Koimonogatari
Koimonogatari: Love Stories

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Koimonogatari focuses on the difficulties of adolescent homosexuality. Yoshinaga Yomato is an ordinary boy, he’s naturally athletic, considerate, and sometimes quiet. While talking to one of his female friends, Yoshinaga mentions that girls simply don’t make his heart beat faster, and classmate Hasegawa Yuiji happens to accidentally hear. At first, Hasegawa finds himself uncomfortable with the news. However, as he begins to observe Yoshinaga, he finds himself unable to hate the boy who has such pure intentions.

As a manga with emphasis on reality over fiction, Koimonogatari relies on the two major perspectives consisting of: the protagonist (Yoshinaga) and the observer (Hasegawa). Readers will most ... likely relate to Hasegawa, who at first struggles to understand and accept Yoshinaga, but then begins to empathize with him, and even wish for his happiness. Hasegawa is open-minded, but that doesn’t mean his isn’t initially uncomfortable with the idea of Yoshinaga having a crush on his male best friend.

The success of the manga comes from the narration and plot, there’s attention towards real-life problems rather than unnecessary drama. Yoshinaga struggles with coming out to his friends, knowing that it is a risky thing to do, but if he doesn’t, he feels he is hiding a terrible secret. It’s exceptionally difficult to pretend you are happy when you are not, and as people begin to observe Yoshinaga they conclude something is “fake” or off about him. He tries to be stoic, and generally succeeds, but some of this classmates manage to see through this façade.

The art is beautiful and appealing, I'm sure most people will be pleased with the character designs and expressions. Expressions are not over-exaggerated, they're perfectly fitting and appropriate.

I recommend the manga to anyone who is a fan of reading LGBT works. There is some romance, but the focus is on the struggle of being gay, when being gay comes with negative connotations. Let’s call it a Slice of Life with an actual intensive, involving plot?

I have to say this manga is like none I have read so far. And it's really, really good in my opinion.

The setting might seem typical shounen ai at a first glance - high school boys dealing with their feelings for each other - but it is not. There are two main characters with alternating point of views: one struggling to understand his sexual orientation and to find a way to be genuine both towards his friends and towards himself, the other that discovers his classmate's secret and slowly observes and comes to understand and appreciate him.

There are no clichés here, it's truly an original ... slice of life manga, focused on self-discovery and growth. I must confess I have no idea in which direction things will go, if it will finally be focused on an adolescent's rite of passage towards adulthood and emotional and sexual self-awareness, if it will be about friendship or it it will shift more towards romance. With the six chapters I have read so far all these possibilities are still wide open and that's all the more exciting.

The characters are all interesting and have depth. There is a lot of dialogue and I believe the author tries her best to treat the subject seriously and to project the character's inner feelings onto the reader, mainly through conversations. The art work is good, a hell of an improvement from some of the author's earlier mangas, so kudos to her in that department.

I myself gave it a 9 because I am extremely picky, but on my global scale of manga a 9 is truly what it's supposed to be: great. I might even go higher depending on how it develops, given that it's still publishing.

I wholeheartedly recommend people who think they might find it interesting to give it a shot. There is another good review for this already, but I felt like leaving my own input just to give people another point of view on it and thus maybe encourage more readers to pick it up, it truly is worth it, it really was a pleasant discovery for me.

From a narrative perspective: the story is simple and sincere, the characters are relatable and play well off each other, it's a slow paced character-study so don't go in expecting a ton of action (though there is some.) Also the art is pretty and really suits the characters/tone.

This is one of the few shounen ai stories I've read that actually explored what it was like to just be gay. There's a lot about relationships between guys, and some of them do seriously tackle the reality of being gay, but rarely have I ever identified with a character and their world as in this.

It's realistic ... and straight forward, but it isn't harsh or pessimistic. Seeing the characters grow and take care of one another is honestly heart warming, and for someone who's experienced anything similar, it feels almost comforting.

This manga is weirdly good. I initially thought it would be a quick “MC gets with the hot guy” situation, but no I was completely wrong. Koimonogatari is a slow-burn story of acceptance, friendship and romance, and does all three very well. I rarely give such high scores to manga, but I binged it in one day and immediately reread it, wanting more. However short the manga is, however little chapters are out now, somehow the story stays with you. I really love the wholesome friendship between the characters, but I also love the little moments of fluff or bait the manga throws us. It’s ... a really cute manga.

Some thoughts and nitpicks: the art really changes to a more appealing mainstream style when it changes from the tankoubon to the magazine serialisation, in a good way I guess. Along with the art, the manga is slowly inching towards a typical shoujo/shounen ai towards the end, incorporating some minor tropes (which personally I like, but its up to you).

I like this manga so much I placed it in my favourites after reading it, even though there’s only 21 chapters out… that’s how much it spoke to me.

I don't write reviews. In facts, I created this account only to praise this one manga.

This is not your typical BL manga; it's more of a Slice of Life to be honest.
And yet it made me feel a lot more than those fast-paced, sexually connotated BL manga. It felt real. The story unfolded itself naturally.

Now, that would be already good if I only considered the manga style, but I truly believe that this is one of the best depiction I've ever encountered of LGBT representation in literature. I do compare it to Call Me By Your Name and similar titles.

So yeah... that's about ... it.

While checking out manga at my local bookstore, I happened to pick up the two volumes of Koimonogatari on a whim. What proceeded was binge reading one of the most enjoyable BL's I have read.

The manga is atypical of typical BL, it doesn't follow many of the BL tropes but acts in a very realistic way. In a sense, it performs more like a Slice of Life with a focus on homosexual characters. While it is probably a tad optimistic of typical real life experiences, it acts for the most part true of life and the characters are true to themselves and their decisions make ... sense. Honestly, I have not seen such realistic characters and character development for a while in Japanese media.

Another plus is the fantastic art style. Every panel is wonderfully drawn and enjoyable to look at, which is also a plus since many BL can have not so great art. I had a great time looking at all the details and how aesthetic the major panels were. Due to the gaps between each chapter, each chapter can also be fairly long compared to typical manga which for me is a plus, but could be a negative if someone seeks a satisfying conclusion and can't wait months for new chapters. This is especially so with this work since it is very much a slow burn.

Overall, I really enjoyed the work and hope good success for the author, and also possibly an anime adaptation as I think it deserves it.