A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow Vol 1: Volume 1

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Loveridge, Lynzee (August 23, 2018). "Raise wa Tanin ga Ii, Senpai ga Uzai Kōhai no Hanashi Take Top Prizes at Tsugi ni Kuru Manga Awards". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on May 10, 2021 . Retrieved January 13, 2023. What was the whole point of showing these two characters wallowing in self-pity about how they feel about their friend for half the manga when the solution they both come to is literally "get over it."

The overall story doesn't have a satisfying conclusion. The two protagonists walk away from each other like they didn't spend the entire year falling in love with each other and we're supposed to be okay with that? There's no fallout, there's no getting together, there's nothing! The review is in English but I read the German manga - also I struggle to rate Mangas/Comics in general so my rating is usually higher than it might be otherwise) The story starts off calm and fresh, beginning with Konatsu alone moving to Nagahama, a seaside town located in the Ehime prefecture. Transferring to Nanahama High School, Konatsu meets Koyuki, a 2nd-year student and a president of the Aquarium club, then their life begins to change forever. Nov 20 From the U.S. to Japan, You Can Control the Life-Size Moving Gundam from the Comfort of Your Own Home A Tropical Fish Yearns For Snow is a manga that can be best described as slowburn, aquarium sapphics!! As a new school year starts, they continue to figure out their feelings amid new school events.

This volume has Konatsu and Koyuki figuring out, by themselves, their relationship with each other, and there's a lot of things being left unsaid. Like, when Konatsu asks Koyuki why the latter had approached her the first time they had met, Koyuki gives her a generic answer, or when they have to work on the club's event for the school festival, Konatsu takes it upon herself to do everything possible. There's not a lot going on as per plot, to be honest, but we do see subtle exploration of how they interact with each other. Koyuki's hesitation over helping her classmates for her class' evnets because she wants to spend more time with Konatsu, but not being able to say so out aloud. Konatsu's conversation with her brother that hints at how she feels for Koyuki. All this added to the uncertainty and awkwardness the two of them would experience around each other, not being able to say that they want to spend more time each other but also really wanting to. Konatsu instantly finds a friend in Hirose, the bubbly, extroverted classmate who gets her to see the aquarium in the first place! She's just a really fun character and seeing Konatsu's inner conflict with wondering whether to accept or decline her offer to join Hirose in the Home Ec club turned out to be very funny. I can't wait to see all 3 of these girls bond even more! Apparently it's purely platonic to be extremely jealous whenever your friend hangs out with somebody else. Or get really sad that you're no longer the only one that makes them smile. Or mutually pine for each other in the middle of the night.

As for the characters, I love how the characters like Konatsu and Koyuki are designed to be imperfect, both being incomplete and having their flaws. Koyuki is portrayed as a character who looks perfect from the outside, being hard to approach, trying her best to hide her flaws and weaknesses, but somehow, Konatsu is the only one to who Koyuki showing those things. As they spend time with each other, they get to know each other more. Another worth mentioning character is Kaede Hirose, Konatsu’s classmate. From the outside, she is energetic and cheerful, yet something is lurking within her mind. Kaede adds a dimension to the story, making the manga more complete. Not gonna lie I confused two of the main characters which doesn’t speak for the drawing style (though I am not that good with faces, especially when they’re drawn in non-realistic styles the way a lot of Mangas and Comics are). Konatsu Amano moves to the seaside town of Nagahama to stay with her aunt after her father gets a job overseas. But in reality, there's a feeling of loneliness she's carrying with her. But when she sees her new high school is having an open house for the aquarium, she finds herself instantly drawn to Koyuki Honatsu, the club's leader and only member.Nettaigyo wa Yuki ni Kogareru is a tender story about growing up and accepting oneself, both the good and the bad. As a romance, it relies more on implied feelings but as a human drama it is quite open in its primary theme, that being loneliness and how it affects people differently. I believe it is successful in displaying realistic characters with relatable problems and improves in quality as it goes along. I recommend this manga. Notice how I haven't used any gendered pronouns in my review? This is why it's getting a 6. It doesn't matter who the protagonists are. Whether they're two boys, or a boy and a girl, it doesn't matter. I would still give this manga a 6. It is absolutely insane to claim that the two protagonists has a completely platonic relationship with each other. There's a slow pace to this series that may not be for everyone, but I love it because there's lots of inner thoughts that Konatsu and Koyuki have in the moment that really build across the steady, personal moments of the story. I'd give it lower because it's basically yuri bait, but I'm giving the mangaka the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they truly believe platonic relationships go like this. While all stories have layers to one degree or another, Makoto Hagino's quiet yuri tale A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow may be covering up more than we might at first think. This possibility comes from the fact that one of the protagonists, Konatsu, keeps relating her relationship with the other, Koyuki, to Masuji Ibuse's 1919 short story “Salamander.” The base plot of Ibuse's piece is that a salamander, having grown too large to leave its hole, eventually traps a small frog with it to soothe its loneliness. Unfortunately, the frog eventually dies from its entrapment, once again leaving the salamander all alone. While there is undoubtedly symbolism of its own in Ibuse's story, Hagino's fairly consistent referencing of the text maybe should give us some pause, especially since Konatsu casts herself as the frog to Koyuki's salamander, a theme that is once again brought to the fore in volume four.