It has been quite a while since I last finished reading a manga, and even longer since I last reviewed one back in December 2023. Although I am currently reading a few, none of them have finished serialisation yet, meaning it wouldn’t be appropriate to review them. Thus, I poked around for a rather light-hearted read that I could work my way through in a short period of time and found Insomniacs After School by Makoto Ojiro.
This slice of life manga fixates on two teenage schoolmates who both struggle to sleep, hence the title. Ganta Nakami is a nerdy, mostly reclusive and uptight boy, whereas Isaki Magari is a peppy girl who has more of an interest in sports and socialising. Both of them wind up running into each other in the school’s abandoned observatory, which Isaki had been using as a secret napping spot during the school day, startling Ganta.
Without spoiling much of the main plot points, their bond grows from there. After befriending one another and being caught effectively using the observatory as their own domain, both decide to revamp the school’s long dormant astronomy club, which only serves to further deepen their bond. Naturally, as you’d expect, Isaki and Ganta eventually develop feelings for each other, but the story neither rushes or delays the flow of this. I think it hit the sweet spot between suspense and reveal.
There are also many other characters that serve to fill out the cast, but some are a bit more one-note than others. There isn’t too much to say about them, as they tend to only appear alongside Ganta or Isaki, rather than having any notable subplots dedicated to them. Still, every character is likeable and written fairly well, as is their dialogue (something that can sometimes be very stilted in manga and comics).
What I did like most about this story was not its cutesy, lovey-dovey elements, but rather when it shed that for something a bit more mature. Despite having the ability to write such upbeat chapters and make the cast appear at the pinnacle of their youth, Ojiro manages to blend in elements of tragedy, pressure, and anxiety. Ganta, in particular, comes from a broken home with minimal bond to his single father; Isaki, on the other hand, has somewhat broken her home by living with a severe heart condition that limits what she can do and results in suffocating parenting from her mother. Neither teen seems thrilled with the hand they have been dealt, but they do what they can to confide in one another and live with their separate worries.
As a character, Ganta is faced with much more philosophical questions about whether he can love a girl whose health may only get worse as she ages, alongside constantly being unsure of what he wants to do later in life. He is apathetic and less forthcoming. Isaki, by contrast, is used as a vessel to show someone standing up against their condition, fighting to maintain their freedom and enjoy both their youthfulness and whatever amount of time they have left. Unlike Ganta, she tries to be more outward. There is also the matter of the larger friend group all growing up and going their separate ways once they graduate, hammering in that their childhoods are on the cusp on ending. It becomes clear that every memory they make, especially together, is finite and precious.
I like how this story element becomes more prevalent as their graduation nears, and how it permeates everything from Ganta and Isaki’s relationship, every character’s friendship, and even influences what happens within the story as everyone tries to make the most of these final months. Truthfully, it manages to be bittersweet for anyone with a good recollection of their final months in school, capturing that exciting and dreadful feeling of teetering on the edge of adulthood.
Me simply reiterating this to you doesn’t accurately get across the impact of these moments, because they occur quite naturally and present tangible elements of conflict and worry in a story one could so easily write off as cute, cuddly fiction from the first volume or so. It is also hard for me to review such a thing because I refuse to spoil the bigger plot points and the more dramatic elements of the story. Just know that Insomniacs After School does do a very good job at incorporating believable conflicts and emotions, but also has time to be light-hearted and touching.
But I do have some issues, mainly with the pacing. The story tends drag its feet a little at times, and then takes off skimming through weeks or months of the characters’ lives in mere chapters. It is a little jarring when these shifts in tempo occur, but the pacing is generally pleasant outside of this. I must admit I liked when the story was a little more slower and willing to take its time, like in the earlier chapters, but the speeding up does add suspense, what with the whole graduation story arc and theme of friends drifting away into their own worlds.
What is most commendable about the pacing, or rather the overall length of the manga, is that Ojiro was able to wrap it up within ~125 chapters. I appreciate the author’s dedication to telling a complete and mostly unpadded story, rather than trying to milk out the slice of life elements or draw out major story beats to fluff up volumes. Too many manga authors seem to strike gold, which causes them to blatantly pad the story or find contrived reasons for cliffhangers or delays in major plot points.
Because it is a manga, I do need to take an aside to mention the artistry. Like the rest of the manga, it is solid and well done. Although faces can sometimes seem a little off when drawn from complex angles, there is a good amount of realism and effort put into each panel. Ojira, like many other manga artists, occasionally utilises cute low-detail drawings for comedic effect, which reflects the more fun and pure elements of this story. There is also a good use of lighting and darkness, and very pretty illustrations of the night sky and surrounding scenery. Overall, the illustrations are great and don’t really leave any room to complain about—they just aren’t overly stylised or impactful, that is all. I suspect Ojira is a little more adept at drawing environments and scenery, because any miniscule artistic niggles tend to appear on characters and not the backgrounds.
I think for anyone who is a fan of A Silent Voice by Yoshitoki Ōima, Insomniacs After School ticks similar boxes. It bears a school setting, and has a story surrounding coming of age, living with health conditions, conflicted love, disrupted family life, a splintering of friends, the final years of youthfulness, and so on. I would not say this particular work is as developed or dark as the former, but it still exists within the realm of comparison. That is also how I discovered it, by looking for a story that recaptures much of what I felt whilst reading Ōima’s. Even though Insomniacs After School did not really provide that same exact essence for me, it still brought its own unique, appreciable elements, with fun, believable, and likeable characters. So I did not come away disappointed, even if I did not find exactly what I was looking for in its story.
Personally, I do not feel that it is an outstanding piece of work, even though I have given it so much praise. It is a step above the more generic slice of life and teenage romance manga I have samples, but it lacks the grit of something like A Silent Voice or Goodnight Punpun that really makes a manga stick with you. It should be no surprise, therefore, that those two are among my favourites.
In the end, Insomniacs After School is a solid fusion of slice of life, romance, coming of age, with tinges of drama mixed in there. I still think it’s worth a read if those genre of manga are the sort you typically seek out, but its conclusion could have been more touching or well-rounded, and I wished the author had fleshed out the cast a little more. For almost all of the story, it is perfectly satisfactory, but the ending chapters lacked the payoff that you’d want after reading half a dozen volumes, which is why it just fell short of four stars on the rating scale.
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