OLD SCHOOL: Kiriko Nananan’s Blue. Manga, high school girl with crush on local “bad girl,” read on recommendation from Journalista among others. It’s a very, very well-done example of the “poignant, aching first love at boarding school” gay genre. (Although the school in Blue isn’t actually a boarding school. But you guys know exactly what I mean, yeah?) Breaks no new ground, but is lovely to look at–black and white line drawings so crisp they’re dreamlike, capturing that adolescent state of mind where nothing in the world seems real except you and her. The back cover copy reads,

The sky that stretches out above the dark sea.
The school uniforms and our desperate awkwardness.
If those adornments of our youth
Held any color
It would have been deep blue.

You see what I mean about old-school? If you are really into this genre, like I am, you will love this manga foolishly, like I do. If you’re not, you still might take a look, since the artwork is intensely pretty.