Just as nice as the volume 1!
I just adore the characters and the drawing style. And also I never connected to a character as much as the friend that likes yuri and yaoi. Its just too cute

Manga Review

Look I decided it’s finally time to use this extra time to catch up on some outstanding reviews. We’ll start with the oldest first, which of course means it’s Breath of Flowers review time!

My initial experience with Breath of Flowers was one of disappointment. That was due to the fact the format of the file had the end at the start.
Problems with the format

I’m not silly, I know you read manga from end to start. But I’ve never had a digital copy formatted that way. Do you realise how wild that is to open and instantly scroll to the end? NetGalley has never done me dirty like this.

So I can only assume it was a TokyoPop formatting issue.

Due to this, I actually made it a good chunk into this manga. How did I make it so far without considering it was wrong? I just thought the translation was bad, and we’d instantly been dropped into a lesbian love story.

However, that wasn’t the case and I fixed my reading order to continue.
Volume 1 Review

As can be figured out from the synopsis, this is a yuri romance, with a slight twist. Azami doesn’t realise the boy she’s got a crush on is actually a girl. Gwyn doesn’t want to be a boy – at least it never explicitly states that* – but they do want to play basketball.

*I did read this 6 months ago so I could be wrong.

And at a school with no girls team, Gwyn does what they have to.

Honestly as a cis person I don’t have any kind of right to say whether identity was handled correctly or not. They do explore clothing styles a little more and Gwyn is able to have some freedom as a girl in a different school later on.

However, what I really liked about Breath of Flowers is how quickly Azami was okay with finding out her crush was female. Seeing the two’s relationship blossom whilst trying to exist in school was very lovely. Their romance was cute.

Azami is a very jealous character, though due to her age I can’t criticise her for being overly dramatic. That’s just how some people are, particularly at that age. With hindsight and time she would probably realise her actions were a bit much, and they should’ve had their big talk sooner.

Personally, I found Gwyn’s narrative the more interesting of the two. Perhaps as it’s mostly not her point of view it left me intrigued to find out more about her.

Volume 2 Review

As mentioned, Azami is very jealous. The reasoning of her jealousy spike is the introduction of Judith.

Judith gives Gwyn a lot of attention, and openly pushes Azami’s buttons. The introduction to this plot point at the end of volume 1 wasn’t encouraging. To see it continue here was a chore.

I just didn’t care for it. Eventually the girls all talk and solve their issues, but Judith still enjoys winding Azami up. Seeing Gwyn and Azami learn how important communication was made me happy. Especially as this is something that is often skipped over in young adult books.

The rest of the focal point for the story is Gwyn’s move to a new school. Here she doesn’t have to pretend to be a boy to join the team.

Whilst one problem is solved, no high school experience is complete without a multitude of problems. This time Gwyn has to face bullying within their new team. Specifically homophobic centered bullying.

I believe this section was handled really well. Particularly as it helped develop their relationship. Azami got a chance to be her best self.

Whilst I think Caly portrayed the age group well, I do believe there was room for further development of the characters.

Overall Caly’s art work was perfect for this storyline. The quality was kept throughout both volumes, and it was pretty nice to look at.

We shouldn’t be surprised at my rating or criticisms of this series. I’m no real romance reader. It was never going to blow me away. It achieves what it set out to be – a short soft wlw manga.

Chances are, if I stumbled across another manga by Caly I’d give it a try. Whilst Breath of Flowers wasn’t fully my cup of tea, I have no fault with the art.

The whole plot was fairly contrived and predictable, but it was enjoyable and I appreciate the fact that it is a high school lesbian romance manga for my teens.

It was fun to read this one. The art style is amazing. The characters are adorable. The chemistry between the characters is well portrayed. And the art sequence maintained well. I am so looking forward to the series. Thanks #NetGalley for the book #BreathofFlowers.

Giving this one star because I have to give it a rating, not because I actually think it's only worth one star. I didn't realise this was a manga when I requested it. I thought it was a regular graphic novel. I'm not a fan of manga, so that's the main reason I wasn't that fond of it. Basically, I didn't finish this (although I gave an honest effort) but if you like this kind of book, maybe give it a try??

Blogger at Momotips

Review of Breath of Flowers vol.2

Thanks to Netgalley and Diamond Books for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review. It has not influenced my opinions.

