A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow: Volume 2 manga review

A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow Graphic Novel Volume 2 cover image

High school student, Konatsu Amano, learns that her father has gotten a job overseas.  Konatsu has to leave Tokyo and the life she’s always known and relocate to a small seaside town, Nagahama, to stay with her aunt.  On her first trip to her new school, Nanahama High School, Konatsu arrives at the open house for the school's “Aquarium Club,” where she meets a like-minded teen girl, Koyuki Honami.  She might be the one to bring the introverted Konatsu out of her shell.

A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow, Vol. 2 (Chapters 5 to 8) opens with Konatsu and Koyuki in an embrace that Koyuki initiated.  They suddenly part, embarrassed by the moment.  Now, it seems that Koyuki is avoiding Konatsu, but luckily, Koyuki's father, Mr. Honami, a teacher at the high school, has a way to fix what ails them.  So what's next for the Konatsu and Koyuki after this bonding experience.  Plus, Konatsu's father returns to Japan for a visit.

[This volume includes an illustrated “Afterword” and bonus manga.]

THE LOWDOWN:  The A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow manga is a light-hearted, LGBTQ-themed manga from VIZ Media.  It is similar in tone and spirit to That Blue Sky Feeling, a manga about a straight teen boy who has a very close relationship with a gay teen boy.

A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow Graphic Novel Volume 2 depicts the first complications in Konatsu and Koyuki's still new relationship – the first bumps in the road on their journey of love.  In fact, Vol. 2 is thematically about complications and obstacles, but not too complicated or obstacles too weighty.  A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is rated “T” (for “Teen”), so this is a gentle romance in which “getting physical” means hugs and holding hands.

John Werry's translation and English adaptation is gentle and sweet and appropriate for the tone of the narrative.  Eva Grandt's lettering plays the dialogue like soft melodies, and that's okay.  A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow is something different, and I am curious to see where this story goes.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:   Fans looking for teen-oriented LGBTQ manga will want to try A Tropical Fish Yearns for Snow.

A-
7.5 out of 10