Not long after Haruna first met Yoh, she heard about the “beads incident.” Back in Junior High, Yoh was on the basketball team and was dating the team manager, Makoto. She had a fondness for wearing beads, and one day he accidentally hurt her feelings by saying that he didn’t particularly care for them. She turned on the waterworks and managed to get Yoh’s teammates to turn against him. Now Makoto is back, and has been calling Yoh in hopes of seeing him again.

It’s one of the strengths of this series that Yoh’s perspective is not neglected. Getting to see his reaction to being contacted by his ex-girlfriend elevates this from a mere “romantic rival” plot to something a lot more meaningful, more melancholy than melodrama. He firmly tells her to leave him alone, and unequivocally lets Haruna know that she’s the one he wants to be with. It’s Haruna who eventually convinces him to see Makoto and he comes away from the experience at peace with his past.

Haruna, who has been prone to spazzery up until this point, is pretty awesome in this volume, too. It’s kind of rare for me to like both members of a couple as much as I do Haruna and Yoh. Their interactions and discoveries in this volume contribute to make it the best of the series since they got together. The last three pages were especially terrific; I might even have shed a tear.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

Nanami Takahashi has just started high school and is eager to make friends. As she attempts to make conversation with some girls in her class, she finds that their favorite topic of discussion is a carefree-looking boy named Motoharu Yano. Yano is very popular, though more because of sheer presence than good looks. As Nanami puts it later, he’s the “kind of guy everyone follows out to the field to play ball, but once he leaves, everyone stops playing because it’s not fun anymore.”

Initially, Nanami’s irritated by Yano’s seemingly irresponsible ways, but he listens to her when she needs a sympathetic ear, and she soon realizes that she’s got a crush on him. The class is abuzz with rumors about Yano’s last girlfriend, who died the summer before in a car accident, and Nanami is understandably confused by Yano’s resolutely cheerful demeanor in the face of such tragedy. Little by little, friendship grows between them, and he eventually confides in her his bitterness that his girlfriend was killed while seeing another boy behind his back.

We Were There is pretty mellow in its storytelling. There are no melodramatic moments, no crazy facial expressions, no gags, and no super-deformity. Instead, it’s a quiet tale of a slightly strange and funny girl attempting to understand the contradictions presented by the boy who might be hiding feelings of grief behind a sunny smile. In addition to the mystery of what really happened in the past, the story in the present is compelling, too, even though it’s another entry in the “kind-hearted heroine is the only one who can help our hero through his angst” category.

The characters are likable, and even some of the supporting characters are pretty interesting, like grouchy, bespectacled Yamamoto. I particularly like the way Nanami’s awkward attempts to fit in with her new friends are depicted. At first, things are palpably stiff between them—exemplified in a conversation in which the other girls are blathering on about Yano while Nanami attempts to interject comments about classes—but as time wears on, they become more relaxed in each other’s company. Nothing is overtly said to chart the progress of the relationship; the visuals simply tell the story.

For the most part, the art is light and pleasant, though Obata seems to have attended the Aya Nakahara School for Overly Large Ears and Hands. Also, I’m not fond of the really shiny eyes she draws. Although emotion is competently conveyed using body language and the rest of the face, the lack of pupils is still pretty disconcerting. Yano, particularly, often looks like his eyes are blank and soulless.

Overall, We Were There is a very satisfying read. When it was over, I wanted more.

We Were There is published in Japan as Bokura ga Ita and won the Shogakukan Manga Award for shoujo in 2005. Twelve volumes have been released in Japanese so far, while the English translation debuted on November 4th. Subsequent volumes are scheduled for bimonthly release.

Review copy provided by the publisher. Review originally published at Manga Recon.

From the back cover:
Just when things are going well for Haruna, in walks transfer student Leona Matsuzaka. Beautiful Leona’s got only one thing in mind—to destroy Haruna’s happiness! Who is this vengeful girl and why does she want to hurt Haruna so badly?

