“I feel a faint lip-to-lip contact just now.”
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Ryoma Kitada
Translation: Jason Sutherland
What They Say
Even in university, Chono is stuck in the past regrets of his high school years. His dull days come to an abrupt end when he comes across a mysterious book… A book that allows him to return and re-do his high school life in his dreams. Follow Chono and the girls of his dreams as they reshape their wasted youths!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
One of a couple of new projects that got underway in early 2023 in Shonen Jump+, Yumeochi: Dreaming of Falling for You comes from creator Ryoma Kitada. Kitada has a couple of titles under their name but is mostly known for the Super HXHeroes property which saw an anime adaptation. I hadn’t seen any of their original work before or the anime adaptation but the reputation with lewd or fanservice-oriented material certainly is out there. With this series, it has a pretty good look overall though nothing that feels like it’s going to be really radical or anything. There’s certainly appeal in this genre for many and it’s also easy to see why a lot will avoid it. I’ve avoided a lot of it over the years and that just makes this a bit more accessible for me since I’m not as worn down and disillusioned by it. It helps that Kitada has a pleasing art style and the general approach of the book looks to be pretty solid.
With Asakura having abused her body so badly in the last few weeks to get toned and fit, the last chapter ended with her basically falling into the pool because she’s so unhealthy with what she did. That has her panicking in the real world to the point where she wakes up and now finds that she’s unable to get back to sleep. That causes a lot of quick worry about whether her dream self is okay enough for her to return to it and just accelerates the worry. Thankfully, she’s able to get back fairly quickly overall but it’s kind of problematic as we see how Chono is panicking over her now that she’s out of the pool and trying to see if she’s breathing. Only to have her come back into this body and raise up, providing for a sudden lip-to-lip moment that’s viewed from afar as a possible kiss. Even Asakura panics over that.
It’s an interesting sequence because neither want to make it a thing though it’s still clear that as first characters that they’re the ones most likely to end up together if the book goes there. So seeing her trying to downplay it and him not even recognize it at all in order to avoid any awkwardness is fun. But we also get him kind of calling her out for what she’s done with the diet which has her both calling him out for noticing it – even though that was the intention – and then upset by how he’s trying to help her. He does come up with the idea of wanting to help her like he does the other two by coming up with both a good diet plan and exercise plan that they can do together, but she’s playful enough about it that it’s not completely nailed down. She does like the idea that he might make all her meals for a while, however…
In Summary:
This wraps up the poolside storyline and I’m a little frustrated that it ended so quickly when it had so much more easy potential. We’re going forward with the study camp stuff next but it just reminds me that the series doesn’t seem to know how to slow things down and have some “filler” fun that lets us get to know the characters more without it being a big revelatory moment. It’s a fun chapter overall but it just could have been a lot more. I do like that we get some minor threat to the situation with what happens to Asakura but it’s almost presented in a superficial enough way to not have too much meaning just yet. Still, it’s an appealing chapter in the artwork and furthering the main pairing here.
Content Grade: B
Art Grade: B+
Text/Translation Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Manga Plus
Release Date: August 26th, 2023
