Last Quarter, Vol. 1

Gr 9 Up–Dissatisfied with her home life, high school student Mizuki runs away and winds up meeting a dashing, foreign guitarist named Adam in a park. Their music-filled whirlwind romance is cut short, and Mizuki runs off to help elementary student Hotaru search for her cat in a dream-space. The next day, Hotaru continues her search and finds the same girl in an abandoned mansion, though she’s the only one who can see her, and the girl can’t remember anything except the song Adam would repeatedly sing to her. The narrative follows Hotaru and her friends as they search for clues about the girl’s life, while simultaneously sorting out their own teenage lives, including first crushes and processing some of their personal grief. While most of this story is innocent and beautiful, it can be intense; there are a few moments of domestic assault seen on the page, and the characters have yet to address the behavior and the rationalization given by the end of Volume 1. Fans of Yazawa’s other works will recognize her signature art style—retro fashion choices, large eyes and lips, and many an updo with curls—but the supernatural storyline is a different choice for Yazawa.