Is Love the Answer?

(What does it mean to “like” someone?) Having thrown into the complicated world of a romantic relationship, a young girl gets washed over by an overwhelming dreaded feeling. Is this what it means to “like” someone? Will things really get better after a few kisses? (If I learn to like someone, will I be like everyone else?) “Is Love The Answer” is a manga that questions. As someone who always felt like she’s an alien, Chika is determined to ask those questions and demand a clear answer on what it means to love. Is love truly the answer? If it is, then how can she figure out away to be “normal” just like everyone else? The story closely follows Chika’s journey. Through her perspective, we get to explore and learn about the complexities and various set of hindrances that comes with different sexualities. It asks us to look a little closer at ourselves and the concepts of love that we’ve surrounded ourselves with. It’s a story that requires openness and an incredible level of understanding, which, I think, is something the manga has successfully achieved. Isaki’s writing here is sentimental. It asks for us to look at ourselves a little closer. It asks us to question the things we’ve deemed as “normal” and what does it really mean for something to be considered as a norm. Even for those within the LGBTQ+ community, it asks us to dismantle certain ideas that we’ve confined ourselves into. I appreciate the manga highlights nonconformity and fluidity in various identities. Despite its short length, it manages to do so poignantly in every chapter. As the story emphasizes over and over again, there is no definitive answer to things. You decide what life you want to life, what makes you happy. Although the manga does read mostly as an educational exploration of these ideas, I still think it is an incredibly important read. It is short and it is most definitely sweet.

WOW!! I feel like I'm getting called out here. I have never seen a manga that covers the topic of asexuality. Honestly, we need more of them. As an asexual, I related to Chika. Feeling like you are broken just because you don't see people in a sexual manner. That hit really closed to home for me. Everything Chika went through; I had gone through it as well. It's nice to see that other people have the same problems too. I was honestly jealous that Chika had this crazy support system. I wish I had that. The big thing that I really appreciated wasthat they explained what asexuality was and that it was a spectrum and an umbrella term. I feel like every time asexual is brought up in other media it's explained rather poorly and simplified. When in reality, asexuality is a lot more complicated than not wanting sex. Being able to learn more about yourself and what asexual means to you is a huge, big step and it was really nice to see that. For those of us who are asexual I highly recommend this manga. It existing to see asexuality represented in a positive way. Even if you're not an Ace I would still recommend it. The story and characters are extremely well done. Also, this manga will make you smile. =)

This was an amazing manga. Was it the best manga you'll ever read? Probably not. At times the art was a little wonky, and sometimes the dialogue/interactions felt forced, but for overall storytelling, I rate this manga a 9/10. While not all ace/aro people will have the same experiences I found that "Is Love the Answer" was incredibly faithful to my personal experiences as an aroace person and the experiences of other aroace people who I've interacted with. The story hit painfully close to home. It didn't describe some caricature of asexuality, it described it accurately with all of the good and ugly parts. Irecommend this manga to anyone unsure whether they are ace or aro, but overall I recommend this manga to everyone. This manga was so informative that I wished I could have just given out copies of it to everyone I know so that they could better understand asexuality, especially given how few people even know of or accept asexuality.

I thought that this manga was just..okay. When I heard it was about an aroace character, that got me excited to read it. But I can only say im sort of..disappointed? The characters felt quite bland, and it bothered me that Chika mentioned that asexual people can still fall in love, yet throughout the rest of the manga aromanticism and asexuality are still treated as the same thing. They're not. The title is "Is Love The Answer?" but she's an asexual woman. In general the manga felt very surface level and bland, the characters aren't developed on a lot, and it doesn't feel like theyhad a great place to develop from in the first place. I often found myself getting bored, especially throughout the later parts of the manga. At the same time though, not every manga has to be incredibly deep. So I think this manga works well for someone who just wants a bit of basic escapism and representation. But even though the entire manga is about asexuality, it feels like the rep for it wasn't done well at all.