*Warning: spoilers for Taishou Otome Otogibanashi in story, plot and character arcs*

Taishou Otome Otogibanashi is one of the sweetest manga I’ve read. The story, while dealing with darker than expected tones about pre-war Japanese society and living with disability just ends up being so cute and sweet that I couldn’t help but have a big dumb grin on my face. The story itself is very engaging, and the plot progression makes it a very easy manga to read through in one day. The resolution of the problem our main characters face in the manga is very satisfying, and the ending just gives you diabetes.

Our main characters are the highlight of the cast, Yuzuki Tachibana and Tamahiko Shima just share the sweetest relationship and interact in ways that can make anyone smile.

This is the type of manga you read to feel happy and fulfilled. You don’t feel like you’ve wasted your time, and your happiness levels go off the charts. Until you realize you’ll never be them.

Then we have Tamako Shima, which is the easiest character to hate in the history of media. Joffrey Baratheon doesn’t have anything on her. Yet her motives are understandable; she is essentially just a daddy's girl seeking the attention she wouldn't normally get because of traditional Japanese society.

The rest of the cast just adds to the sweetness. In that sense, it’s a bit of shame that it doesn’t go much further than that, but in the end they made my grin incessantly so I don’t personally care.

Then we have the source of the diabetes, the art style. Everything is just so clean, cute and detailed. None of that Moe blob garbage; everyone just looks nice, the lines are very fine and the colour pages are to die for. The design of Yuzuki, and her quirks about her hairstyle also leads to some of the sweetest stuff you’ve ever seen. Even better is the quality of the simplified/comic versions of the characters, and also the detail they are still drawn with despite being really far from the frame. It’s all very impressive. Then we also have the screen tones and the flowery backgrounds that are just the cherry on top of the diabetes.

I grinned like an idiot all the way through. I can’t say enough about how much fun I had reading this manga. It makes me genuinely smile, everything is just so sweet and pure. And then that ending just makes you overdose on sugar. The bicycle chapter is the best thing to happen to shoujo and romance.

I loved it and it made my days just that much brighter. 10/10