Some good, some bad. I know that Gengoroh Tagame is capable of making a compelling story and drawing in amazing and endearing simplicity, his eye to attention is in the characters. I'm a little disappointed in the emphasis on the title, the protagonist's emphasis on color particularly in the descriptions of surroundings, of characters, of clothing...... and the lack of color present. Granted, I know that'll cost both the publisher and the consumer extra and even though I rented it from the library, I've seen manga engage in portraying some pages with color, it would add such beauty to the story. (HUGE SPOILER TO THE ENDING)I understand stories have engaged in age gap exploration and I can see its merit but not when it's an underage kid in high school and an older person post-50s, I felt that it might venture there and I was hoping it wasn't but it did and the concerns of the ex-wife character and the mom came true, that the adult engaged in a poor decision. I've seen Gengoroh Tagame's work be better and do better, and unfortunately I'm simply a human who compares this work to My Brother's Husband and it's a tall ask.

The good: it's a simple story and a quick-ish read, while I see some reviewers have noted the lack of internet on behalf of the protagonist, there's something about him that is just kind of naive which makes sense, he's young and dumb figuring things out. I enjoyed watching the value of community form and I'm glad there wasn't some melodramatic back and forth about outing that you see in other teenage-misunderstanding stories. The characters felt realistic and grounded and quite simple. They apologized to each other for such mishaps and they promised to grow, I quite enjoyed that. I loved the support once the protagonist comes out. Was the plot the best? Not really, I think the author is so much more talented but just wasn't the most fulfilling plot for me, but part of me thinks, was the author writing to his current self or his past self with the ending in mind, it's a little rough to be fully okay with things. Wish the protag was a little older.