I Cannot Reach You., Vol. 1

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ANNtv, ANNCast, Answerman, Astro Toy, Intern Annika, Brain Diving, Buried Treasure, Chicks On Anime, Crashing Japan, The Dub Track, The Edit List, Epic Threads, From The Gallery, Hai Fidelity, House of 1000 Manga, Ima Kore Ga Hoshiin Da, Old School, Pile of Shame, RIGHT TURN ONLY! Looking back over the last five volumes, a picture emerges of a long companionship that is slowly disintegrating because the two friends no longer share the same goals. EditSynopsis Childhood friends Kakeru Ashiya and Yamato Oohara seem like they would never get along with each other. Maybe when more chapters have built up and I develop an emotional countenance stronger than that of a half-melted chocolate eclair, I'll pick it up again.

When I found this manga, I thought the artstyle wasn't to my taste because of the cover, but it seems it looks 10x better when it's not coloured! Miscommunication or misspoken words are standard fare, but for some reason it feels particularly stressful in this story.

Yamato, on the other hand, is smart, handsome and composed, but most people find him hard to approach and he doesn’t really have any friends, aside from Kakeru. Even though I can’t say there’s anything special about I Cannot Reach You, there’s also nothing that I dislike and that in itself is kind of special.

Love triangles are decidedly not my favourite story convention, so I could see that plotline potentially becoming tiresome in the future, but, so far, I Cannot Reach You is a cute story of youthful first love that I’d say is worth checking out. I screamed so many times while I was reading it and I'm so excited about the updates, I recommend it completely. Five volumes in (Volume 6 came out in Japan in June 2022) and readers who’ve been following these two will be wondering, as I’ve been, if this relationship is ever going to progress.

Okay but I seriously don't get why I like this story so much, i usually read this cliche romances and immediately forget about them ,but my God, this is so good and such a page turner! And Mika’s accomplished graphic style is really well suited to portraying the characters; I’ve mentioned before that some of Kakeru’s extreme reaction shots (and they are extreme! I think a lot of folks who wring their hands about The State Of Pokémon™ would be better off just realizing that they outgrew Pokémon and stop making that GAME FREAK's fault. It does get serious at times and deals with the reality of being in love with your childhood friend of the same gender, but ultimately it's pretty comedic in nature (at least from what I've read). But Hosoda likes to stir things up (we’ve experienced this already with Yamato and Kakeru on the school trip) so is this a positive development or should alarm bells be ringing?