I’ve enjoyed what I’ve read by her thus far and, in that respect, this is no exception. However, for me, this is her best one to date. It was good to see that Sumiyoshi didn’t just dismiss his careless habits as he pursued Shinomoto, but, instead, recognized that his past behavior would greatly impact the acknowledgement of his efforts and the acceptance of the sincerity of his intentions by Shinomoto. Sumiyoshi was oblivious to everything, including his own motivations, so it was interesting to see how he came to understand and address the circumstances he found himself operating under. And as for Shinomoto, his manner of quietly accepting things, but being far from a pushover, was refreshing and his habit of coming up with “incomprehensible” reasons for pushing Sumiyoshi away was endearing. I think the the underlying theme of this story was trust. The way the characters express their trust or attempt to gain trust didn’t follow the usual patterns and that made it an even more enjoyable read. Although, it was kind of sad–in a good way–that until the end, they both had concerns of the other leaving them or no longer loving them.
Masao’s style has changed ever so slightly and at moments resembles Honami Yukine, but as I said, it’s slight. She even changed the way she draws her eyes. This is slight as well, but more apparent to me since I’ve always liked that about her character designs. They are less cat-like and no longer raise up at the corners. Despite that, she still manages to clearly convey all the same expressions. With this volume, I’ve confirmed that she has a thing for meganes.
As with the other titles I’ve read by her, this has a high reread value. I look forward to visiting with this couple again as well as getting my hands on anything else of hers that comes my way.