Review:
The Leona story in this volume isn’t so great. If this were an anime, it’d be the part you’d swear was filler and then be surprised to find that it was actually from the source material, like that part in GetBackers with the thieving monkeys at the hot springs. There are a few good things, though. First, I liked that her rivalry with Haruna is sports-related rather than because of Yoh. Secondly, she traps Haruna and Yoh in a storage room, prompting Haruna to get all gallant and vow to protect Yoh from the cold. Haruna’s cool when she’s like that.

Alas, Haruna is also annoying on a few occasions. During all the Leona stuff, she tells Yoh, “Maybe you should just get together with Leona.” Later, after he’s tired of her praising his friend Asaoka (she’s trying to set him up with her friend, Mami) and tells her “Maybe you should date Asaoka, then,” she gets all pissed, completely not seeing the parallels between her own earlier actions.

One thing that I continue to love about this series is the active interest Yoh’s friends take in his relationship with Haruna. When Asaoka inadvertently prompts that argument between the couple, he devises a tricky scheme to get them to reconcile. Basically, he’s the Hanazawa Rui of the piece.

Even though Haruna occasionally bugs me, there are enough original and funny things about this series that it still ends up being a good read.

From the back cover:
Haruna jumps to the conclusion that Yoh is interested in her friend Mami when she sees the two of them together. Instead of confronting him about it, she runs away! Will Haruna’s insecurities end her relationship with Yoh?

Review:
Normally, I’d be peeved about the back cover clurb making the series and Haruna seem so stupid, but unfortunately, she does do a number of dumb things in this volume. She does not, however, run away after seeing Yoh and Mami, so that part’s wrong, at least.

The volume starts out well. Haruna, using a sports metaphor as relationship guidance once again, decides that she needs “one big swing” to get rid of the awkwardness she and Yoh are feeling, and goes all out planning a Christmas date. Seeing her work hard at her part-time job (which she got in order to buy Yoh a swanky present) is cool, and there are many funny parts, like when she goes around, excitedly telling everyone her plans.

The date chapter itself is the best in the volume, as things don’t quite go as planned, but still turn out okay. Yoh and Haruna share their first kiss, and after that is where the regrettable behavior starts. Haruna is so flummoxed she can’t talk to Yoh properly and avoids him. He realizes what’s going on, but doesn’t like it and is upset. After a frustrating interval, they finally work things out.

The conclusion to the last chapter is very satisfying and the final page cracked me up. I love that Yoh is the kind of a guy who can tell her straight out that something “made [him] very upset.” Too, I love that though Haruna couldn’t talk to him coherently, she showed her regard by taking on his chore of shoveling the snow in front of his house. That’s such a completely Haruna thing to do.

While this volume wasn’t my favorite, maybe Haruna has now gotten all the spazzitude out of her system. Let us hope.

From the back cover:
What does Haruna do when she finds herself liking Yoh? She starts acting weird and avoiding him, that’s what! When he confronts her about her strange behavior and encourages her to be honest with him, will she quash her feelings or confess her love?

Review:
Man, this series is so good! This volume starts with Haruna working up the nerve to tell Yoh how she feels about him. I haven’t read pre-confession deliberation this good since the first volume of Kare Kano and that’s a pretty big compliment. In the chapters that follow, they begin going out, Haruna is bullied by some older girls who want her to break up with Yoh (Awesomely, she beats them up!), and she and Yoh begin to learn how to interact as a couple.

There are so many things I love about this series. Both Haruna and Yoh are great characters, for one. I like them a lot separately and together. I like the reasons they like each other, too, like when Yoh lists Haruna’s good points as staying strong under pressure and giving her all to her endeavors. The art is great, and the story is original, sweet, and funny (the sidebars, too). I also like that Yoh actually talks about things with his friends, which is kind of unusual in a shoujo manga.

I didn’t expect them to become a couple quite so soon, and I hope the story doesn’t devolve into a mass of shoujo clichés as story ideas dwindle. There’s one scene that gives me hope that that won’t happen, though. Yoh, himself ignorant in the ways of dating, has just asked Haruna what happens in the shoujo manga she’s so fond of when a couple finally gets together. Here’s her reply:

Haruna: Hm… Sometimes a love rival pops up! Or the couple gets separated. Or they find out they’re actually related. That kind of stuff!
Yoh: … That’s not really what I meant.

High School Debut is seriously very, very good. I recommend it to all and sundry.