This review will contain light spoilers for Kimi no Iru Machi (A Town Where You Live), as well as considerable spoilers for Half & Half. If you haven't read either, I highly recommend doing so before reading this, as their stories are all worthwhile.

I recently got into Seo's work through Suzuka, which is one of his earlier works. Having enjoyed it quite a bit, many people recommended Kimi no Iru Machi, which I read through and also enjoyed. I had the intention of switching to another mangaka's work for a bit; but, I noticed Half & Half on some discussions and saw that it was a short, quick read. I have to say- it might be my favorite of Seo's mangas so far.

The framing device for Half & Half- that two people are tied together, sharing full emotional and physical experiences, with the intent of deciding which of them would live and which would die after 7 days, is absolutely brilliant. Not only does it provide plenty of fodder for philisophical discussions of morality, but the time limit of 7 days challenged Seo to a brevity that helped make this work far more focused than his other mangas. This is a heavily distilled romance, slice of life, ecchi story. It masterfully succeeds in hitting all of its story beats in impactful ways while also avoiding some of the traps, cliches, and tropes that tend to come with the genre.

Character Growth

The cast of Half & Half is incredibly small. The story is primarily about the two bound together by their fate: Nagakawa and Sanada. What I found intriguing is that I disliked both of them in the begining: Sanada seemed flippant with her life and unable to take responsibility for her part in Nagakawa's death, and Nagakawa seemed ruthless in his drive to live, even if it meant killing his new companion. Both interperetations are based off initial impressions, and both are limited. What makes this impactful, especially after the story is finished, is how the reader realizes how wrong he or she was about the characters by the end of the story.

Nagakawa's malaise, after failing to get into art school, dealing with his senile grandmother who encouraged him, and facing his father who feels he's a failure, ultimately feels thoroughly relatable. How many of us have settled for lives that are different than our childhood ideal? How many of us have given up on dreams? Seeing this evolution in-process feels visceral.

Sanada's apparent suicide is ultimately far more complicated than initially appears. After being accosted by her best friend's boyfriend, and then having rumors spread that it was all her fault, she felt at a loss. She knew her best friend was probably a friend of convenience; but, the final nail in the coffin is when she attempts to confront her about her boyfriend attempting to cheat. After being pushed off the roof and hearing her friend coldly dismiss her inevitable death, Sanada resigned to dying in a moment that probably felt like forever before she ultimately died- she'd lost the person she thought she could trust and decided that death was okay in that pain.

Both characters have an easier time dealing with their respective pains by having the other there to literally share the it. When Nagakawa catches his best friend betraying him by cheating with his girlfriend, he's able to face it because Sanada helps carry the burden of anger. As Nagakawa visits home, facing his grandmother who encouraged him but doesn't recognize him, he's able to have the strength to talk to her because Sanada is there and can uniquely understand his feelings and help him decompress. Similarly, Sanada is able to work through her anger with Moe and her boyfriend. By having Nagakawa utilize both her Sanada's emotions and his ability to trap them into telling the truth, she can get some closure (also with a well-timed punch to Moe for coldly dismissing her death).

The Love Story

What's somewhat unique about this story among other romance mangas I've read, is that the male protaganist didn't feel like a reader's surrogate. As I mentioned above, it feels like Seo takes pains early on to show both Nagakawa and Sanada's darker sides, distancing the reader from them a bit. As such, I felt like the manga created an interesting effect- their love story seems to drive the reader to empathize with their plights as they're revealed. As they help each other, feel each other's pain and happiness, and reveal more about each other through the week, I felt as if I was falling for the characters along with both of them. This was a unique experience compared to the "this is going to be best girl, and we'll take 200+ chapters to prove it to you" formula that a lot of romance manga follows.

Again, this speaks to the brilliance of the setup- 7 days wouldn't normally be enough time for two people to genuinely get past an infatuation. When I read the summation, I figured I would find that unrealistic. However, I underestimated the idea of shared emotions and physical sensations. Against their will, these characters know each other better than anyone within an instant. There's no hiding their emotional truths from each other. I found myself asking if, had we replaced either or both of the characters with anyone else, would they have also fallen in love because the setup naturally drives that effect. Still, it's what the characters learn about each other (Nagakawa's art and drive, Sanada's kindness and support) that makes the emotion feel more real and long-lasting than simple infatuation.

