In this short and sweet manga series, middle schooler Mayuki struggles with exams but desperately wants to get into an academically challenging high school to reunite with her long-time secret love, Akira. But things get complicated when the girl Mayuki’s mom hires to tutor her winds up being Akira’s secret love. As feelings begin to develop between Mayuki and her tutor, someone who has never been able to choose just one person to love and who’s lost people she cares about over it, we have a perfect equation for an introductory love triangle!
Read this book if you…
- Enjoy manga.
- Like manga that is complete, with a satisfying ending.
- Appreciate the idea of a polyamorous yuri.
- Can either read Japanese or don’t mind using a free site such as Manga Dex.
How Does This Book Approach Polyamory?
At the start of the story, only tutor Rin appears to be aware that it’s even possible to be in love with more than one person. And we meet her as she’s being slapped for not being able to commit to caring for one person more than for everyone else. Poor Rin has gotten to the point where she pretends never to have crushes at all lest it come out that she has them on multiple people at once.
Since no one talks about this for a while, there’s some of the standard romantic V tropes for a bit, but the series is short enough they never grated on me. In fact, if I were to criticize, the arcs about accepting a triad romance even being a possibility were somewhat rushed. The series is only two volumes and spends most of its time establishing the three individual relationships inside the triad than in establishing the triad itself, per se. That isn’t really a complaint, but it could be part of why so many reviews of the material include people expressing, “It’s cute, but I don’t really get their relationship.” For a polyamorous reader, it makes perfect sense. But for someone who needs more guidance in regards to why/how people can be happy in polyamorous relationships, perhaps a little more clarity on why they all decided to be cool with it was needed.
It IS Really Cute
Both the art and the characters are cute, if somewhat standard for manga. We have the ‘poor student’ who studies hard to go from the bottom of her class to the top of it. We have basketball! We have the girl who can’t play sports to save her life. We have a slight age gap, with Rin and Akira being the year ahead of Mayuki. None of that is groundbreaking. But sympathetic and healthy polyamory aren’t things I’ve seen in other manga. (If anyone can point towards more of it, please do!)
Content Summaries
Cozy/Intense Scale: (5 is OMG! INTENSE! And 1 is So Cozy You Can Fall Asleep To It) 2-3
Spice Level: (0-5) 1-2 (heavy, fully illustrated kissing; no sex)
Representation: This book features polyamorous leads and girls who like girls. (I’m not sure how any of them would actually identify and am aware there’s cultural context I don’t fully understand.) And it’s Japanese. 🙂
Advisories: Some polyamorous readers may find Rin’s backstory triggering. There is also depression and a suggestion of a possible suicide that doesn’t occur.
Sold? Find it here!
I completely failed at locating an English version of this that I could pay for, although a few free sites featuring fan translations have it. I read it on Manga Dex.
The author does have other material officially available in English, which I will likely get around to purchasing at some point even though I don’t believe any of it is polyamorous.
SIDENOTE: My character Yuri has no relation to the yuri genre. But he did live on Earth long enough to be aware it shares his name. And to know about Yuri on Ice. He is amused by both of these things.
