A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Volume 5 by Makoto Hagino addresses an important conundrum for young people. Their lives are not theirs to decide until they are…and then the entirety of their trajectories as adults are dumped into their laps all at once. What do you want to be? Where do to want to live? What do you want to do? How can they possibly know who they want to become, when they barely know who they are?

Koyuki is facing this conundrum. Typically, she’s struggling alone and in silence until Konatsu’s classmate Kaede inserts herself into the older girl’s life. It’s an accidental meeting at first, but Kaede’s easy manner and forthright honesty helps Koyuki come to several decisions – one that might bring her closer to Konatsu…and one that might separate them forever.

Until this volume, I hadn’t really given Kaede a thought. She was “Konatsu’s classmate and friend.” But here, she becomes a catalyst for positive change. What will happen remains a mystery to me because my copy of Volume 6 is stuck in a warehouse in Kawasaki, not being shipped for another month!

I’ll probably have Volume 7 before 6 ever arrives. (-_-); Nonetheless, you can catch up to me shortly, as the salamander comes out into the light to be seen, at least for a little while.

Ratings:

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 8
Service – 0 not really
Yuri – 3

Overall – 7

The team at Viz: John Werry, Eve Grandt, Yukiko Whitely and Pancha Diaz once again did a great job, with this quietly sweet, quietly angsty story of coming out of one’s shell.

Thanks very much to Viz for an advance review copy. You’ll be getting a chance to read this book in November.