Let me start by answering a glaring question that I found a lot of people, including myself, wondering: is Rainbow Days a Boys Love manga? Although the title and cover art may lead you to believe that it is, the truthful answer is no. There are many cute and playful ‘bromance’ moments, but the series is classified as a shōjo.
The premise of the story is following the daily life of four high school friends and their different paths in their love lives. Our main character, Natsuki, is a hopeless romantic who is desperate for love, as he’s the only one out of his friends that isn’t in a relationship. Despite giving all of his efforts towards his relationship, he gets his heart broken on Christmas Eve, but this is just the first stepping stone on his adventure down the rabbit hole of finding true love. We also get to see plenty of funny moments transpire between the boys since all of their personalities are vastly opposing.
This series is promising and has the potential to be a sweet romantic comedy, but at this time I cannot say for certain how good the Rainbow Days series will be. I will still be reading the next volume whenever it comes out, and hopefully, that will give the series more depth. My main complaint was that I found the characters to be pretty static, or lacking dimensions. To me, it seemed like they were given an archetype that they weren’t allowed to variate from, even saying some lines that were pretty boxcutter. I hope that these things will develop as the story goes on. Even though I was not blown away off the bat, I do want to see where the series goes! Rainbow Days will be published by VIZ Media on December 6th, 2022.
