Orange is the best fruit's manga / #FEMALE FRIENDSHIPS(8)

Guess she could use... Anything BUT a hand lol

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The manga so far is a collection of smaller stories loosely tied together by single family. I honestly wish we'd see more from the mom and her reflections on her life singe it was her decisions that ultimately created the current lives of everyone else. I really like that this story can explore all these tangential relationships. I loved the complicated relationship btwn Madoka (dark haired daughter) and Sakura. I loved watching Eri be so good at everything that shes afraid to fail. And I loved how she unwittingly became Nagi-pon's mentor. It's so sweet This isnt really what I was expecting from the synopsis. I thought its be more atmospheric, reflective, and linear. That it's not is a bit disappointing, but I'm still really enjoying it. Madoka and Sakura made me cry

Two girls, Eiko and Moe, are inseparable friends. Moe is beautiful and extremely popular with guys, but she always has one condition for going out with them: they have to put Eiko first. I liked this. Moe's got a blunt personality that's difficult to deal with, so she's struggled to make friends her whole life. Eiko's too much of a pushover and I was rooting for that to change. It seems like it did, just a bit. I like their friendship dynamic. They look out for each other. I liked Narugami-kun, the dark haired guy who winds up falling for Eiko. Him battling with Moe over her was fun. I was hoping this would be a friendship story mostly devoid of romance, but I liked it regardless. I'll give it a high 7/10. It's too short to do much, but what it did do, I really liked.. minus the side story at the end.

Dropped at vol 1. All the dialogue is cheesy and unrealistic to a point that I was struggling to shout "no one talks like this!!" every time someone spoke. Once everyone's introduced, it's like well there's your light haired guy and the light haired girl, and there's your dark haired guy and dark haired girl. And we all know who's gonna end up with who. I only got so far so can't speak for the rest of the series, but volume 1 was very cliche and predictable. Not a bad thing, but I'm also just not that interested in romance, so it's extra sloggy for me I did like the dynamic with the two main girls even if it was pretty surface level. TBH, I clicked on this because I saw two girls on the cover, which is rare outside of yuri, so I set myself up to be disappointed on this one. :< Anyway

(Read this from my local library. Support your libraries kids) Uhhhhh what do I have to say about this... I did not like Control / Jennifer / Worst Mom. Well, there was no shortage of terrible mothers in story but yknow. There were SO MANY characters in general, they couldn't balance the screen time for all of them. The main love interest himself is irrelevant to the story for three whole volumes. Luna herself was your standard shoujo protagonist, generally chipper but cries if the guy she likes is mildy not nice to her. I kinda felt bad for her. She was just a teenage girl trying to navigate her emotions and succeeding in dangerous missions. Control / Jennifer suuuucked. I thought she would have more growth and complexity given her situation. She was in the impossible situation needing to be a nurturing mother and detached manager at the same time. But I just don't think she... grew. Like the story just kinda... pretended the revealing that Control was Luna's biological mother was the fix for their messy relationship instead of really grappling with it. What little growth she did have was just repeated. Like she'd realize she was treating Luna as a tool and not a human with emotions and needs and you'd start to see her grapple mentally with what to do---and then she'd reset. I don't know how to explain it. It was like the narrative was letting her make progress. Her relationship with Luna remains cold and distant the WHOLE time, despite the story attempting to convince us otherwise. There were so many random story threads that didn't go anywhere. What was the point of the robot girl? Or Francesca hating clones and lab grown life? Did they just decide they didn't want Francesca to be complex? That could have been an interesting conflict!! Instead of more jealous romance drama!! What was with all the clone stuff anyway?? That didn't seem to go anywhere?? Also what about that dude that got Love Interest 1 (Jonah) expelled? He just shows up, causes one (1) drama and then disappears? Where did creepy science kid---the one obsessed with making himself a lab grown girlfriend---go after everything fell apart. Why the heck was Count von Something a *count* but also the ruler of his own country??? Wouldn't he be a king??? I did really like the friendships with all the characters. Most of Luna's dynamics were Oliver was annoying at first, but he kind a grew on me even if he remained a little useless. I loved the weird dynamic he built with the PE teacher by the end. Francesca was just cute and I'm sad she didn't get to have a more nuanced relationship with Luna. Dr. Andy (or Dandy as I called him) was the only reasonable, emotionally stable, reliable adult in the room, which checks out since he was a live-in therapist. Actually the PE teacher was also a 10/10 adult. We stan a teacher who cares for his students' safety. The main villain was too silly and pathetic to feel like a threat. He was marginally funny as a weird uncle after he was taken prisoner. I thought his wife would be scarier, but she literally didn't do anything? Was NOT worth bringing her back. I was not rooting for a single person in this story to win any of the conflicts. Every organization we encountered were self-serving, morally corrupt pawns for unknown causes. Kinda made reading all 9 volumes feel pointless, but here I am. Overall, I guess it kept me entertained. 3 or 4/10

