Our Wonderful Days Vol 1 Review

Our Wonderful Days is new yuri manga, written and illustrated by Kei Hamuro and published by Seven Seas Entertainment, which focuses on a group of friends enjoying their high school days and quietly crushing on each other.

Synopsis:

Koharu has just started high school and is excited to learn that two of her friends, Nanaya and Minori, are in her class. There is also a new girl in their class, whose family just moved to their small town from Tokyo, and Koharu can’t help but admire how beautiful she is. When Koharu gets a chance to talk to her, she realizes that she is Mafuyu, an old friend of hers who she hasn’t seen in years. Overjoyed to be reunited, Koharu and Mafuyu pick up right where they left off and are soon just as close as they were before. Along with Nanaya and Minori, the girls spend all of their time together, and their feeling for one another gradually grow stronger.

Review:

Our Wonderful Days is a gentle, drama free, slice-of-life style story, with each chapter showing a different vignette of the girl’s daily lives. We see them considering what clubs to join, going to a convenience store after school, hanging out at their friends’ place and walking home together while sharing an umbrella on a rainy day.

Our two leads have yet to give voice to their romantic feelings for each other; instead, they seem content to simply delight in each other’s company, while quietly blushing over how cute or pretty the other girl is. It’s clear that the romance in this manga is going to have a slow build-up and I’m happy to go along for the ride. The leisurely pacing of the story, and focus on mundane everyday activities, gives this manga a very warm and comforting feel to it that I really enjoyed.

Koharu is an earnest and cheerful girl and her friendly nature balances out Mafuyu’s more reserved demeanor and sardonic sense of humor. They make for a cute couple and I liked how Mafuyu clearly felt comfortable with being more open with Koharu then she necessarily did with some of the other characters. Speaking of which, Koharu and Mafuyu aren’t the only potential couple in this series. Nanaya and Minori are also very close friends and, since they’re houses are too far out in the countryside for a daily commute into town to be practical, they have rented an apartment together. One chapter showed us a day in their life together and their relationship has a very domestic feel to it. They split up the chores, Minori nags Nanaya about eating properly and helps her dry her hair, and it’s all just very sweet. They seem like they’re a couple already, in a lot of ways, and I’m rooting for them to get together even more so then the main couple.

Our Wonderful Days is a manga about appreciating the little moments in everyday life, like the feeling of standing in a warm sunbeam, the beauty of a starry night sky or spending time with the people you care about. I found it to be a very pleasurable read and I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes in future volumes. I highly recommend this title to yuri fans and to anyone who loves the calm and gentle feel of a good slice-of-life story.

Final Score: 8 out of 10

You can find out more information on this manga at Seven Seas Entertainment’s website: https://sevenseasentertainment.com/books/our-wonderful-days-vol-1/

What did you think of this manga? Who’s your favourite pairing? Koharu x Mafuyu or Nanaya x Minori? Let me know in the comments! You can also check out some of my other yuri manga reviews: