Orange (オレンジ ) is a shojo romance manga by Takano Ichigo. The manga was published in Japan in 2012 in Bessatsu Margaret but was moved to Monthly Action in 2013 and ended its run in August of 2015.
Takamiya Naho gets a strange letter on her way to school one day. The letter warns her to not ask a transfer student, Naruse Kakeru, who will arrive that day to hang out with her friends after school. The strange letter is addressed from herself 10 years in the future. Thinking its a prank she pushes it out of her mind. When Kakeru joins her class that morning she reconsiders the possibility that the letter is not a prank. Naho, unable to muster enough confidence to follow the request in the letter is forced to watch as the warning unfolds. Kakeru does end up hanging out with Naho and her friends after school to apparently no ill effect. They all gladly accept the transfer student into their group and are generally happy. Naho returns to the letter to see more details. The letter is an desperate request from her future self to save Kakeru from committing suicide. Maho struggles with the requests as they seem to conflict with her and the groups emotions and desires to remain friends with Kakeru. Unfortunately the efforts to save him from killing himself seem to be strained as the events foretold continue to happen. When she thinks she can no longer carry the burden alone she learns that her friends have all received letters from their future selves requesting the same thing, to save Kakeru at all costs. They work as hard as they can to reach the troubled young man before its too late and their future efforts become fruitless.
Stylistically this is a standard shojo manga. The character designs are simplistic and many of the panels are devoid of much background detail. The technique of sparse panels helps to convey the sense of helplessness and despair through many parts of the story. Regarding the story and the plot concepts within, it sets its self up from the beginning to be tragic. For those that are die hard time travel theorists, the explanations will be a little lacking in substance. It is never really explained how the letters are successfully sent back in the first place. At times the characters discuss the possibilities of paradox and alternate futures. It may actually have been better of if there was little to no attempt to dig into the concepts of time travel and changing the future/past. But ultimately it does little to negatively impact the story it's self. At times it does jump to the characters in the future/present which can be confusing until the reader understands that what time period the panels take place in.
In the end this is a decently done story about regret, confronting ones weaknesses and the struggle to help a friend in need. Naho is a timid girl who lacks any confidence in her self. She struggles again and again with these faults that she recognizes, but tends to stand by and watch 'history' repeat its self, further deepening her lack of confidence. The other friends are generally peripheral to the story and work in the background to help with the efforts to save Kakeru, the majority of that weight seems to land on Maho's shoulders. Kakeru himself is not honest with his friends about his own issues and the other characters have to practically drag it out of him. While nothing ground breaking or riveting, the story was decently told and enjoyable. Worth the time given it's length at only 22 chapters. The ending was a bit interesting and set it's self up for a number of conclusions due to it's semi-vagueness.
The manga is currently available on Crunchyroll. The print version is in the works and will be released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. A live action movie is also in the works in Japan, slated for release in December of 2015.
Takamiya Naho gets a strange letter on her way to school one day. The letter warns her to not ask a transfer student, Naruse Kakeru, who will arrive that day to hang out with her friends after school. The strange letter is addressed from herself 10 years in the future. Thinking its a prank she pushes it out of her mind. When Kakeru joins her class that morning she reconsiders the possibility that the letter is not a prank. Naho, unable to muster enough confidence to follow the request in the letter is forced to watch as the warning unfolds. Kakeru does end up hanging out with Naho and her friends after school to apparently no ill effect. They all gladly accept the transfer student into their group and are generally happy. Naho returns to the letter to see more details. The letter is an desperate request from her future self to save Kakeru from committing suicide. Maho struggles with the requests as they seem to conflict with her and the groups emotions and desires to remain friends with Kakeru. Unfortunately the efforts to save him from killing himself seem to be strained as the events foretold continue to happen. When she thinks she can no longer carry the burden alone she learns that her friends have all received letters from their future selves requesting the same thing, to save Kakeru at all costs. They work as hard as they can to reach the troubled young man before its too late and their future efforts become fruitless.
Stylistically this is a standard shojo manga. The character designs are simplistic and many of the panels are devoid of much background detail. The technique of sparse panels helps to convey the sense of helplessness and despair through many parts of the story. Regarding the story and the plot concepts within, it sets its self up from the beginning to be tragic. For those that are die hard time travel theorists, the explanations will be a little lacking in substance. It is never really explained how the letters are successfully sent back in the first place. At times the characters discuss the possibilities of paradox and alternate futures. It may actually have been better of if there was little to no attempt to dig into the concepts of time travel and changing the future/past. But ultimately it does little to negatively impact the story it's self. At times it does jump to the characters in the future/present which can be confusing until the reader understands that what time period the panels take place in.
In the end this is a decently done story about regret, confronting ones weaknesses and the struggle to help a friend in need. Naho is a timid girl who lacks any confidence in her self. She struggles again and again with these faults that she recognizes, but tends to stand by and watch 'history' repeat its self, further deepening her lack of confidence. The other friends are generally peripheral to the story and work in the background to help with the efforts to save Kakeru, the majority of that weight seems to land on Maho's shoulders. Kakeru himself is not honest with his friends about his own issues and the other characters have to practically drag it out of him. While nothing ground breaking or riveting, the story was decently told and enjoyable. Worth the time given it's length at only 22 chapters. The ending was a bit interesting and set it's self up for a number of conclusions due to it's semi-vagueness.
The manga is currently available on Crunchyroll. The print version is in the works and will be released in North America by Seven Seas Entertainment. A live action movie is also in the works in Japan, slated for release in December of 2015.
No comments:
Post a Comment