REVIEW: ‘Restart After Coming Back Home’

Romances that ground themselves in discovering who they are and discovering another person through a connection have my heart. And that’s the main reason Restart After Coming Back Home is one of the best romance manga (across categories) from last year. Restart After Coming Back Home is a BL manga one-shot created, written, and illustrated by cocomi. The manga is published and localized in English by Seven Seas Entertainment, translated by Anna Schnell, lettered by Nicole Roderick, and features a cover designed by Hanase Qi. The manga also serves as the inspiration for the live-action of the same name directed by Ryûta Inoue.

In Restart After Coming Back Home, Kozuka Mitsuomi is a hothead. Not great at expressing his emotions outside of anger, Mitsuomi left his home in the country for a sophisticated life in Tokyo. But at age 25, he can’t seem to hold down a job. After his latest firing, he returns home as a disgrace and constantly tense with his father. But his grief crushed life, and his attempt at rediscovering himself is interrupted by Kumai Yamato. Yamato, on the other hand, is well-adjusted, always smiling, and has been waiting to meet Mitsuomi based on the stories he’s heard. Adopted into the community while Mitsuomi was away, Yamato is a fixture in the community and becomes a constant in Mitsuomi’s life.

The beauty of Restart After Coming Back Home is how the two come together. Under the surface, seemingly polar opposites are more alike than they know. Over the course of the story, Mitsoumi begins to calm down and admit that his path in life doesn’t lead him away from his hometown but to it. For Yamato, his joyful expression and easygoing attitude cover up the pain he’s been holding inside. When the two come together and begin opening up instead of putting up walls, they discover who they are as individuals.

While the strongest element of the manga is the characters and how they grow, their romance is truly something special. Not because of some large and dramatic confession of love, but because of how the two slowly ease into each other. While Yamato learns to talk about his past instead of building walls, Matsoumi learns about himself and what it means to love his friend. The way the emotions build over 200-ish pages feels authentic. Friendship grows to an indescribable yearning, which turns to the fear of losing your best friend until eventually you awkwardly just tell your partner that friends aren’t all you want to be.

Restart After Coming Back Home is wholesome and heartwarming and uses self-discovery to build a foundation of trust and acceptance for a romance to blossom on. With a sequel, Restart After Growing Hungry, coming out later this month, now is the perfect time to pick one of the best romances I’ve read in ages.

Restart After Coming Back Home is available now wherever books are sold and on ComiXology.