88RHAPSODY

MANGA

STATUS
COMPLETE
VOLUMES
1
RELEASE
April 24, 2019
CHAPTERS
6

DESCRIPTION

Miya, a keyboardist in the band Aldebaran, awakens to find an unknown man sleeping next to him...! The man's identity is Ritsuki, a music student, who is expected to be a pianist with a promising future. However, the pressure crushes him and he falls into a slump. Miya, who was born into a musical family and has gone through a similar experience, feels compelled to help him...

Notes:

Includes an extra chapter.
Includes the one-shot "27star".

CHAPTERS

REVIEWS

ZeroTheThird
95/100
Here's my review and thoughts on 88rhapsody ! Feel free to let me know your thoughts if any of yous ever read it!
As a fellow second-hand buyer, seeing 88rhapsody sold for 2euros was an offer i could not pass up. I liked the cover as the colors were minimal but still showed the personality of each individual on it. Oh! and the synopsis felt enticing enough where i was nosey from the get-go. When it comes to the artstyle of Mone Sorai, it was reminding me of previous reads i devoured such as "Given" and "The Walking Man". It kinda beautifully bridged the gap between those two distinct visual worlds i experienced before but wished to witness again under any capacity. So you bet your sweet cheeks i was delighted to see a short story with such impactful figures!
For context, when i compare this work to the aforementioned pieces, i mean a couple of specific things. On one hand, you have the sharp and sorta contemporary, and trendy character designs reminiscent of Natsuki Kizu’s work in Given right? Where the lean proportions and fashion taste, expressiveness in the emotionally charged glances immediately established a weird connecting moment in my heart. You instantly get a sense of who these people are just by looking at how they carry themselves on the page. On the other hand, there is a quiet, grounded realism to the background artsy aspect that carries the almost same observant energy found in Jiro Taniguchi’s "The Walking Man." The environments are not just empty backdrops; they feel lived-in and completely real.
So seeing that every single panel feels deliberately framed, capturing the exact mood of a way too specific time and place.. i was left WANTING TO READ SO MUCH MORE OF IT.. I wish i could read it for the first time all over again because that initial spark is hard to replicate. Narratively, in case you wondered, my nosiness absolutely paid off. The plot unfolds with a natural cadence that honors the dynamics of its cast. Kudos to the author because to me these personalities simply did feel like real individuals navigating the messy friction of everyday life, ambition, and quiet intimacy. Everything moves at a pace that lets you absorb the atmosphere.
There is a tangible texture to their interactions in my opinion, a mix of hesitation and comfort that keeps you turning the pages.. Just to see how their chemistry evolves, but by the time I closed the manga? I felt a deep sense of satisfaction, the kind that only comes from stumbling upon a hidden gem tbh. For just two fucking euros man.. you truly cannot ask for anything better than this level of quality. This piece simply left me eager to scour the shelves for anything else Mone Sorai touches/creates in the future. It is a beautifully constructed, visually arresting experience that commands your attention from the cover onward. Don't let it pass up, even if that ain't your type of read.. You'll be surprised :)
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