Midori is a loner. She’s competent at work, but does not have friends. She always wears black and prefers to be alone. Or so she believes. When she receives a phone call informing her that her friend from high school, Tsugumi, is dead, she is overwhelmed instantly by memories.

Midori attends the funeral, at which she learns that Tsugumi has a daughter, Haruko. Haru, as she prefers to be called, has no one else left except a distant relative. Moved by emotions she does not yet recognize, Midori offers to let Haru live with her.

And so, Haru to Midori, Volume 1 ( 春とみどり) begins the tale of an unlikely family,; two people connected only by the death of a loved one. Haru adapts quickly to Midori’s household. She is friendly, but not intimately so, with her new guardian.  Midori begins to shed layers of hurt and loneliness almost too quickly for her to handle. She admits to herself, perhaps for the first time, that she was in love with Tsugumi and had mourned her loss long before she died.

Awkardly, for Midori is an awkward person, she opens up to the daughter of her beloved. Hesitantly, because she is suffering from a recent loss, Haru opens up to the idea of caring for someone new. They change each other gradually. By the end of Volume 1, they could take tentative steps to becoming a family, but its Haruko who pulls back.

The art is solid. Midori always looks slightly unkempt, as you might expect, Haru looks like a young woman who has had to put her life on hold for an indefinite amount of time.

I had no expectations whatsoever when I started reading this manga. We’re at the section of the pile I think of as throwing darts –  could be good, could suck, won’t know until I read it. ^_^ This time it turned out to be much…nicer…than I expected. Not at all creepy or weird, I’m rooting for Haruko and Midori to be a child and a guardian who each learn what Tsugumi saw in the other.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 8
Characters – 9 Not much is “happening,” per se, so we have a lot of time to spend on character
Yuri – 3 Only in retrospective, as Midori starts to unpack her feelings for Tsugumi
Service – Does Midori getting a new sweater count? No? 0

Overall –  Another solid 8

I’ll definitely look for Volume 2.