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To start, I have mixed feelings recommending this...it is an amazing manga (I did give it a 10) but the subject matter is NOT something everyone should put into their heads....it's as disturbing as a story can get. DO NOT READ if you think the dog part of Full Metal Alchemist is the most disturbing thing you've ever seen....this isn't for your innocent mind. With that said....

In the Gardens of Gehenna hits you in the forehead with a sledgehammer made of true, disturbing horror. Yes, disturbing, not spooky movie scary, not slasher in the woods...this is child slaves in Africa kind of disturbing. ... This makes you feel filthy in your heart and mind....yet, it has a permeating silver lining, a small chunk of happiness. There really isn't much out there like this manga.

So, who do I recommend this story to? Did you read Kitanai Kimi ga Ichiban Kawaii (I Love Your Cruddy) and want more trauma like it (do know, Gardens makes I Love Your Cruddy look like a Saturday morning kids cartoon)? Are you truly able to stomach the worst things humanity has to offer with a shrug? OR do you just like abusing your mind? THAT is who should read this. There is no innocence to be found here. There is no immediate happiness beyond shallow situational peace....just the horror of knowing what's going on and the ever shrinking hope that things will end better. So, if you're screwed up like me, read this, it's superb...if you had to stop even once and ask yourself, "Am I too normie for this manga?" yes, you are and find something else to read.

NOTE: While I won't be spoiling any plot points at all I feel like the nature of the ending needs discussing to accurately review this manga.

I REALLY wanted to like this. The art is pretty decent, the characters have a bit of depth to them, and I let out a chuckle or two here and there....and the main couple are so freaking adorable together!....but the mangaka dropped the ball and scored on his own goal. You know the infamous Girl's Love/Yuri non-confession confession endings, the "We'll be roommates forever!" type endings....yeah, they did that here. In this manga's context it's meant to be a confession ... but it falls so flat and feels hollow....it REALLY needed an "I Love You". Instead we got an ending forced into 2-3 chapters (out of 30.5)...it's a heart breaker that it ended with such a miss. Could have been a solid 8, but I gave it a 5 because of the good points I mentioned above (plus a sick beach "arc") but I can see a 4 - 7 depending on how the ending sits with you...now I need to go find a quality confession.

I'm here writing this review as a contrast to the two here already (good reviews btw, you should read them). They've captured what I think is the main takeaway of the story rather well. It's fluffy Girl Love....simple as that. What makes me write to you on this night is where I disagree. YES, the last 4 chapters REALLY needed to be 8-10 more and it feels kind of jarring....but you know what? It really wasn't all that bad...if you read a lot of manga you're used to the final chapter time jump (usually the same that happens here, high school to 1st college year). ... As for the story losing the script from Ch15+....it really doesn't. It DOES add something that really did need more time to cook to have a real impact but it was fine...it didn't ruin the story but added a bit of a downer, the thought of what could have been. All in all it was exactly what you could ask for in a fluffy girl love manga, sweetness, longing, a bit of low impact drama...it was a nice read.

THIS, right here, is fantastic. I've never wanted more of a one (two) shot in my life. The art is next level good! Like, for real, it's pure eye candy. The character designs are up there with the best, especially Rio (a 10/10 gyaru knockout...imo, Top 5 gyarus ever drawn). The premise is nothing new, childhood friend leaves then returns smoking hot and clearly feeling things for the male MC...it's the delivery that makes this premise something special. What makes this so fantastic, not only is Rio a gorgeous gyaru but she has some tomboy tendencies to her. This is one I will keep an ... eye on forever in hopes of it getting serialized....it's that good. If it get's picked back up I believe it has the potential for greatness (at least in the gyaru genre).

As of now there's only one other review for this and as someone that has the opposite opinion of theirs I wanted to leave a quick review to juxtapose theirs (NOTE: By doing this I am not attempting to invalidate/argue their opinion, I actually understand why they feel the way they do and it's valid....also it's a well written review!).

I Won't Choose Her When the World's End does a lot in it's 17 chapters. You get a fun adventure arc, you get a survival arc, you get yandere comedy, just enough back story to make the characters feel like they existed before page 1....and you ... get romance. That's a lot to accomplish in 17 chapters and it does it well. Sure, you're not gonna get the depth you'd get in a 100+ chapter manga, grand journeys with amazing character story reveals and intense action but this somehow makes you care in spite of that. The pages are well drawn, the translation (English) is solid, and the character interactions are fun. It begins, it pulls you in, and then it DEFINITELY ends. What more can you ask for in an extended lunch break length read?

