Fragtime

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An amazing manga the translation for which has just been complete the story takes a slightly surreal setting and makes it feel so human. A Shoujo Ai love story that is ever so slightly lude. Its short with just 17 chapters and one untranslated prequel chapter. The story has ups and downs but it in no way detracts from the over all experience instead it enhances it making it all the more real at a very slow pace the story might take you 2 1/2 hours but the chapters are short and you could easily complete it in a hour. the story has quite a ... vivid look at being an introvert and what it means for people as well as conforming to social pressures. its a light yuri with a great story not to be missed.

"For me lately, what I find fun is stopping time and observing other people"
- Moritani Misuzu

Misuzu and Haruka begin their strange relationship when Misuzu discovers that Haruka is immune to her time-stopping ability. The story revolves around the requests that Haruka makes and the effect of those requests. Some turn out harmless, others not so much. The story is easy to follow and mostly lighthearted in its approach.

The art is simple and clean. No confusing a character for another here, even though the style is simple.

Misuzu is what society calls an introvert and loner whereas Haruka is an social butterfly and class idol. The ... characters don't stay like that, they develop more. Some actions which seem to strengthen their image actually have something more to them. When the two of them interact, Haruka is usually teasing Misuzu, much to her embarrassment. They have a nice bond by the end of the manga and you can see how they influenced each other to change.

This yuri manga is great. There are plenty of funny moments and relationship-building moments. Before I knew it, I finished the whole thing.

Just try it, I'm sure you won't regret it.

With an upcoming adaptation, I'd thought I read, and ultimately review this short Shoujo Ai (Girls love) manga. What greatly differentiates this series from others of its genre is its sci-fi premise. The protagonist is overtly shy and through her sheer will of panicking under pressure has conjured up the ability to stop time. The catch is she only has three minutes out of a day to utilize it. This is her alone time where she is allowed to roam freely with no anxiety. She exploits her power by looking under the skirt of Haruka, the most popular girl in class and is shocked to ... find out that Haruka is the only person who isn't affected by her power. As awkward as their first encounter was, they begin to share this secluded time together.

Story:
With only two volumes, the mangaka doesn't waste time to get to the root of its story. The relationship in this series is a familiar trope you might've seen before: a shy girl starting a relationship with the popular girl in school. The dynamic between the two is cute, but even with its short length, the main character's insecurities of whether or not the popular girl is actually in love with her gets tiring and played out.

Despite it's sci-fi premise, it doesn't have any further features that compliment the genre, in fact there's even plot holes in the science itself. If you pause time, you would have to move back into position in order to not cause a scene yet despite this, the main character bolts mid conversation multiple times and somehow is never questioned by other characters. This might seem like a nitpick, but I should be upfront with the "sci-fi" tag so that if you're one of the few extremely interested that this shoujo ai series has a sci-fi twist, just know that it stops there.

Art:
I consider the art to be the biggest detriment to this series. The reason why I think it'll likely affect your enjoyment is because I'd imagine people looking for a shoujo ai manga have high expectations for an appealing art style and memorable character designs. The art style isn't bad by any means, but it doesn't do anything to set itself apart, or even enhance any of the girls features. Every girl character in here looks practically the same, and they can easily fit in with the background characters of other series. The art is simple, and the paneling can be awkward at times with me sometimes not noticing that the main character stopped time. Manga is essentially pictures. It looks frozen by default; if you don't draw anything that signifies something went motionless, the reader won't follow.

Conclusion:
It was fairly enjoyable. It starts off exciting and the story continues to introduce conflicts and gives a bit of room for the characters to have more depth in the end. Ultimately the two characters are cute, and their relationship is pretty wholesome. I would recommend this if you're into Shoujo Ai and want a quick read, but this wouldn't be my first recommendation for someone looking to get into the genre as the characters and art style leave a lot to be desired.

Here's my take after reading 18 chapters of the time-stopping shoujo love of Fragtime by Sato.

Fragtime is the story of the shy and reserved Misuzu Moritani and her ability to stop a "fragment" of time once per day. This is the only time that she can be true to herself and fulfill her fantasies and escape problematic confrontations. Everything had changed when Haruka Murakami the model student of her class noticed Misuzu's time stopping in the most uncanny way.

The story for me didn't have too much impact although I gave it a pretty good score due to the fact that the story is ... light and true to the feelings of the characters.

The art is clean and light and matches the zest of the story. Misuzu and Haruka's characters may look like two sides of the same coin, but after reading it till the end reveals that they aren't which makes it really interesting and touching till the end.

I believe that one way or another, as a reader, you can relate to these two lovers.

And with that said, I would give fragtime 8 grains of hourglass sand out of 10.

Probably the best shoujo ai manga out there, Fragtime tells the story of two lovers who stop time together to escape reality and deepen their relationship. For anyone who isn't a yuri/shoujo ai fan, dont feel offput by this as the storyline and unique characters will make up for it. This is a good read for everyone regardless their preferences in manga.

Story: 9
With the ability to stop time, theres a lot of potential for needless fanservice and moeblob panel fillups, however Sato stuck to what was important and kept the story intriguing, while still allowing a few cute scenes. My only problem with the storyline ... is the overall length of it, I felt as though more could be expanded upon in certain areas

Art: 8
The art doesn't stand out too much here, but it's still smoothly laid out and appealing to the eye, perhaps some larger more detailed artwork would have been better

Characters: 10
The girls you get to know within Fragtime have fluent and realistic personalities while remaining unique in their own ways. I personally was able to relate to Moritani, and I think with a widespread set of character personalities others will be able to relate with the other characters too :)

Enjoyment: 10
Fragtime will stand out for me as one of the most enjoyable manga I've read, everything from start to finish was an emotional rollercoaster that leaves the reader satisfied yet wanting more. This kind of enjoyable atmosphere is what a Mangaka should strive to create!

