A Plea From the Future
On the day that Naho begins 11th grade, she receives a letter from herself ten years in the future. At first, she writes it off as a prank, but as the letter’s predictions come true one by one, Naho realizes that the letter might be the real deal. Her future self tells Naho that a new transfer student, a boy named Kakeru, will soon join her class. The letter begs Naho to watch over him, saying that only Naho can save Kakeru from a terrible future. Who is this mystery boy, and can Naho save him from his destiny? This is the heart-wrenching sci-fi romance that has over million copies in print in Japan!
5 STARS
tw: suicide
Oh My God.
I may have found my favorite manga. I don't want to say for sure because I haven't read volume two or the sequel, Future, yet, but this was amazing. I didn't really know what to expect. It was getting amazing reviews online and I wanted to see for myself. All I was really expecting was a story set in school where a girl main character was receiving letters from her future self. And it is so much more than that!
The characters are one of the best parts of the story. Naho, our main character, is a quiet and timid girl who tends to be the "mother hen" of her friend group. She enjoys making people happy and puts their comfort and happiness over her own. She's insecure, and often forgets about the fact that her group of friends care for her, which could sometimes get annoying. They'd do something nice for her and she'd be incredibly shocked like they were kind strangers. But for me, it was a sweet annoying. Kakeru is such a sweetheart and I loved him so much. The fact that he kept smiling and using his happiness as a mask despite sometimes being unhappy in those moments is something I think anyone who has dealt with depression could relate to. I definitely did, and the fact that he had such an amazing support system had me in tears basically throughout the entire story. Suwa is such a good friend and I loved how much he cared for his friends, especially for Naho and Kakeru. Without giving too much away, I think he is the most selfless character of the bunch and I feel like he does a lot for his friends without expecting anything in return. Which was a really admirable trait. The three other characters in our gang, Azu, Takako, and Hagita are not in as much as the other three but I suspect from the ending of this volume that we will see more of them in the next one. I think I was getting some hints of Azu and Hagita maybe having feelings for each other but I couldn't help but think that Azu and Takako would have been a really cute f/f couple.
The plot of this story had me hooked from the beginning. I could not put it down and read it in about one sitting. I couldn't let myself do anything else until I found out what was going to happen. I was a sobbing mess throughout so much because a lot of it was relatable to me and my depression. Like Kakeru's depression, mine revolves a lot around guilt and I couldn't help but feel connected to him and what he was going through. I am okay that we don't get a definite explanation on how the time travel works with the letters that Naho gets from her future self. If we get more of an explanation in the future volume that would be cool, but I wouldn't be upset if it stayed a bit more vague. It adds to the magic of the story I think. There's a nice amount of angst in this story, which normally bugs me, but I think it was done well in this manga and it had me squealing without how cute everyone was being.
It's hard to comment on the writing because it's done in bubble/speech box format versus the way a novel would be written, but I do think that the inner dialogue of Naho along with the humor between the gang was well written. I loved the artwork, which is done by the writer also. There are small pieces of art in between each Letter (which I assume were their own Manga issue before they were compiled into a volume) that were incredibly cute. It was just a doodle of the characters doing something cute but I couldn't help but wish I had colored versions for my phone wallpaper because they're so cute. There are also full pages of more realistic drawings of the characters which was also incredibly amazing and more artwork I wish I could somehow showcase in my apartment.
Overall, I highly recommend this manga so far. I cannot wait to request the second one from my library and I have already added them to my list of books to one day buy for my collection. I have always loved manga and anime, but this one means so much to me. I definitely plan on watching the anime on Crunchyroll while I am waiting for the second volume to arrive at my library. I would love to talk about this story if you've read it, and if you haven't, please do.
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