SUMMARY
Amamiya Chitose died at 15-years-old. Her death severely impacts her longtime friend and boyfriend, Itami Atsurou, who grows into adulthood unable to get past his first love. Then, 10 years later, 10-year-old Aoyagi Niina jumps over a wall and into his life.
But Niina is no ordinary girl. She recognizes Atsurou as the boy she was in love with in her previous life. Now his neighbor, Niina attempts to bring happiness to Atsurou, who remains unaware that she was formerly Chitose. As a young girl, and then a teenager, Niina struggles not only with keeping her her memories of her past life a secret, but also with working out where Chitose ends and Niina begins.
Can Niina keep her secrets safe? And can she make the man who loved her in her past life fall in love with her again, despite their age gap?
TL;DR
Something that some readers may struggle with in this manga is the large age gap. In order for Niina to have Chitose's memories, she had to be born at the same time Chitose died, and therefore the age gap between Niina and Atsurou is 15 years. Past this, this is a very sweet manga which takes a twist on the usual boy meets girl at school that we usually see in shoujo manga.
Atsurou's devastation at Chitose's death is clear to see throughout this manga in the lingering issues he has which influence his life decisions, as well as in the flash backs which reveal more of the story. It was actually refreshing to read about someone being shaken by something that actually deserved the intense emotions it stirred. So often something minor things happen to a character, but they still stay home from school for days on end drowning in sorrow.
The way that Niina is characterized is also fantastic. You see moments where Chitose's memories can't help but shine through and affect Niina's reactions, and moments when she is just herself - a new person. This internal struggle is believable and captivating, and you can't help but admire her for being such a young girl but with a lot of maturity.
I found this manga incredibly enjoyable to read, and I always love it when I leave a manga replaying several of my favourite moments in my head. I know that I've found a good one!
Just as an IMPORTANT FYI, if you read the mangahere.com version of the manga, at the end of chapter 3.5 there is a major spoiler for the story which I think they scanned by mistake. If you read the side story, don't click through to the very end. I did it both times I read this manga because I didn't know, and then forgot.
Be careful! More spoiler iceburgs ahead!
FULL SUMMARY
Hmm, yeah, so the age gap. Happily this manga does wait until she is a 16 year old teenager before they introduce the romance, although we see that Niina has loved Atsurou since she was a little girl (if you don't also count her previous life). The mangaka also seems to combat what might be a bit of a creepy storyline by aging Niina, but not Atsurou. I mean of course he gets older in age, but he isn't drawn any differently and instead looks like the handsome young man in his 20s at the end of the manga that he did in the beginning. This isn't exactly realistic, but I didn't mind it.
Aww, how cute are they!
One of the plot lines I loved is how they brought in Chitose's brother and parents. It would have been easy for this manga to stick to Atsurou and the revelations between the two, and I think I've seen a manga do just that, but the more you get to know about Chitose in the flashbacks, the more you start to wonder about the people she left behind. Therefore I am really happy we got to see them, even if it was by a giant coincidence that Chitose's brother becomes Niina's substitute teacher. Those silly pregnant teachers going on materinity leave at convenient times! *shakes fist*
How she gets to see her parents is a very constructed plot line, seriously has anyone ever had their class be invited back to the teacher's home for extra study classes? Surely that's against some kind of rule. But at the same time it's a very humbling scene that tugs on the heart strings. The fact that the mother is using Chitose's old volleyball knee pads and they give Niina an apron to wear that Chitose made. Again, it's all pretty convenient that all these Chitose-y things are coming up at once, but it's also great for Niina to see that Chitose wasn't forgotten, even though the family went on with their lives.
Poor Kanata-kun, the love rival that never stood a chance. I liked his presence in the manga a lot because it felt to me like I could read the story that would have been written for Niina has she not had Chitose's memories. Without them, Atsurou would have been just an adult neighbour, and Niina would have moved with her family to the new city as they did anyway, and she would have gone to school, met Kanata-kun, and perhaps he would have become her boyfriend. It kind of feels like with Niina having her memories, that he's been cheated out of an important relationship. Seriously, I felt huge heartbreak at the scene when he hears Niina talking to Atsurou on the phone and leaves the drink can on the stairs, even though he'd been waiting for her because he'd seen she was upset. Gah! Poor baby!
Some of my favourite moments were definitely the ones where Chitose's memories interfere with Niina's present. Niina knows she is her own person, but she can't help the influences of the past she remembers, like when she stuffs three ingredients in the onigiri, and when she tells Atsurou happily that he kept his promise of being by the lake with Chitose again, and when she speaks as a much more mature person than a 10-year-old when she takes care of Atsurou and says he'd "always get sick like this."
Of course, this doesn't really register for Atsurou, who recognizes when she says something weird and out of place but doesn't put two and two together until he realizes she knows the chicken Fujiko's birthdate when she couldn't possibly. It's physical evidence right before his eyes, and then it all adds up, all the parallels and strange moments.
I love how he tricks Niina into admitting her past memories without Niina even knowing she's done it. For Niina, both her lives overlap in many ways and so she doesn't notice when he mentions a moment in Chitose's past as if Niina did it. Awesome beans! Clever boy. It's also nice that he keeps his new-found knowledge a secret, because he clearly has already started to build up feelings for the girl but if he had mentioned it then, I don't think Niina would have been able to believe that he was considering her separately from Chitose.
Finally, another plot moment that pleases me greatly is the father's reaction. If you were able to forget the age difference, it's brought to the forefront again with a realistic fatherly reaction of horror when he realizes his 16 year-old-daughter is dating a man in his early 30s, no matter how much he has always liked Atsurou. The horror does somewhat blow over quite quickly, but he still tries to keep them separated and test them in case this is just a convenient fad. He's looking out for his daughter! Yay for a manga father who actually takes responsible care of his child instead of working all hours and leaving them home alone which is a common trope. It makes the moment when Atsurou hears Niina for the first time in a year and runs to the door all the more joyous. I LOVE IT!
