Creative Staff:
Story/Art: Matcha Hazuki
Translation/Adaptation: Amanda Haley
Lettering: Bianca Pistillo
What They Say:
After Hajime reveals new information about the incident that triggered Kaori’s memory loss, Yuuki decides to stop running away…but he’s unsure of what he can do to help the childhood friends reconnect and to bring Kaori happiness. In the meantime, Kaori grows uneasy, since the Yuuki who’s been acting cold and distant toward her doesn’t seem like the same boy from her journals. When the two finally face each other and their feelings, in what way will it affect their one-week friendships to come? See how uncovering the past will change the future for Yuuki, Kaori, and her friends in the final volume of One Week Friends!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
I am mostly without words at the end of this series. It honestly felt like the ending came and went way too quickly, and the execution of this might actually be better served as an anime. Reading through this as I did made it feel like Fujimiya just regained all of her memories out of almost nowhere, with basically no work that went into it.
Sure, Hase and Kujou have been working toward this moment all this time, but what has Fujimiya done? Maybe it is that simple. Maybe it’s the support line they provide that allows her the strength to get through whatever psychological block she had. But that just feels so cheap. This manga, or at least that storyline, is about Fujimiya; it’s not about Hase or Kujou. So having them be the catalyst and entire means by which she regained her memories feels…well, cheap. She was acted upon. She didn’t have a moment for herself, besides to reveal to everyone else what we’ve already figured out: sixth grade girls can be very mean. The wish on a whim wasn’t known, but that feels like just another piece of a magical puzzle that I can honestly just get on board with. This is a weird enough manga as it is.
But despite all that, I’m still kind of welling up at the resolution of it all. Maybe I’m just an easy cry, but the feeling of relief and satisfaction after this is all done from everyone is just…nice. It’s just nice. These kids haven’t been through a lot, but they’ve been through enough. They deserve a break from it all.
In Summary:
One Week Friends has been a good ride, and at only seven volumes, it’s extremely digestible. Even without the hangups I have about it, I would probably suggest this manga as a chill series to hang with. It’s not too weighty either, or at least it doesn’t get nearly as weighty as it could have (and perhaps I would have liked it more if it did). I think I preferred the anime, for its superior animation to the manga’s art, but in the end, I guess it doesn’t really matter which way you go about it.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Packaging Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Yen Press
Release Date: June 18, 2019
MSRP: $15.00