Manga 122842 Kakeochi Girl

tl;dr short, heartwarming forbidden-yuri romance with mostly realistic story-telling and poignant moral lessons. Big recommends!

On the surface level, Kakeochi Girl is not too shallow, but also not too deep. However, if you put yourself in the shoes of the characters and really internalize how they might feel, it becomes much deeper and much more rewarding.

Makimura "Maki" Momo and Oonishi Midori were high school lovers that never really explored their sexuality until graduation when Midori essentially breaks it off, saying it was fun but it's time to pursue normal lives. The two don't see each other again until a fateful encounter 10 years later. Maki is ... still taking graduate courses while living with her mom and lamenting her loneliness, while Midori is engaged and pregnant and living that perfect, normal life she wanted. It goes without saying that such matters aren't so simple, and that's what the next 15 chapters explore.

Overall, my enjoyment was enhanced as I really related to Midori's feelings about herself and about life, but the story is still objectively solid. Certain things could have played out differently, but I chalk that up more to the characterization. That's my one real knock on this series, that Maki doesn't really get explored much beyond her relationship with Midori, and Tazune, Midori's fiance, is more of a plot device than a character. I'd care less about Tazune if he was the faceless salaryman stereotype, but Battan tries to give him characterization and parts of that just fall totally flat.

Given the length and quality of the story, this is a strong recommend as you can easily knock this out in an afternoon and shed a few tears along the way.

To say that Kakeochi Girl is just a good manga that would be an understatement. Kakeochi Girl is a heart-wrenching experience that will make you cry your eyes out. This is the first time that I felt seen and represented in a manga.
Both protagonists are very relatable and realistic. At first, I thought one of them was just playing with the other's feelings, but then I got to understand how they really feel and what they've been through. The plot is pretty solid and well-written; the characters as well. It felt very realistic to me.
The author addressed some interesting topics in this work, such ... as compulsory heteronormativity and domestic violence, which can be very triggering for some people, but it's important to the story.
The art is stunning and well-made. It was a great manga to read and it BAFFLES me that has such a low rating. But anyway, I love it. This author has great potential and I'm gonna keep an eye on them.

This was good....until the last 3 chapters. What a tragedy that it had to go completely downhill in no time at all.

It seems as if the author(s) were in a massive rush to finish things up. On of the MCs totally changed on the spot. Her POS husband suddenly became devastated, real and oddly human after being an ultra POS the whole manga and then there's the worst part - a 13 year time skip that makes no sense. It could have been appropriate if they had done the skip over 3 chapters or so that leads up to that point. You don't even know ... who the kid is after materializing with the (best) plot device character until about 2/3 of the way through the chapter. It's a real shame because that would have made a fantastic point to explore.

I understand that there are a lot of limitations to these stories and you never know what's going on behind the scenes that leads to what you get in the end, but this was just a really big disappointment. I know there are some people that really like this, so I leave it open as a suggestion with mixed feelings, but I wish I wasn't so mixed by doing so.