The watershed moment for me was when Sanada reflects on Moe's betrayal, saying "I guess it's better not knowing what other people think." When Nagakawa feels such strong empathy for her, which she, in turn, feels reflected back at her, the walks it back: "Well, there are exeptions, though."

The ultimate tragedy at the end feels more hard-hitting because readers evolved from disliking to loving the characters as much as they did each other.

Avoidance of Harem / Ecchi Cliches and Traps

Having read other works by Seo, I have a feel for what I consider his strengths and weaknesses. Seo writes very real, fleshed-out characters. They have flaws and arcs. They're relatable even when they do things that are unlikable.

On the other hand, harem and ecchi stories tend to have certain built-in cliches that help sell mangas. Since the primary reader is a late adolescent male, sexuality is a big part of the package. Anyone who enjoys this genre knows that there will be the occasional complete failure of physics that causes the characters to grope each other and awkwardly apologize or see each other naked and work through their embarassment. This is enjoyable in small doses and is part of the "charm" of the genre; but, I find Seo tends to set up these situations in a way that breaks believability even in the world of manga. I can't count the times Haruto found himself in an unrealistic situation that made him look like a sexual predator in Kimi no Iru Machi. It didn't take long before I found myself having "breast and panty fatigue," finding myself rolling my eyes and sighing. "Yeah, yeah, women are sexy. Can we figure out the real problems you set up in the previous chapter, please?"

Half & Half doesn't have time to get bogged by this. The characters have 7 days- there's not that much time to be caught in women's showers, falling hands first in an inexplicable groping posture, as they fall on an unexpecting innocent naked girl. This served Seo well. This story IS sexy. But, unlike a lot of his other mangas where so much of the sex feels crammed in as an excuse to draw the art, the sex comes with story drive.

When Nagakawa masturbates in order to relieve the stress of the situation, something that he thought he was doing "alone," I was prepared to dismiss it as Seo being Seo. But, when we discover that even these sensations are shared between the characters, I found myself very intrigued. Not only was it obviously sexy to see Sanada react unexpectedly to Nagakawa's self-stimulation; but, it posed an interesting moral question- was this a violation? When Nagaka had a "sexy dream," and Sanada was subjected to the same feelings for completely involuntary reasons on both their accounts, was that an invasion? The set up sounds ridiculous; but, it's internally consistent with the rules of the story. The reader was given geniune space to ask the question of themselves if what happened was right or wrong, and I found that fascinating.

Handling the earlier aspects of sexuality paid off in spades when Nagakawa and Sanada eventually consumate their relationship. The reader is primed to ask themselves: "What would it feel like to feel sex from both perspectives at the same time." This made their eventual coupling both extremely erotic and touching. The reader knows they're shaing things in a way no one is typically able, and if I'm being totally honest with myself, that's very hot.

The Ending

As the story quickly approached the 7 day deadline, I was prepped for an ex machina to get the characters out of their impossible situation. I expected one of three scenarios: having proven that they can love another, "God" gives them both their lives back; refusing to choose, "God" lets them both live; or refusing to choose, they both choose to die for each other. I have to commend Seo for staying true and consistent to his own narrative rules. What "God" decrees comes to pass and Nagakawa sacrifices himself at the last minute once he realizes that Sanada still has a will to live.

The epilogue was bittersweet and beautiful. In a week, Nagakawa's influence changed Sanada from an orphan who'd lost her closest friend to a confident woman with loved ones, as Nagakawa's family had taken her in. I know that this falls a bit into the cliche of "babies ever after;" but, it served the story well. Plus, if I didn't want to be emotionally manipulated, I wouldn't be reading romance mangas in the first place.

Ultimately, in Half & Half, we see an extremely focused version of a Seo story. The setup challenged him to resolve things in a meaningful way without getting bogged down in unnecessary cliches or story beats. The characters grow a massive amount in just 7 days time, based on necessity. The story will get you engaged, turn you on, and jerk your tears, all within 13 chapters.

This is romance manga from concentrate, pure and distilled.