is a Japanese manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 written and illustrated by Yugi Yamada. It is licensed in North America by Digital Manga Publishing

Digital Manga Publishing

Digital Manga is a company that licenses and releases, in English, Japanese anime, manga, and related merchandise. The company has several subdivisions: Digital Manga Publishing, which publishes Japanese manga, novels and instructional and illustration books in North America with multiple imprints,...

, which released the manga's two bound volumes

Tankobon

, with a literal meaning close to "independently appearing book", is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series , though the manga industry uses it for volumes which may be in a series...

through its imprint, Juné, between March 25 and June 24, 2008. Houbunsha

Houbunsha

is a Japanese publishing company founded on July 10, 1950.-Manga Time magazines:*Manga Time*Manga Time Jumbo*Manga Time Lovely*Manga Time Family*Manga Time Special*Manga Time Original*Manga Home-Manga Time Kirara magazines:...

 releases the manga three tankōbon volumes between June 2000 and October 2000.

Reception

Anime News Network

Anime News Network

Anime News Network is an anime industry news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, Japanese popular music and other otaku-related culture within North America, Australia and Japan. Additionally, it sometimes features similar happenings throughout the Anglosphere and elsewhere in the...

's Casey Brienza commends the manga for its "interesting (and sexy!) characters, a complex, well-conceived plot, and plenty of laughs to lighten up the angsty bits" but criticizes it for "a weak bonus story in volume two and artwork that remains a bit amateurish". Coolstreak Comics' Leroy Douresseaux commends the manga artist

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

 as a "master of complex, passionate psychological dramas". Mania.com's Briana Lawrence comments on the movie aspect of the manga "serving as a tool to highlight the more important things in the manga: Jun and Yutaka's relationship, Toshi and Nakamura's developing relationship, the birth of Miki's baby, and we get to see all the major plot points through the eyes of a camera". Active Anime's Rachel Bentham comments that the manga is "more soap opera

Soap opera

A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. The name soap opera stems from the original dramatic serials broadcast on radio that had soap manufacturers, such as Procter & Gamble,...

 antics behind the scenes

Making-of

In cinema, a making-of, also known as behind-the-scenes, is a documentary film that features the production of a film or television program...

of this film club".

Further reading