comic means that the layouts are rather samey (always just four horizontal panels), it's clear that she chose manga as a means to tell this story for a reason. Even if comics are sadly still an inaccessible format for many visually impaired people…. 
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[ID: Panel 1) A highly satirised image of a public park in black and white where no details can be made out. There are "Vroom" and "tweet tweet sound effects" Y: Here's fine Kurokawa. M: For real? Let me walk you home. Y: I'm familiar with the way back. 
Panel 2) A highly saturated head shot of Morio where none of his facial features can be made out save for a vague outline of his eyes and mouth. M: Well, okay. I wanted to but… 
Panel 3) Same image again. M: What's up Miss Yukiko? Y: …. 
Panel 4) Half body shot of Morio with his hand stretched out. There are even fewer of his facial features visible. There is a "Tap Tap" sound effect to imply that Yukiko is walking away with help of her cane. Y: It's nothing. Bye. M: Huuuuuh? I wanna know! ]
On a personal note, I really related to the complicated relationship between Yukiko and her older sister. The way in which she felt smothered by her constant attention and concerns, whilst also understanding that she does need help with things. Mostly though, Yukiko just wants to live as a teenager who makes their own poor decisions. It can be difficult to get the balance right as a disabled person between getting the help you need and having the independence you crave. Between doing what is sensible, and doing what is fun. For me, that was staying up past midnight to go to convention parties even though I knew it would increase my seizure risk, for Yukiko that's wearing the shiny and pretty high heels her boyfriend buys for her even though they're a major trip hazard. 
The story doesn't just focus on Yukiko's experience of the world though. In volume two, it's clear that the Mangaka instends to show how society's snap judgments and so called "norms" harm everyone. Morio is shown to struggle as a child because of how his grandmother's lack of wealth and poor vision means he wears tattered second hand clothes. In adult life, he's shown to find it nearly impossible to find even a basic job because people make snap judgments about him because of his facial scar, something that is completely beyond his control. In an incredibly touching flashback, we're shown how a queer character is made to feel angry, and vulnerable, simply because he must live in a society that views him and the way he loves as "different" and "other". 
This book isn't just for disabled people, it's for anyone who has ever felt like they've been left out by society or judged prematurely based on things beyond their control. It's about making connections between people, and embracing both our individualities and our similarities. I would say it does an excellent job of showing the importance of understanding solidarity between seemingly different marginalised social groups, and I very much look forward to finding out what happens in volume 3, which should be coming out in the UK sometime soon.
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