It’s Guest Review Wednesday here on Okazu and I am so delighted to welcome back Eleanor once again. Today she’s going to take a look at Yuama’s dramatic school life series. Take it away, Eleanor, and I’ll be back at the end. 
It’s nice to be back again. This is my 3rd review for Okazu, and I’m finally reviewing a manga volume this time. I’ve reviewed the British Museum’s manga exhibition and a yuri visual novel called Perfect Gold. You can find me on Twitter (for now) @st_owly and the same on Instagram.

Having loved the author’s previous work The Girl I Want Is So Handsome, I was excited to check out their new series, The Summer You Were There, Volume 1. First thing to note is that Seven Seas have done a lovely job on the cover of the English release. I really like the water bubbles and the falling paper in the background of the illustration, and the title itself is embossed which is a nice touch. Unfortunately, the contents don’t really hold up so well in comparison. I’m not the biggest fan of “let’s pretend to date each other, teehee” stories at the best of times, and this one hasn’t exactly converted me.

The story starts like this: your typical bookworm (Shizuku) encounters a popular girl (Kaori) who for some unknown reason, wants to date her. Kaori finds Shizuku’s super secret discarded novel manuscript which no one is ever supposed to read (why would you throw it in the bin at school then??) so of course the two of them start “dating” because Kaori strong arms Shizuku into it, and the excuse is “I want to help you research material for your next story.”

“If you want to make your ‘dying of high school manga disease’ plotline land emotionally, maybe don’t telegraph it with the subtlety of a boot to the head.” I couldn’t have put this better myself, thank you Toukochan on the Okazu Discord server for letting me use this magnificent line. I didn’t find either of them particularly endearing individually, and by the end of the book I still didn’t particularly care for them as a couple either.

Having said that, chapter 3 was by far my favourite of the book. The girls end up going to the library together and actually start genuinely bonding over favourite books and authors. I wish more of the book had been like this, and I hope there’s more of this going forward. The obligatory yuri aquarium date in the next 2 chapters just didn’t land the same way. 

I would like to know more about Kaori’s motivations and why she wants to date Shizuku. At the end of the book Shizuku confesses something big to her, and she says she already knows everything. I suspect I know exactly where this is heading, I’ll see if I’m right in the next volume. 

I hope the characters and their relationship will improve going forward, and the revelation at the end does mean I will pick up the next volume but based on this volume alone, if I wanted a popular x shy girl romance I’d just go and read Girl Friends again. 

Ratings:

Art – 7. Perfectly pleasant, and you can clearly see the improvement from The Girl I Want Is So Handsome, although I don’t like Shizuku’s hairstyle. Something about it just bothers me. The cover illustration is lovely. 

Story – 5. It’s been done better before. 

Characters – 6. Kaori has definite potential. Shizuku does too. I really hope they both fulfill it.  

Yuri – 2.  It’s 2 girls “dating”, but I wouldn’t call this a lesbian romance. 

Service – Non existent, thankfully.

Boot to the head – 10. All the emotional subtlety of. 

Overall – 6. Stick to writing comedy, sensei.

Erica here: Well…yes. I mean, ouch, but yes. I’ve been reading this chapter after chapter in Comic Yuri Hime, and it is…all right. I will say that when it stops being overdramatic about small things there are good moments, but tbh, this series is a generic live-action drama, with hysterics for no reason and the serious things glossed over. The relationship does get better, but the story will not get out of it’s own way, even volumes later.

If you are a sucker for tearful live-action “someone is dying but we can’t tell, because reasons” story, you’ll probably love this. If it is your thing, Volume 2 will be out in December, 2022! Thanks Eleanor for a great review. ^_^