Ano Natsu

A quick review for a fast manga! I want to preface this by saying that I really wanted to like the manga and expected I would, because it seemed right up my alley. Sorely mistaken for the most part, albeit easy to read (with some eye rolling).

The setting itself is not a unique idea, but it was still interesting to find out about the mystery of a group of friends being thrown 10 years into the past, but ultimately, it is not handled properly. We are given false hints by purposefully hiding important information, because the key answer to everything was obvious but it just did not fit without the manga finally revealing the events. From that moment on, it starts spiraling out of control, which is understandable to some extent, because humans make mistakes and stacking them all together makes a mess. But that is the thing with this manga, the mistakes and lies those children did and said were not really even that important and while the actions of a certain individual are comparable to the story, the rest are really too much.

Unfortunately, the characters were not the saving grace either. They start off normally, but most of them start acting so… nonsensically, to put it kindly. For some crazy reason (which is not that crazy I suppose, since this is a shoujo), EVERYTHING must revolve around romance. EVERYTHING. Which in turn makes everyone act like an imbecile with the main female being the most cliché archetype of goody-two-shoes, who everyone wants and she just can’t hurt anyone, but she’s always oh-so-helpful, etc. The main trio of protagonists were kind of barf-inducing after a while. The rest is… interesting, to say the least.

All in all, I find the concept cool, but the main characters just destroyed any potential it had and it tried too much to be this soul-cleansing work with ill-timed comedy. The art is good, above average, but nothing memorable, just like everyone else. Just don’t expect anything good and it’ll be a breeze to read.

A group of friends are reunited at their high school reunion, and are transported back in time to relive their high school days.

The first half was strong for feeling mysterious for why they had been transported back in time, and also a secondary mystery of who is sending them threatening texts. It's also strong for having adults that very much behave like adults even if they are in teenage bodies, and for the characters all having realistically conflicting motivations.

Unfortunately, the story feels much weaker once the mystery is revealed, and as a result the story evolves into a character drama. I feel like it also plays hard into the Japanese culture surrounding regret and grudges, which doesn't entirely not apply to other cultures, but it perhaps comes off too strong, making certain characters hard to sympathize with, as there is a point where even if other people can empathize, it doesn't mean you should just be forgiven for everything. I think Those Summer Days may have also benefitted simply by digging deeper into the details, as twenty chapters isn't much space to cover everything, and it whizzes by at a pretty swift pace.

If you want to read this because of its obvious similarity to Orange, in my opinion Orange is better, but you'll probably find things to enjoy about Those Summer Days as well.