Folks – I hereby declare Atatsuki no Aria (暁のAria or Dawn’s Aria, and Chinese title is 晨光中的詠嘆調) the best pure shoujo manga series I’ve read in years. It’s harkens back to the classic shoujo storytelling of yore – where the narrative drives the plot and the characters breath with three-dimensional life – changing, evolving, and taking us along on an exhilirating and gutwrenching journey of their lives.

AnA is sweeping romance, with soaring triumphs and gutwrenching losses, a story about a girl whose strength, daring, unwavering dedication to music, and her soul-searing love for one man transports the reader into the gritty yet idealized world of days that may be long gone by, but the same dreams and hopes never change or die. Continue reading →