Vol 3. Hmm. Okay, I have a lot of thoughts, but no idea where to start with them. TL;DR: Despite selling me on it, the fandom / fanfic elements don't actually have much impact on the story and characters beyond appearances. The book to manga adaption can be really noticeable at times, which is distracting to me. The character dynamics are really strong and at times spicy, but I feel like we haven't gotten to know the characters as well as we should. I need more Reagan and Cath hanging out scenes. I'm not enjoying this as much as I wish I was. I picked this up not knowing it was an adaptation of a book, but I could kinda tell in a weird way. Scene changes FELT like scene changes from a book. I wish I could put into words what that means. This shouldn't have mattered, but I found myself trying to reconstruct the book while reading the manga, and it was distracting. I think I did this story a disservice in doing so, but I also couldn't stop. The manga being an adaptation is especially obvious when a lot of in-universe time passes. Things like Reagan and Cath becoming friends. "Montage sequences" basically. In books, they would pass as paragraphs establishing a new routine for the characters and time-skipping that way. Without the narration, in the manga it feels a bit jarring. Like they're suddenly friends. Maybe that's how it is in the book, but it just felt off in the manga. Also, quick minor gripe before I parse out the rest of my own thoughts: Page 102 in the first volume, Cath thinks, "First person, present tense. Are we in eighth grade?" And I just. NO??? That's second person??? Hello??? Who tf writes in SECOND PERSON?? First of all, this isn't a fifth grader on Wattpad wtf?? Y'all are in an upper-division college course. Second of all, to the actual author/adaptor of the manga, do you know basic English lit? I hope this mistake wasn't in the book. I think I'd cry. ANYWAY. I like the character dynamics. I love the spicy drama of Cath and Wren's relationship falling apart as Wren seeks independence and Cath (badly) wrestles with her co-dependence and inability to adapt. I love that Wren is realistically mean to Cath as basically a knee-jerk reaction to finally being free. On top of that, I love the different ways they react to their mother. It says a lot about the characters. I wish the story would show more of Wren's perspective. The original book is probably in first person, so limited perspective, but a comic isn't limited like that. I would love for the adaptation to add more to the story than was originally there. Especially since it's clear the manga cuts out a LOT of Cath's inner dialogue and narration for the sake a of space. I like that Reagan is also pretty mean, but it's quickly established that she's just stern and rough-around-the-edges. Cath shoots back often, so it's not one-sided. I love how quickly Reagan adopts Cath. She's so straightforward. Their friendship is the biggest draw for me. Reagan is supportive and stern and really honestly sweet.. I wish there were more scenes with her. She's tragically not as big a part of the story as she deserves to be. I also like how Cath and Levi's romantic relationship builds. I like that it's more of a slow burn. My only problem is we don't know Levi as a character as well as I think we should. Yeah, he spends all day in Cath and Reagan's dorm room, but in THREE volumes, we really only know that he's an agricultural student, works at Starbucks, likes to party, and is a player. And the player thing is mostly just mentioned (other than the kissing another girl thing, which he sucks for). They didn't explore the whole thing about him not being able to read? I'm so curious about it. Is he dyslexic? Is it ADHD? He's really sweet, and the fact that he's immediately there to support Cath when she calls for help speaks volumes about his character. I really hope we get to know him better. Another call for spending more time with Reagan please! Also, despite in-universe spending TONS of time with Nick, I feel like we didn't get to know him that well? Might be an adaptation time constraint thing. I love the dad. We need more Dad. Also he gives me major anxiety worrying if he's okay. Man needs some friends so he's not so alone. Final big thought: Despite the premise being built on fanfiction and fandom, Cath... barely interacts with the fanfiction community? And we NEVER see her messaging fanfic friends? It's all mentioned in passing (like the undergrad in New Zealand who beta's for her?). I've always been an outsider to the fanfic community, but like, it's a COMMUNITY. Y'all are tight with each other. IDK. It feels like the author either doesn't actually know how fanfic communities work or, bafflingly, chose not to include it despite building her premise on it. I was kinda disappointed. I wanted a bit of that secret double life as a popular fanfic author thing. I wanted to see notifications for new comments and kudos on AO3. Ya feel me? I also don't think I like the characters. I like their dynamics, but I'm not enjoying them as people or as characters. IDK. We've still got some volumes to go, I imagine, but I'm putting a tentative 6/10 score for now. We'll see if it tanks