Review for the whole series:

 

This is such a wild read. This series absolutely has to be paired with the author's notes that appear at the end of each volume. It puts a lot of stuff into context.

The "romance" in the series is so back seat to literally everything else going on in the manga. This isn't about a love triangle between childhood friends, this is about Oshimi's own struggle with what it means to be a man. Kei and Yui are not people, they are the two paths of masculinity that Yohei has to choose from. Kei is the ambiguous agender/gender queer departure from strict social expectations that are required to be masculine in the world. Kei represents freedom, an escape from gender all together. This is desirable but not an easy choice to make. Yui is the path of traditional masculine gender identity and masculine sexuality. Things that happen to Yui and Yohei are basically direct translations of Oshimi's own sexual trauma around masculinity. And this struggle between the two paths is represented by a love triangle, which i think its pretty powerful and brilliant. 

Then there is Yohei themselves, who is struggling with gender and body dysphoria. Kei and Yui also seem to represent Yohei's struggle between his sexuality and his gender desires. There is a REALLY intense scene during the final volume that just blows my mind and feels like the perfect physical manifestation of this struggle for Yohei. It was honestly amazing.

With that out of the way, this series is going to make you uncomfortable. This manga has sexual assault and dubious consent. I would not say it is full blown rape but its uncomfortable for sure and its suppose to be. There is also self harm in the form of self mutilation. Even with all of this, the manga really made me think about my own gender experience, and while I don't really identify with Oshimi's struggle, this was still such a good read. I literally binged it in like 2 days. Recommend if you can handle it.