For manga on my “to consider reading” list, 「6月のラブレター」 worked its way up to the number two spot on my “highest percentage of known words” list (0.12% below the number one spot), matching its position on my “highest percentage of known kanji” list (0.36% below the number one spot).
Normally, an “easy to read” series for me means I feel I can follow the story even if I don’t look up every unknown word, and I accept I’ll miss some things.
But I’ve also been wanting to try reading something where I don’t gloss over some things.
This specific series was added to my “to consider reading” list based on the following:
- Limited-time free trial of the first volume = I could extract vocabulary words.
- Nice cover art.
- Content artwork seems nice enough.
- There’s no objectionable content.
Very important items that did not go into consideration were:
- What the story is about?
- Will it interest me? (I’m not really into [seeking-]romance stories, as the title suggests this will be.)
- Is the series complete or ongoing? (As it turns out, it’s complete with three volumes!)
The number one thing going for this pick was the high number of words and kanji known to me (at least for the first volume).
Looking at Kobo’s listing for the series, here is the description:
高1のももこは小学校のころから極度に控えめな性格。支えてくれた親友・真昼は、中学入学を前に亡くなってしまう。そしてももこに訪れる初めての恋―― 一向に積極的になれないももこの前に、自称・幽霊となった親友の真昼が現れる。着れなかったはずの制服姿で…。絡みあう恋と友情。甘いのに、どこか切ない初恋感覚ストーリー
Momoko, a first-year high school student, has been extremely reserved since elementary school. Her best friend Mahiru, who supported her, died before entering middle school. And then arrives Momoko’s first love— Before Momoko, who has never before been assertive, appears the self-proclaimed ghost of her best friend Mahiru. In a uniform she shouldn’t have been able to wear… Intertwined love and friendship. A sweet, and yet somewhat sad, story of first love.
So, jumping into what promised to be yet another high school teen crush series, how did it go?
I read the first chapter, 53 pages, in just under an hour and a half. Longer than I expected, but there were a few parts where I didn’t properly understand something that cleared up a few pages later, so I doubled back and re-read prior sections with a clearer understanding.
With roughly an expected 230 unknown words in the volume, I was prepared to look up about one word per page, but it ended up being half that.
Looked-up words.
- 予鈴
- べらぼう
- 埋もれる
- 通知
- ただでさえ
- 係
- さり気なく
- 面倒見
- 引き受ける
- まともに
- うだうだ
- 絶句 (This one came without furigana, but somehow I was able to read it without knowing it!)
- 死守
- どうりで
- 年季
- ガタつく
- ハラハラ
- ほぐれる
- やり遂げる
- 後回し
- 肝心
- 果たす
- 友達面
(Plus a few I didn’t need to look up because I looked them up in advance.)
Averaging one lookup per two pages to not miss any words in this chapter wasn’t too bad (although sometimes they came in as two or three lookups in one panel).
Overall, the experience reminded me of reading Orange, which has a similar number of unknown words for me. If anything, that’s actually a little bit of a letdown. “After all these months looking forward to an easy reading experience, it’s no different than the easy reading experience I already have with Orange!” (Maybe I need to get back to reading Detective Conan, so I can properly appreciate the easier series!)
Storywise, I can see where the mangaka is setting up things to reveal to the main character (and the reader) later, so hopefully there will be good pacing. I look forward to seeing how things fill out the next 11 chapters.
Fun coincidence: There’s a classmate named 菜穂ちゃん, whose name appeared without furigana. I don’t recognize the kanji, but I knew it looked very familiar. Upon checking to confirm, sure enough, it’s the same name as the main character in Orange.