Manga Review: Insomniacs After School

Insomniacs After School by Makoto Ojiro just concluded its run in Weekly Big Comic Spirits and here’s why you should be taking this opportunity to read the whole manage before the next season of the anime comes out.

Coming from the anime you know how good the writing is but for those of you who haven’t watched the anime yet Insomniacs After School tells the story of high schoolers Ganta and Isaki who both suffer from insomnia. One afternoon while searching for a spot to take a nap the two of them stumble onto each other in the school's abandoned observatory. From there the story follows their struggles to maintain their secret hiding place by creating a fake Astronomy club and then slowly but surely becoming invested in the club and Astronomy itself. It’s a beautiful story about finding yourself in the tumultuous time of high school while struggling with not exactly fitting in, no doubt it’s a story that many can relate to.

Now as to why you should read the rest of the manga rather than simply wait for the anime to return the simple reason is the art. The anime does an admirable job of recreating the stunning starscapes throughout the show's initial season but it pails in comparison to Ojiro’s stunningly detailed art. And while the starscapes are certainly the big showstoppers Ojiro does a magnificent job of depicting people going about their lives and how they might dress and change who they’re with or where they are. It is a stunning attention to detail that you don’t get very often even in realistic slice-of-life manga of a similar bent.

If you are a fan of love stories with beautiful art then this is certainly a series that you should not be sleeping on!