We Were There: Volume 12

by Yuki Obata, 191 pages

Nanami clings to her long-distance relationship with hard-won high school sweetheart Yano. But when he stops responding to her calls and emails, she finds he has vanished, choosing to go to ground after the suicide of his terminally ill mother. In his place, he's asked his best friend Takeuchi to look after Nanami, knowing the other boy has loved her since they were in school together. Years have passed since that day and Takeuchi makes plans to propose. But then Nanami's coworker sees a business card with a familiar name....

This series frustrates me. I want to kick all of these people in the pants for making their own and their loved ones' lives so difficult and complicated and unnecessarily melodramatic. But then I stop and remember that people in real life are just as stupid, inconsistent, and self-defeating and rarely do things the easy way, and I cut them a little slack. I just remember thinking a few volumes back that, yay, everyone was finally happy and their issues overcome (and let me tell you, they had a lot of issues, not the least of which was the memory of Yano's first girlfriend, also a Nanami, who was killed in a car accident, and the subsequent grief sex he had with her socially awkward sister who has been emotionally stalking him ever since). But then it got all messy again. And now Nanami has more choices to make, as does Yano, and if their track record in that area is any indication, they've got a bumpy road ahead. As a reader, I haven't always liked them, but that doesn't mean I wish them ill. But I'll be glad when I can put down the last volume and never have to worry about them again.

If your entertainment tastes lean toward soap opera, then consider picking up this high school romantic drama, earlier volumes of which have appeared on YALSA's Great Graphic Novels for Teens list.