Yea. I’ll expand a bit more then. Edit: will also add that a lot of it is in the paneling, which is hard to describe here
details
I assume the anime has that same first encounter with the weird clipping her toenails in the classroom, and like they have their whole conversation, and sort of bond a bit before everyone else shows up… And past that point, when they’re all talking together at lunch(?) in class, Erika is pretty intensely focused on her, and kinda mentally fretting over whether she needs to protect her from the other girl, and iirc Akebi picks up on it a bit.
While Akebi already has close moments with the other characters, via spontaneous interactions, with Erika the two have to deliberately make plans, on a non-school day, and are both very concerned about making a good impression. Also their plans get cancelled cuz of the rain the first time, and Erika is really down the whole day, to the point that her other friend ends up telling Akebi later on.
Prior to that, Akebi talks a bit about Erika at home, and the family wants to meet her (something that doesn’t come up with other friends so far), and when she does come over, they’re very quickly calling her Erika-chan, and like sharing the photo albums and stories with her and stuff. And Akebi expressing jealousy over her family calling her Erika-chan before she had the chance to.
Then there’s their whole exchange where they agree to call each other by their first names, and again it’s a very deliberate, going out on a leg kinda thing. It’s all right as they’re starting to drive away, and they can’t take their eyes off each other, and are having what’s basically a really intimate moment, at a time you’d normally just be like waving and saying good bye.
Edit: and the thing where Erika is intensely fantasizing about playing piano accompaniment for Akebi’s dancing, and then gets asked to
I’ll be the first to admit I read with yuri goggles on at times, but like it definitely seems like there’s some setup there to me
It’s interesting cuz on one hand there aren’t really like typical panty shot, boobs bouncing, accidental pervert, etc moments… But like yeah there are a few scenarios that are a bit ??? Tbh I’d heard the anime is on the ecchi side, and it’s one of the things that put me off from trying this earlier, tho I vaguely recall ppl saying that this isn’t really present in the manga anymore (I may be misremembering tho?)
I’m a little curious to watch an ep or two to see how it compares
Noted / assumed as much
the story starts with a マリみて reference (fixing her tie scene), but no similarities otherwise so far
It’s a short book, granted, and one I’d already read in English before, but it’s a better perspective of time than taking the non-reading days into account as well. If I can remember and can set it up, it’d be neat to do an experiment at the end of the year with an approximately same level of book and same number of pages and compare my elapsed reading time then.
An easy, relaxing read; I really like the choose-your-own-adventure format.
