Kakeochi Girl
Run Away with Me, Girl

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To say that Kakeochi Girl is just a good manga that would be an understatement. Kakeochi Girl is a heart-wrenching experience that will make you cry your eyes out. This is the first time that I felt seen and represented in a manga.
Both protagonists are very relatable and realistic. At first, I thought one of them was just playing with the other's feelings, but then I got to understand how they really feel and what they've been through. The plot is pretty solid and well-written; the characters as well. It felt very realistic to me.
The author addressed some interesting topics in this work, such ... as compulsory heteronormativity and domestic violence, which can be very triggering for some people, but it's important to the story.
The art is stunning and well-made. It was a great manga to read and it BAFFLES me that has such a low rating. But anyway, I love it. This author has great potential and I'm gonna keep an eye on them.

tl;dr short, heartwarming forbidden-yuri romance with mostly realistic story-telling and poignant moral lessons. Big recommends!

On the surface level, Kakeochi Girl is not too shallow, but also not too deep. However, if you put yourself in the shoes of the characters and really internalize how they might feel, it becomes much deeper and much more rewarding.

Makimura "Maki" Momo and Oonishi Midori were high school lovers that never really explored their sexuality until graduation when Midori essentially breaks it off, saying it was fun but it's time to pursue normal lives. The two don't see each other again until a fateful encounter 10 years later. Maki is ... still taking graduate courses while living with her mom and lamenting her loneliness, while Midori is engaged and pregnant and living that perfect, normal life she wanted. It goes without saying that such matters aren't so simple, and that's what the next 15 chapters explore.

Overall, my enjoyment was enhanced as I really related to Midori's feelings about herself and about life, but the story is still objectively solid. Certain things could have played out differently, but I chalk that up more to the characterization. That's my one real knock on this series, that Maki doesn't really get explored much beyond her relationship with Midori, and Tazune, Midori's fiance, is more of a plot device than a character. I'd care less about Tazune if he was the faceless salaryman stereotype, but Battan tries to give him characterization and parts of that just fall totally flat.

Given the length and quality of the story, this is a strong recommend as you can easily knock this out in an afternoon and shed a few tears along the way.

Kakeochi girl might be my favourite manga. rather than just being about a cute romance, it's actually quite dark, talking about abuse and lgbt+ acceptance. The characters are far from perfect, they each have their flaws and strengths. In the end, they act in a very human and emotion-driven way which is comforting somehow. The story doesn't tell the reader that victims of abuse are perfect cute little traumatised people, it doesn't tell anyone to endure hardships juste because the person imposing them has lived through a lot themselves. It just paints a picture of multi-dimentional characters with varying degrees of agency and the way ... they try to better themselves. The kind of lesbian story you know was written by a lesbian <333

Heartbreaking. Because of how intimately each character and their relationships are realized, anyone could read this and feel deeply. This goes beyond the main couple as motives are clearly defined for the supporting cast. We're given flashbacks and moments alone with everyone. Provided to our understanding of the world of Kakeochi Girl are the beautifully nuanced illustrations and pacing. Hesitation through vacant compositions, a contrasting black sky in a dreamlike moment. Much is said without words. Wowowow. And there's that sparkly shoujo flare without the vanity. Midori shines.

This does hit conventions that I've seen in thematically similar works. While there is a unique maturity, Tazune's ... role is too well-equipped to sweeten our main couple's inevitable sneaking around.

while it isn't important, this moment of my life feels comparable to the situation Kakeochi Girl presents. I feel spoken to... and other queer people might too. Maybe it'll be ok.