Tobenai Tori

Recently, I've been endlessly searching for shoujo manga that differ from the standard romance between male and female. I was looking for something dark, edgy, and dramatic. Thus, after finding one manga that fit my tastes, I began reading a chain of manga thanks to the user recommendations until I eventually found this Tobenai Tori. Because it was never reviewed before, I started typing this out of boredom and necessity.

Tobenai Tori is a three chapter romance story with one chapter containing an irrelevant side story and a one shot called Bitter Tears. I'll only be reviewing Tobenai Tori and not the one shot.

Although I said I was looking for manga without cliches and stereotypes, this manga does contain some. This plot follows the story between two childhood friends: Aoi and Kaoru. Despite being cliched childhood friends, the this manga deviated from standard shoujo romances with dark characters and unfortunate events. Although I have the past of some of the characters aren't necessarily original, the mangaka does a skillful job of portraying them with an emotional atmosphere in the limited space he has.

In fact, I think the small amount of chapters is the reason why I enjoyed this manga so much. In only three chapters, the manga manages to create appealing characters with a profound sense of emotion. The characters are shown to develop and grow as they overcome their hardships throughout the story.

Ultimately, I think this is a very solid manga. Because its only five chapters in length, it is easily readable in one sitting and can be finished within 30 minutes. For a thirty minute read, this manga provided me with a satisfying romance that was emotional enough to slightly affect me. This certainly wasn't a masterpiece, but I would recommend this to any romance reader with 30 minutes to spare.