Nanashi no Asterism

''It's a secret'' - literally everyone in this book

Love triangles can be something wonderfully dramatic (and thus entertaining) or completely pointless. So when you make a story that revolves around a love triangle, you have to put effort in it to make the triangle seem interesting. Nameless Asterism manages to do that… actually it does it too much, but I will get into that later.

The love triangle is simple:
Tsukasa likes Nadeshiko,
Nadeshiko likes Kotooka,
Kotooka likes Tsukasa
What's the problem?
They are all really close friends and they don't want to stop their friend group because of their love for eachother. But if you keep your feelings locked, they will try to get out, which the girls have to struggle with throughout the whole story. Their relationship gets even trickier when Tsukasa discovers about Nadeshiko's love for Kotooka, which results in Tsukasa having even more mental problem. The triangle gets even bigger when a third party is apparently in love with Tsukasa called Kyousuke. Shall we make the triangle even bigger? Let's make the triangle even bigger! The twin brother of Tsukasa apparently wants to stop Kyousuke to like Tsukasa because ''He has a sistercomplex'' *are kidding me with this shit? We are now getting into Citrus levels of love triangles!*. With all of this happening, all the three of the girls try to keep their friendship alive, but it receives punches nonetheless.

*sigh* yep, this sure is a complicated story. The biggest problem that I have with this is not the complexity of the story, but how this manga loves to overly explain their feelings. The first time they something like that it is actually pretty emotional, but it isn't after the 29th time. Because of this the middle is pretty boring until chapter 19. I am not going to spoil what happens in this chapter, but I am gonna say that finally some actual drama happens instead of drama in their heads.

The aesthetics are fine I guess. The art looks pretty good and I love the panels where they zoom in on the faces to show the details in the hairs and such.

So in short, do I recommend it? Well, if you love love triangles and kinda corny humor, I would recommend it. If you don't like complicated love stories and/or long explanations of feelings, it's not something for you.

And if you excuse me, I am going to watch K-ON! to shower my brain.

To clarify, before I start, I usually hate love-triangles. I feel like in many mangas they are a cheap plot device to create drama - you have the love triangle where you have the two main characters who are the obvious couple, and then that ex who won't leave/that unrequited love/the clingy other love interest who guilt trips one character to be with them.

Not in Nanashi no Asterism, though!

The three are all friends who all platonically care about each other a lot. Without spoiling too much, all I can say is that the love triangle is a *proper* love triangle. Not one of those two way love stories with that extra on the side. Oh no. Nanashi no Asterism likes to make these things as complicated and messed up as much as possible.


The characters are all great. Each have their own distinct personality and their own point of view on their respective situations. Theres a couple of side characters who I want to wind up being a yaoi couple (we'll see), though apart from that, I'm not really invested in anyone apart from the three mains.

Art's pretty good, very expressive faces which is important in these kind of angst ridden situations. On the whole, while it doesn't seem much on the outside - to me I was just expecting another cliched yuri story - this is really turning into a little gem of a story. It could easily change, of course, but as of right now this is one of my favourite yuri mangas out there.


tl;dr: Not your typical stupid love-triangle, it actually deals with the consequences and mess of being IN a love triangle and the struggles of what choices to make and what to give up. Though it still carries good comedic moments and the characters are all so cute and you end up cheering them on regardless of how hopeless it all seems to be. I would totally say it is worth a read!

*SPOILER-FREE*

Three young girls in love triangle. Yuri fans will probably enjoy it, but what about more neutral readers ? I think the answer is YES

Story - 9
The premise may sound like a generic love triangle angst-festival, but there are a lot of things that make the plot stand out. Each of the girls has a secret and views the events differently. We get to see all 3 girls struggle to keep their trio intact, while also diving deep into their personalities and thoughts. All of this influences their actions and how they perceive and react to each other. While the story is a bit predictable in the way it progresses, it doesn't take away the pleasure of any of the many emotional moments.

Characters - 10
While every single character is interesting and well-written, it's the trio that ultimately draws the reader in ( like it's supposed to ). The best part about the girls is how they differ in how much they know about each other and what they have no idea about. This makes diving into their heads really amusing. Each girl has a unique personality, secrets and misconceptions about the others. It feels liberating to see them fall prey to their mistakes but ultimately manage to realize their faults. The subtleties in their interactions can be really amazing to see, especially for a guy.

Art - 8
I like the character designs and the style, but there just isn't anything particularly unique or jaw-dropping. The art does it's job well, but it doesn't feel special, though it doesn't really bug me at all

Enjoyment - 9
The manga is consistently fun to read, with lots of interesting developments and likable characters. Highly enjoyable from the first chapter to the last

Final score - 9
This manga has a lot of good points and it manages to deliver the premise flawlessly. It has some small issues that I could easily forget, but there's still a massive difference between this and a masterpiece, so this is why in my opinion it deserves a 9 out of 10 rating