Nameless Asterism by Kina Kobayashi, is a school life story. It begins with three girls, Shiratori, Washio, and Kotooka who have been friends for years. Kotooka has a boyfriend (a new one in a string of boyfriends, apparently) and Washio and Shiratori are determined to be supportive. But as Shiratori watches Washio, it becomes obvious to her that Washio has feeling for Kotooka. When she discovers Washio kissing a sleeping Kotooka, she lets Washio she knowsn. Washio admits her feelings, but promises that the three of them being friends is more important to her than her feelings, so she will say nothing.  Only, the love polygon doesn’t end there and the end of the volume adds, rather than subtracts, people from it.

This manga presented me with a bit of a personal mystery. As I read it I felt absolutely certain that I had read this story already.  But I could not, for the life of me, remember where or when. 

In Japanese manga volumes that collect magazine chapters, one of the technical credits in the back indicates where a story chapter was first published – what magazine, which issue, whether it is original for this book or originally published as a doujinshi…that kind of thing. Sadly for me, English-language volumes do not typically provide anything more detailed than the name of the creator and publisher.  I’m not complaining, really, I know I’m one of few – if any – people who care, but it would have saved me a few moments of searching. ^_^ It turns our that this is  series is from Gangan Comics Online. by Square Enix. As it happens I am reading a Gangan Comics Online comic right now, Ani no Yome to Kurashiteimasu by Kuzushiro . But other than that one, I don’t read many Square Enix titles. However, after more research, I found a review here on Okazu for an extremely similar one-shot story called “Isshun no Asterism” about three schoolgirls – one of whom sacrifices her love for another to preserve their friendship – by Amagure Kido a few years ago. So that explains that. ^_^ 

In any case, the characters here are sympathetic, if a tad uncomplicated for this adult reader. Even in high school, even in love, I remember having more of an internal monologue than just one thing.  But the characters are not unlikable and while I hold out no hope whatsoever that Washio will end up with Kotooka, nor do I think she’ll find space in the narrative to come out to herself or anything, really, it’s  a pleasant and swift read. And with Seven Seas, you can always count on consistently high quality of reproduction and translation. 

Ratings:

Art – 7
Characters – 7
Story – 7
Service – 1 on principle
Yuri – 4

Overall – 7

Nameless Asterism is a completed 5-volume set in Japanese. In English, Volume 1 and Volume 2 are currently available and Volume 3 will be hitting shelves this autumn. 

Many thanks to Seven Seas for providing a review copy!