This is the second and last volume of Breath of flowers, the debut manga of the French artist Caly. As the previous volume, also this one has a beautiful cover. If you read my review of the first volume, you know I loved the romance and girls love that there is in it. In this second volume, I appreciated not only the romance but also Azami. This time, we get to know her more, and we live together with her the pure and delicate emotions of the first love, the first misunderstanding and what loving someone means. This volume, as it was the previous one, goes through some current topics of today’s life, such as LGBTQ+ and transgender. Moreover, I particularly noticed the evolution made by the artists, I felt that with this second volume she became more aware of way of telling a story. Also, in the previous volume she did a good job, but in this one was marvelous as I could feel more the story. To conclude this shirt review, I liked more this second volume that the previous one, it is a nice love story and it was nice to read something different.

Thank you to NetGalley, Diamond Book Distributors, and author Caly for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

While Breath of Flowers Volume One focuses on the relationship between Gwyn and Azami, I found Volume Two (and from what I can tell, the final volume?!) to be vastly more interesting. This volume super stressed me out as a reader! I was so angry at Gwyn Thunder the whole time, and I just couldn't stop reading because I wanted everyone to find out the truth!

Okay, back up for a minute. This volume has a few events that take place while Gwyn is at her sports camp overseas. There is some tension in her relationship with Azami because another girl is with her that likes her, and of course there's always tension in relationships with such a distance.

When Gwyn returns, she starts at her new high school and is appointed as a co-captain of her basketball team, along with another girl named Gwyn, called by her last name, Thunder. Thunder has strived to reach a leading role on the team for the last two years, and she is furious that Gwyn comes along and shares this role with her. So Thunder schemes to get Gwyn off the team. She sees Gwyn with Azami and starts spreading rumors that she's checking out the other girls in the locker room. She finds out Gwyn was a "boy" at her old school, which is a secret. And to top it off, she sets a trap to make it look like Gwyn comes onto her to make the team hate her!

This book was so frustrating, but I absolutely loved it! While the first volume ended with "Sure, I can read the next one," this one ends with "WHY ISN'T THERE A NEXT ONE?!"

:)

I got an ARC of this book.

I don't really know why I asked for the second book, knowing that I wasn't really a fan of the first one. Yet, here I am. I am sorta glad that I did though. The series drastically improved. 

The characters are still really flat and unbelievable. Gwen is still the perfect male lead, but with slightly longer hair. The issues in the book are still from really unhealthy relationships that don't make sense.

BUT the story focuses more on growth and acceptance. This volume really focused on how communication matters and how people can experience the same things differently too. So while I wasn't impressed, I probably would have liked the series if this were the first volume instead of the second. 

Gwen and Azumi learn how to communicate with each other. They stand up for each other. They learn that being open about their relationship is a choice and not the norm. They learn that others see them and sometimes that can be scary, but they are in it together. I started to actually be ok with them as a couple by the last chapter. It finally started to seem like a real relationship instead of one that was forced. So that growth was incredible. 

There is a bunch of homophobia and jealousy in this volume, but it mostly get addressed and is seen as a bad thing. It was instantly forgiven which is weird to me considering how awful it was, which took some of my liking of the resolution away. There is a line where forgiveness is not a given, what happened is well beyond that line. 

So overall it was eh. Not the best, but not the worst. The growth is what got it the three stars.

In the first book, Gwen was disguised as a boy, so she could play basketball (there was only one team, and it was a boys team)

In the second book, she has moved to a different high school so that she can play basketball as a girl, but she is still in love with Azami. The story shifts from gender bending, to being more of a mean girls story with the said mean girl, trying to mke it look as though Gwen is lusting after all her team mates.

<img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5329" src="https://g2comm.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/breath-of-flowers.png" alt="" " />

The love story is kind of sweet, and the mean girl is devious, and Gwen doesn't have to hide as a boy, so there is that. So, much more interesting second volume, where the story wraps up, as this is ony a two volume manga.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This manga surprised me. After learning about the different types I was pleasantly surprised to locate another yuri story. This is a continuation of the first. Gwyn is the star. She is sweet, cute and everyone wants to be her friend or love interest. Azami is her girlfriend and trying to fit love in between basketball practice, jealous rampages and rumors started by the Thunder makes for an interesting, twisty manga. A must add to the collection.

This was such a rollercoaster! I was anxious the entire time for Gwyn. I'm glad that everything was resolved and that Gwyn and Azami's relationship survived everything that it was put through. This was such a cute and great ending for the end of this series. I'm really glad that this dealt with the other girls' prejudices, like Azami's in the first volume.