Insomniacs After School volume 1, by Makoto Ojiro, is a slice of life romance manga set in a school. It revolves around 2 characters Nakami and Magari, 2 people who suffer from insomnia. Nakami found Magari sleeping up in the abandoned school observatory when he went up there to get some boxes for the school festival. They locked themselves in and wound up falling asleep next to each other. They then decide to keep them going up there a secret and kept on using it as a club room where they can both sleep after the school day. From this they slowly begin to grow closer.

The art in this manga is very well done. All of the characters are well designed and the backgrounds in particular stand out with how well done they are. The way Ojiro draws the character’s faces is interesting, they seem drawn in a closer to realistic style than many other manga but are also a bit rounded with massive focus on the eyes. This makes the facial expressions they make, especially in scenes where more emotion is being emphasized on more realistic, which really works for a romance manga.

I like all if Ojiro’s double pages as well, especially when she uses them to focus on her excellently drawn facial expressions.

The use of black in the art is very well emphasized which makes it stand out a lot to me. Particularly in chapter 3 where the characters explore the town at night. The way she draws the night sky and the town in darkness really drew me into the images. One of the reasons I first read this was due to an image I saw online that looked good and I’m looking forward to seeing that in the future.

The story is simple, but the execution of this premise is excellent. The pacing is excellent and seeing Nakami and Magari slowly grow closer is very entertaining. The tone of this manga is very melancholic and relaxed, and the progression feels natural. I enjoy the dialogue, particularly when Nakami and Magari are alone with each other. I do like the side characters, but they have not had me interested any where near the extent of the main duo. I’m very interested in seeing how both characters develop, especially with some vague hints to something with Magari’s past illness which I feel will be expanded on.

This manga’s biggest strength is how likeable the main 2 characters are and how interesting it is to see them grow closer. The art follows this up, it is most likely the best drawn romance manga I’ve read. I really enjoyed the slow relaxed tone as well. I’d recommend this to anyone who enjoys romance and coming of age stories, and to anyone who like good art in their manga as well. I think that if you like this, you’d like Three Days of Happiness and Skip and Loafer. I can see one who likes Kaguya Wants to be Confessed To liking this as well to an extent, but the vibe is very different in both.

This was an excellent manga; I’d give it a 5/5.

You can check out this manga on Amazon at my affiliate link here.