First of all, this is undoubtedly my favorite manga of all time. Maybe it's because of that, or maybe in spite of it, but I can never seem to properly review it. I think a lot of my relationship with this manga stems with the way it makes me feel in an abstract sense more than a story sense. The characters are wonderful in all of their flaws, they make dumb teenage decisions, and their personalities exude from the artwork and the few words that they think or speak. Midorikawa and Mikako's relationship isn't my favorite, but I still love the fact that it exists,because of course it does. They don't get together for my enjoyment or preference, they do it because they like each other. It's that level of autonomy, the surging organic nature of every page and panel of this manga, that I think truly made me fall in love with it.

I also identify deeply with the underlying theme of teenage expectation present in this manga. I'm 18 as I write this review, still in high school, and I know many changes are soon to take place in my life. Seeing the characters in Mikako-san navigating their way through the same situations and feelings I find myself in is such an enlightening experience. There is a sense of dread mixed with hope that is present throughout: the uncertainty of the future, the complicated nature of the present, and the unreachable allure of the past.

The attention on the seemingly mundane is probably the most prominent feature of this manga. There is an immense focus on objects and the way that they fit into the stories that make up our lives. I adore how Machiko uses this motif. It only adds to the organic nature of it all, and it does so in a way that is so compelling yet believable that I struggle to realize sometimes just how amazing it is.

But words can't do it justice. I truly believe, however cynical it may sound, that I am the biggest fan of this manga that there is. As such, it's hard for me to express the magnitude of emotion and change this manga has filled me with. There's one page in which, as Mikako takes a late night train ride and looks out the window to seeing a passing passenger jet, she thinks a sentence that does the best job of summing this manga up in my mind.

"I got the feeling I could go far."