All in all, Fragtime is a beautifully done quick read that deserves more attention from the wider community. If ever a translated paperback is sold, I want it x3

A really interesting story with nicely done character to go along with it. Even thought it has an unrealistic thing such as the power to stop time. The rest of the story is pretty grounded in reality with how characters react and talk too each other.

While i do enjoy the story i'd say i have two problems with it that come towards near the end of it
~~SPOILERS~~
: Near the end the time power thing stops while the two MC's are messing around in front of the classroom. While i don't like this to begin with. It's made worse when one of the MC's ... just goes out and tells the entire class she has been stopping time and invading peoples privacy. Not only would no one believe that but they would also be made fun of cause of this confession. I feel it could have been done better with the two MC's finding out the power is gone so they aren't humiliated in front of the entire class and also have the MC not reveal that she had power to stop time.

: My other issue could be called a gripe i guess. But while i do understand that it isn't needed anymore. I do kind of wish the MC kept the power to stop time. The relationship between them was only able to start cause of that power and the two of them would have fun pulling antics. I just feel that i could've been better if the MC still kept their power.


~~SPOILERS OVER~~

Over all good story to read with a couple of spots that makes you cringe from how awkward they are.

a menudo la gente le da mucha atención a la obra de este estilo llamada "yagate kimi ni naru" que es la obra que opaca a esta, y no comprendo el por que, si esta es mucho mejor.

mientras en yagate kimi ni naru la protagonista "yuu" no tiene nada de desarrollo y es muy aburrida, moritani es un personaje simple pero con gran importancia y valor simbólico.

y hablando de su novia, en este caso murakami, es un personaje que representa una realidad que muchos viven, el querer que todos te adoren y te vean como una perfección, para no encargarse de uno mismo. ... a menudo probablemente pensaba "¿y que hay de mi?" "¿y yo que quiero para mi vida"?


en cambio, "nanami" la novia de yagakimi, es un personaje que pudo ser igual de bueno, pero al final del día se cago en ella misma, como todo yagate kimi ni naru.


este manga es ESPLENDIDO, y también su adaptación animada es excelente, denle una oportunidad, tiene un valor simbólico y mensajes increíbles, una premisa simple, pero dramática y atrapante.

This will cover both versions

There was a short lived period/phase in my life at the beginning of 2014 where I would read a bunch of yuri manga altogether, Citrus which I dropped, this one that I never finished, Netsuzou Trap, one of the worst, most toxic pieces of shit I’ve read in my life that took me years to finish, and Girl Friends, the only one I loved at the time. It never went completely away though, as I would watch a title from the genre from time to time. So anyways, I wanted to kind of reread and finish this one now, nine years ... later, since now I have a very different criteria than I used to back then.

There isn’t really much plot to talk about besides what’s already given in the premise, a girl stops time when she feels pressured and finds out some other can move alongside her while everyone else remains stopped. This plot device is weird, since it actually happens in its story, yet it’s not meant to be seen as that being literally the case. Stopping time is just a metaphor for the protagonist running away to her own secluded world whenever she has to socialize, which is why it’s never explained how she got that power, even though the reason why she ends up losing them is implied in story.

Anyways once the setup is established, the two girls just fool around in their school, and later on become a couple, while the main character does everything the other girl wants. And that’s when the manga begins to feel weird, as one of the girls is seemingly being used by the other just for her convenience and amusement, something which thankfully would later on be addressed and subverted, actually. And that would lead to an actual confession near the end which was presented in a very corny and nonsensical way, but honestly the whole story is like that.

The real meat here are the main characters which although simplistic at first, have some kind of background stories and internal monologues to explain why they are the way they are, and how necessary it becomes for them to change, as they are both secluded within themselves with a very twisted view of the rest of the world, that’s when they sincere with each other and have their expected confession and learn to show themselves for who they truly are and not run away from the things that bother them. Unfortunately neither their backdrops nor inner thoughts are very big of a deal, and their catharsis made it seem that all they needed was to have someone to love to solve all of their problems, but it was an ok catharsis for both of them, even if they never faced any real consequence for whatever they did prior and thus the conclusion doesn’t feel that impactful.

There isn’t much to say about the art either, it’s just your typical average shoujoish look and presentation.

The anime adaptation tried to cram the whole manga in just an hour and it failed, the visuals remain as equally average, even more so if possible, with an equally very standard directing, and the sound department goes completely unnoticed, except for the ending which the seiyuus sing in unison, it was quite cute.

The main issue with the adaptation is that it shortened both all of their interactions and their backdrops and even their inner monologues, thus you don’t get to see much of the girls together nor understand what troubles each one of them, something easy to notice even if you are an anime only, which prevents the conclusion from feeling genuine. It tried to incorporate its own things by having them question themselves a little about dreams and time in an attempt to seem deeper, but no added line really says anything meaningful, and those dialogues are very short anyways. There’s also an original scene where the protagonist blushes for having a typical anime “indirect kiss” with a random girl, and really, what was the point in adding that? At least it changed the confession scene by changing two things which I found an improvement, the first was not having anybody else when that happens, whereas the whole school was present in the manga, adding to the cheesiness, and the other was cutting off the line of a friend of the love interest, since that girl badmouthed her at a previous point and thus it didn’t make any sense for her to encourage her friend at the end.

In conclusion, a perfectly average quick read with barely any plot which in turn feels unimportant and quite nonsensical and corny, but there is at least enough character immersion and a good albeit simplistic message in it. The anime movie stripped the first thing away from the plot, thus it prevented it from carry the second with the same strength, which was already not much in the original, thus it’s a poorly made adaptation, despite its minor improvements.

Manga 5/10
Anime 4/10