Flipside: Does it feel rushed? Yeah, this really did have the potential to double it's chapter length without getting stale...which is a bummer, I would have loved to have read that. Do I wish I knew more about the characters? Yes (especially Kunohama, it must have been wild considering all she can do and the quick hint of where she learned it)....but, wanting more means I was happy with it. Wanting more should be a sign of quality not a detriment.

So, should you read it? Will it feel like a waste of time? You absolutely should read it. Perhaps you won't like it as much as me, and that's awesome you get to have a different experience with the story, BUT I highly doubt you will walk away feeling like it was bad.

*Angry Spoilers Ahead*

TL;DR Not Recommended for folks looking for a Yuri/GL romance

Two words sum up my feelings nicely: That's Bait. It's bait in the worst possible way. It's bait so hard it actually hurts. I actually had to go back and skim the last 3 chapters thinking I missed the confession...I didn't, and that sucks because everything about this screamed "more than friends" but nope, they're just friends. There is GL to be found here but it's found in a side character...and that hurts too. In spite of that this isn't bad, the art is fun, the characters are enjoyable (for the most part as ... Aizawa is borderline insufferable in parts, almost dropped this because she just sucks BUT Hana is fantastic and kept me reading)......BUT looking back, now knowing it's bait, I never would have read it to begin with as it's not my kind of story. So, I have to label this Not Recommended for yuri/GL enjoyers BUT if you like a sweet story about two girls becoming really good friends then I would recommend it because they really do form a nice friendship. May the author's next bowl of noodles get soggy.

*SPOILER FREE*

This oneshot is great for fans of horror anthology shows like Tales From the Crypt and The Twilight Zone. It tells a full story in it's short 41 pages, and ooooo boy is it a story. I can't get into too many details as anything I say would be a bit of a spoiler, BUT I feel it needs to be said that there's yandere shenanigans afoot in this story. It starts with a jaw dropper of an incident, it ends with jaw dropper of a twist, and in between is a solid road between the two. For a 10 minute read with pretty ... good art, a fun yet twisted story, and good amount of impact it's a no brainer to recommend this! It's no masterpiece but it truly is one of the better oneshots of it's kind (horror) I've ever read! 8/10 story but I recommend it as if it were a 10/10 50+ chapter manga.

Kareshi ni Donbiki saretai Minamoto-san (or as it should be called: How to Utterly Defeat a Yandere With Love) may only be a twenty-two page one-shot but it's a fantastic twenty two pages. Riri is an absolute treasure and I want to find a woman like her in my age demographic...she's sweet, funny, unstable, and honestly, packs a ton of personality (more than some characters in long manga). As you can imagine you don't get a whole lot of back story or character development in this story, but honestly, it's not really missed as this is written as a "day in the life" quick shot. ... I will warn folks sensitive to self harm there are two jokes that involve these topics but it's NOT portrayed in an overly dark way...just like the rest of the manga, it's actually very lighthearted and fluffy. I can't think of a better way to pass twenty minutes reading. The only fault I can find with this is I wish we'd have gotten eight to twelve chapters of this (any less would be too short but any more and it may get stale). Totally recommend passing a short wait on a bus, train, waiting room reading this!

I guess the best way to start this is to just say it how it is: This was a mess. It had a total lack of focus. It could be a "me issue" but man, this thing never made sense, nor did it even attempt to make any sense. Things would happen but not be shown then treated like they happened clearly....an example, a character hurts a friend and right before the "hurtful thing" happens it skips ahead, showing nothing to have any context, then goes on about it like you know what wasn't ever shown. That's the entire story too...it never tells you anything ... but expects you to know what's happened. The manga is just a heap of words, shambling on, empty and hollow....it wants to make you feel things but fails spectacularly.

The art is also pretty mid...25% is decent, 50% is mid, then the rest of the time it's just....meeeeh.

There isn't really any redeeming qualities to be found here. Read it if you like but I suggest not wasting your time. STRONG 3/10

I was on a yuri binge one day (one lifetime would be more accurate) and saw this manga on some random list. It was very short (25 chapters, 2-5 pages a chapter) and I had an hour or two so I gave it a shot. There is NO girl love/yuri here, just two step-sisters longing to have a bond with their new sibling. It's very sweet. If I had one complaint about the series it'd be the art. There are sooooo many panels where these girls have weird banana shaped faces/look like human-hammerhead shark hybrids...it's real weird man. Still, no matter how off-putting that is, ... it never did stop me from reading this.

It's a solid 7.0. It's definitely not bad but because it's such a compact story there's not a whole lot to it. I recommend it for when you have a short time and a craving for cute!