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First of all, this manga is definitively not for everyone. It handles some really dark subject matters and shows a lot of abuse and trauma. That said, I really love this manga and I know that it probably doesn't deserve a 10 if you're trying to be "objective" since it has quite a few flaws, but it's also absolutely amazing in other ways. Beware for anyone reading further, there will be some minor spoilers.

So first, the good stuff.

What I love about this manga and why I rated it so highly, is how it portrays the internal struggles of our 3 protagonists. There's just something ... about the way she presents their internal struggles that really gets to me. From Marikas childlike obsession about being a princess and desire to be "pure" enough to deserve to be a "real" girl while dealing with her dysphoria and budding sexuality and male puberty, to the darkness you can feel dripping from every scene in and around Tamuras mind, as he struggles to come to term with the fact that he was raped as a child, and having to watch him continue the cycle of abuse, to the imaginary dialogues Ryuosuke has with his dead sister and all the creepy scenes with his mother.

The manga does a really good job of getting you into the headspaces of these three, and for most of it it's not particularly pleasant. The story deals with some really heavy subjects like rape, molestation, transphobia and parental neglect. One scene in particular comes to mind, where one character molests another character. The scene is beautiful rendered and presented in an almost poetic way while also being absolutely horrifying, while simultaneously portraying the headspace of the person doing the molesting, showing just how broken they've been left by previous trauma. It's like watching a beautiful train crash in slow motion, super disturbing, you can see it coming and yet you can't look away. As I said, it's a very dark manga. I remember hearing someone describing reading it feeling "as a bad fever dream but I remember it had a happy ending" which pretty much sums it up. The three main characters start of in a very bad place and watching them grow and get out of with the help of each other and their friends is where most of the enjoyment comes from. You'll have to decide for yourself if that is something you're interested in.

Now to the less good stuff.

My biggest problem is probably that it felt to me like it lost some of it's steam somewhere after the halfway point. The first few chapters I would wholeheartedly score 10/10 but as the story goes on it starts to feel somewhat convoluted and confusing, especially after most of their troubles are over towards the ending. Don't get me wrong, there are some great scenes towards the ending but it started to feel a bit like the plot was just jumping around from scene to scene with no clear thread between them. It also did not help that the last chapter had a timeskip that was not clearly telegraphed which confused me a lot the first time I read it. It's not a super big problem, but it is something that makes me feel a bit bad about giving it a 10/10.

While I loved Marika and thinks that overall she was handled really well(Seriously if you're a trans woman and wants to read a dark manga with a happy ending, drop everything and read this now), she does feel a bit like the stereotypical perfect trans girl, super feminine, known since a young age, everyone comments on how cute and feminine she is all the time etc etc. Once again, it's not a big problem but it does feel a bit out of place as a trans woman, because I'm pretty sure none of us are that "perfectly trans" and she would probably have felt a bit more realistic if she was a bit more "flawed" in that sense.

There's also a really weird scene in chapter 40 that completely clashes with her character growth and basically puts her further back than she was in chapter 1. It felt like it was just put in as a joke and it's not that important so I just ignore it but it still felt weird and out of place. Some of her friends are also implied to have some gender stuff to deal with themselves, but it's just suddenly dropped and never mentioned again.

Now having said that, that's about it for my problems with the series. I really enjoyed it, and it has stuck with me in a way no other manga has which is why I'm giving it 10/10 despite it's flaws. There's just something about how it puts you in the heads of these deeply broken characters and lets you see all their insecurities, doubts and pain and watching them grow and get out of it and get to a better place that really stuck with me. I know it's not for everyone, but if what I've described sounds interesting to you, then it's 100% worth the read.