This review was originally written for the website ListerX.com, which is now defunct. It can also be found on my blog, The Graphic Librarian.

Cover
When I first picked up this manga out of my review stack my first reaction was, "Oooh, pretty!" The fantastic color combinations and wonderfully curly font seemed perfectly suited to what appeared to be a typical shojo manga. (Boy, was I in for a surprise!) Anyway, the characters poses are excellent and the decision to use an all white background was definitely a good one. Anything else would have been at war with the wonderful retro color scheme. The only thing I don't like is how the white fades to pale green down at the bottom. It looks more like a mistake in the printing process rather than a conscious design choice. Something else I liked that I didn't notice right away was that the back features the same image as the front - only flip-flopped, so that Juri is looking out at you instead of Kazemichi.

Artwork
To be honest, I didn't really care that much for the illustrations in this manga. The characters themselves were nicely drawn and very pretty to look at, but that's about it. The rest of the work seemed sloppy and somehow unfinished. Instead of something that looked complete, a lot of the work just meandered off into nothing. Granted, the story is extremely character driven, however I can't see that as good justification for not giving the backgrounds and details a "finished" feel to them. The characters are the only place where it looks like the artist put forth any kind of effort at all. Of course, by now you should know from most of my previous reviews, how detail-oriented I am when it comes to artwork. So I suggest you thumb through this one a bit to decide if you like the style before shelling out any hard-earned cash.

Plot
**Possible Spoilers Warning**
The story begins when a boy named Reiji suffers a terrible accident which seriously damages about 90% of his body. However, a mysterious medical group intervenes, saving his life by building Reiji a new body - even his face has to be altered. Reiji, feeling like his old self is dead, takes Kazemichi as his new name and very quickly begins to develop an apathetic view on life. From there the story catapults its way through Kazemichi's school career and doesn't slow down until he meets Juri Mitani, a young woman who seems vaguely familiar somehow. Despite their idiosyncrasies, the two quickly hit it off and it's not long before they decide to move in together. During this time Kazemichi seems to spend all of his time doing one of two things - sleeping with Juri or contemplating his old life. Most of the manga is told via Kazemichi's internal dialogue, which suits the story perfectly because it gives the reader the same feelings of solitude and detachment that Kazemichi constantly experiences.

Despite his detachment from the world, Kazemichi finds himself falling deeply in love with Juri and it scares him because he knows his synthetic body isn't going to last much longer. Fearing for what will happen to the people he cares about once he's gone, Kazemichi begins to make plans to ensure their protection after his death. However, along the way he uncovers some very disturbing truths his mother, her married lover and their connection to the secretive medical group which originally saved his life - truths which will change Kazemichi forever.

Content Warnings
Language = There might be a word here or there, but it's mostly clean in this respect.

Violence = Not really - just the accident at the very beginning and a fire later in the story which kills a few "extras".

Nudity = Yes, but it's relatively tasteful - No full frontals or anything like that.

Sexual Situations = The two main characters are sexually active and it's obvious what they're doing. However, the scenes are subtle - not at all what I would call "graphic". There are also undertones of homosexuality and "favors for services rendered".

Ratings
Cover - 7/10 - Simple yet colorful with only a few small flaws.

Artwork - 6/10 - Beautiful characters, but everything else feels half-hearted and unfinished.

Plot - 7/10 - What seems simple at first slowly turns into a complex and fascinating maze of plots and sub-plots. It's officially a sci-fi, but the story still feels very real.

Overall - 7/10 - I wasn't expecting to enjoy this story, but it was surprisingly good - if only the artwork was a little better. ( )