Shiki no Zenjitsu
The Wedding Eve

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This manga is very good. I think it might be underrated.
I wouldn't label it as a romance manga. If there is any kind of reference to romance it is only as a trigger to show some other kind of conflict. The manga does deal with love, but not romantic love... rather fraternal love, or family.

Story: 10
It includes 6 unrelated stories (one of them is two chapters long), that vary in length and in depth. Some of them have a more elaborate plot; others are more like a glance to the characters feelings. Some of them have a fantastic components, others don´t. Most of them ... deal with the relationship between siblings (except for the second and the fifth -chapter 6- stories, which don´t).

1) Shiki no Zenjitsu: it is about a man who is getting married. Cannot tell much more without spoiling, as it doesn´t have much of a plot... it is all about emotions.
2) Azusa Nigou de Saikai: tells the story of a girl that can only meet her father once a year.
3) Monochrome no Kyoudai (Monochrome Brothers): it goes about two brothers that were in love with the same woman, and how they dealt with it.
4-5) Yume Miru Kakashi: a man returns to his childhood town for her sister´s marriage.
6) Juugatsu no Hakoniwa: a writer is visited in his dreams by a crow that announces death.
7) Sorekara: a cat analyzes the nature, mood and behavior of his master, and his reaction when he receives a call from his brother in law.

I especially recommend the second, third and fourth stories.

Characters: 8
As they are all short stories, there isn´t much of a character development, but the characters are all very realistic and "imperfect", which is what I like most. I guess, after reading the whole book, the feelings I get from the characters are lonelyness and sorrow. But that doesn´t mean they are all sad characters... just like in real life, sadness and happiness coexist.

Art: 10
It is very good. It is very realistic, and there is some sharpness to it that goes so well with the stories.

In short, I highly recommend reading this book.

I adore short stories like these. Seemingly mundane, daily scenes with a touch of melancholy...and then - a twist. Each of these six stories follows this formula, and most of them succeed in pretty much perfecting it.

Here's my personal rating of each of the stories:

#1 Shiki no Zenjitsu: 8/10 Intimate, unexpected, serene in a very particular way. An emotional opener that fulfills its role perfectly.

#2 Azusa 2-Gou: 10/10. This one tugged on my heartstrings hard, so much brevity and emotion in so few panels. Easily one of the best short stories I've read in a while - both in manga, and in literature.

#3 Monochrome no ... Kyoudai: 9/10. Masterful approach towards reminiscence and a very, very pleasant flow of the dialogue. Touching in a bittersweet way.

#4-5 Yumemiru Kakashi: 8/10 This is the only story that takes up two 'chapters'. Interesting characters and a rather rare (for a manga) setting. However, I feel the story lacked something.

#5 10-gatsu no Hakoniwa: 6.5/10 The least interesting out of the bunch. A bit of a cliched story, and lacked the emotional punch or depth, to be honest. Still a pleasant read.

#6 Sorekara: 7/10 Were it not for giving us a glimpse into how #1 goes on, it would've been a 6/10. However, I feel that using the cat soliloquy paired up with the atmosphere is a very nice closure to this collection.

As far as the art goes, throughout it's rather nice. There ARE some characters that look slightly similar (especially men). However, many mangaka do this anyways. This particular art style is very fitting for the nostalgic mood present in all the stories.

In short: read this. It doesn't take much time, and the intensity of the emotions/stories is easily on par with a lot of long-running series. Great work. 8/10

My score is heavily affected by the subpar work that ShoujoSense made translating this manga.
The translation was bad to the point were I didn't understand most of the dialogue, and I ended up wondering if it was like that in the original japanese, or if the characters are extremely obtuse when they talk, or if I'm just too stupid to understand what I was reading.
I did understand the overall plots of these short stories, though.

This is a quick read that shouldn't take more than 20 minutes.
None of the little stories are particularly interesting, impactful or eye catching. You probably won't ... remember them for very long after finishing reading this. Some of the concepts, though, are very interesting, even if they're very simple.

The art is (probably) the most positive aspect of this work, simple drawings and a nice-to-look-at artstyle that has an all around ethereal feeling to it.

If you're able to read japanese, or you find a better translation, then your score will probably be higher than mine. If you do, feel free to send me a link, thank you.