I knew the work of Fumi Yoshinaga from afar, an author best known for her manga ‘The Men's Pavilion’, which has been adapted into film, drama and anime.

This one-shot is Top 1 in the Kono manga ga sugoi: 2025 selection in the category aimed at a female audience. A sure sign of quality!

In Tamaki & Amane, we follow different stories featuring duos of characters called Tamaki and Amane. The backgrounds, characters, ages and eras are completely different, and it's the last/next-to-last story that links them together. I wasn't expecting that at all. I thought the first story about homosexuality and the mother's ‘short homophobia’ would be more developed (and the center of this one-shot).
The stories are short, but no less well paced and interesting while conveying emotions (even if they are particularly depressing). I think my favourite is the one with the young child and the sick woman.

This was a really interesting read! There are four stories featuring a character named Tamaki and another character named Amane going through some kind of struggle. The bonds they share with each other vary between the stories, but they're always strong. The third story struck me the most, because of how it flipped the narrative halfway through, but they're all solid self-contained stories.

In this series of short stories, Yoshinaga flaunts her skill at conveying emotionally deep slices of life within a limited number of pages, and her readers benefit. Though separated in setting and time, each of these stories revolves around a Tamaki and an Amane, though who they are to each other-- sergeant and soldier, terminally ill woman and the kid who lives next door, or classmates at a meiji-era girl's school, for example-- changes with each tale. Regardless of the setup, each story explores the relationship between two people who feel some kind of connection, but must also reckon with social friction in maintaining that connection.

Yoshinaga is a skilled mangaka who I have read for years and this standalone volume is another lovely entry into her body of work. I am impressed at the depth of characterization she is able to achieve with characters who we only know for a brief period of time. Both her writing and art help to achieve this; as always, her characters' expressions are remarkably expressive, including more subtle emotions which might normally be difficult to convey in manga style. Her writing allows for characters to have real flaws and blind spots, but she maintains a empathetic perspective that also allows us to see the positive in them.

In the final story in the volume, we get a small hint at what threads these stories (very lightly) together. One iteration of Tamaki vows to Amane that no matter how many lives they lead, he will continue to find her, and help her see the value in life and living (or something to that effect.) The stories all stand well on their own, but this little thread did not go amiss, and helps create a nice frame for the volume as a whole.

I would highly recommend this to both young adults and adults-- it may be a nice way for adults unfamiliar with manga to dip their toes into a few stories without making a series-long commitment. The subject matter of the stories may also be a little more interesting for slightly older audiences, though there is nothing inappropriate that would put it out of the range of teens.

So fun fact, I had actually had this pre-ordered before it popped up on NetGalley! So because life is life I didn't finish it by publishing date and switched to reading my published copy (which includes the cover art, but extended, tucked in).

Anyway, Tamaki & Amane is a set of short stories all focused around Tamaki and Amane as they live through different ages and different lives, different genders and different circumstances, but one after another they find each other and touch each others' lives irreparably.

I've been a long time reader of What Did You Eat Yesterday? and I've slowly been reading Ooku recently (both works by the same mangaka author/artist) so getting to see another of Yoshinaga's works was refreshing, and I'm glad I took the time to slowly read these stories.

Gratitude to Yen Press for the eARC and Netgalley for hosting!

This manga had some absolutely breathtaking art work but sadly I just didn't feel like it was for me. I can definitely see where this would appeal to others but it just wasn't my thing. I think I just found it to slow overall. That is not to say this was bad. I can actually see this being very loved.

I love Fumi Yoshinaga's work. I've been a fan since her Antique Bakery series became available in English. I enjoy her skill at drawing great facial expressions while still maintaining an economy of linework. During the past few years I've been limited to reading her "What Did You Eat Yesterday?" series which is great, but it's like having a long-term relationship with a comfort read that's still being published.

Tamaki & Amane reminded me that yes, this is the same author who is capable of making me feel like someone ripped my heart out in one story and then cover me with a warm fuzzy blanket in the next. Each story has its charms, especially the more tragic ones where you know things are probably not going to turn out well. Yoshinaga certainly knows how to use a twist in the story.

Since this appears to be a single-volume story, I think this is a great volume to get new readers into Yoshinaga's work. I appreciate how Yen Press added translation notes at the end of the volume. It's absolutely possible to enjoy the volume without reading the notes, and I'm glad they did not go with adding distracting notes right on the relevant pages, but it's nice to have the option to learn something new while reading manga. I'm not sure if Yoshinaga still has much of a backlog of work not yet available in English, but I do hope her out of print titles will get to have new official releases in English again.

I kindly received a digital galley of Tamaki & Amane without any prior knowledge of the author or the plot—I simply saw that it was a one-shot and was drawn to the artwork.


The story has a slightly retro vibe to it (though maybe that’s just my interpretation), which I found charming and fitting for the reflective tone of the narrative. What stood out most to me was the concept: exploring the many forms love can take through different relationships between characters who share the same names.


It’s a bittersweet collection of stories—some leaning into the tragic, others more subdued—but there’s often a flicker of hope that lingers, and that made it all the more touching. The manga feels thoughtful and emotionally mindful, inviting readers to reflect on how love and human connection evolve over time.


I later found out the author, Fumi Yoshinaga, is also behind Ōoku: The Inner Chambers, which I’ve heard great things about—especially its recent Netflix anime adaptation. I’ll definitely be checking that out soon.