Close Menu
  • Login
  • Support Us
  • Newsletter
  • News
  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • Video Games
      • Previews
      • PC
      • PS5
      • Xbox Series X/S
      • Nintendo Switch
      • Xbox One
      • PS4
      • Tabletop
    • Film
    • TV
    • Anime
    • Comics
      • BOOM! Studios
      • Dark Horse Comics
      • DC Comics
      • IDW Publishing
      • Image Comics
      • Indie Comics
      • Marvel Comics
      • Oni-Lion Forge
      • Valiant Comics
      • Vault Comics
  • Podcast
  • More
    • Event Coverage
    • BWT Recommends
    • RSS Feeds
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
Support Us
But Why Tho?
RSS Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube
Trending:
  • Features
    Battlefield 6 Classes - Support trailer image

    Battlefield 6 Really Wants You To Play Support (But Knows You Won’t)

    07/31/2025
    Battlefield 6 Multiplayer Reveal promotional image

    Battlefield 6 Classes, Maps, And More: Everything You Need To Know

    07/31/2025
    A glimpse at all the upcoming Star Wars stories coming to the galaxy

    Star Wars Stories: What We Learned At SDCC 2025

    07/25/2025
    Blindspot episode still

    It’s been 5 years since ‘Blindspot’ ended. Why haven’t you watched it yet?

    07/24/2025
    Strange Scaffold

    Strange Scaffold Summer Showcase Delivers Bizarre And Brilliant Games

    07/22/2025
  • Fantasia Festival
  • K-Dramas
  • Netflix
  • Switch 2 Games
But Why Tho?
Home » Manga » REVIEW: ‘Mizuno and Chayama’

REVIEW: ‘Mizuno and Chayama’

Kate SánchezBy Kate Sánchez05/24/20223 Mins Read
Mizuno and Chayama
Share
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Reddit WhatsApp Email

Mizuno and Chayama

Mizuno and Chayama was a surprise. This 425-page yuri one-shot was a story I didn’t expect a lot from, but one that left me a mess. Written and illustrated by Yuhta Nishio, it’s published and localized in English by Eleanor Summers and features lettering by Erin Hickman. One of the many GL titles that Yen Press has put out, it stands out against the romance genre because of Nishio’s ability to tap into the raw emotion of their characters.

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here

In the one-shot, we follow two star-crossed lovers who find themselves at the whim of town politics that manifest in school bullying and familial pressures. Mizuno, the daughter of a mayoral candidate, is desperate to escape the suffocating pressure and scrutiny of small-town life. Everyone who sees her on the street mentions her dad’s campaign. They reduce her to her father, championing their support for the man who will change their town Asaba. Longing for a place where nowhere knows her name, Tokyo is her dream.

Chayama, on the other hand, is the heiress of the tea company Chayama-en, the town’s boogeyman suspected of polluting the water. Unlike Mizuno, Chayama is adamantly walking down the path laid out for her, despite being forced to atone for her family’s apparent misdeeds. She has accepted her future and the bullying and harassment that comes with it.

Yet in the bubble of the school’s third-floor guidance counseling room, the two girls find a space away from rumors, watchful eyes, and their feuding families. Here, they’re simply Mizuno and Chayama, two teenagers who find comfort and hope in each other. With a blooming love that morphs from two girls exploring each other’s bodies and restricting all interaction to the guidance counseling room to something more, Mizuno and Chayama is beautiful.

It wouldn’t be star-crossed without the two being kept apart. These two are continually forced apart by the outside world. Their families, the people at school, and the implications of the potential mayor’s daughter being friends (let alone lovers) with the daughter of the company that is potentially harming the town all become weights keeping the two girls down and apart. That is until they realize that they need to protect themselves above all else.

Mizuno and Chayama captures love extremely well because it is as much about the couple as it is about the individuals. Nishio takes time to make each girl dynamic forces in their own lives. Over the course of the one-shot, each girl learns to value themselves, their boundaries, and their goals, despite the ways that they are being pushed. Leaning on each other and valuing their relationship, even when threatened with separation, brings out a vulnerability necessary for growth. As much as this one-shot is about a couple, it’s also about the girls’ agency in their futures. The choices they make alone impact the ones they make together, and it’s beautiful.

Mizuno and Chayama is a stunningly emotional look at growing in love and how it can help you fight for yourself. It’s about a connection between star-crossed lovers with leads that make the choice to fight and change how people see them. It’s both delicate and fierce, like its leads. There is love and beauty here, but there is also an exploration of sadness and loneliness that helps resonate with anyone who has ever felt pushed into a corner by the expectations set upon them.

Mizuno and Chayama is available now, wherever books are sold.

Mizuno and Chayama
5

TL:DR

Mizuno and Chayama is a stunningly emotional look at growing in love, and how it can help you fight for yourself. It’s about a connection between star-crossed lovers with leads that make the choice to fight and change how people see them…There is love and beauty here, but there is also an exploration of sadness and loneliness that helps resonate with anyone who has ever felt pushed into a corner by the expectations set upon them.

  • Read Now with Our Amazon Affiliate Link

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit Email
Previous ArticleREVIEW: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Is An Adrenaline-Charged Legacy Sequel
Next Article REVIEW: ‘Prince Freya’ Volume 6
Kate Sánchez
  • Website
  • X (Twitter)
  • Instagram

Kate Sánchez is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of But Why Tho? A Geek Community. There, she coordinates film, television, anime, and manga coverage. Kate is also a freelance journalist writing features on video games, anime, and film. Her focus as a critic is championing animation and international films and television series for inclusion in awards cycles. Find her on Bluesky @ohmymithrandir.bsky.social

Related Posts

Wolf Girl and Black Prince — But Why Tho

REVIEW: Wolf Girl and Black Prince Volume 1

05/16/2023
hirano and kagura volume 2

REVIEW: ‘Hirano and Kagiura,’ Volume 2

04/25/2023
K-On Shuffle — But Why Tho

REVIEW: ‘K-On! Shuffle’ Volume 1

04/24/2023
Skybeams in the Sky — But Why Tho

REVIEW: ‘Sunbeams in the Sky’ Volume 1

04/24/2023
The Boxer Volume 2 — But Why Tho

REVIEW: ‘The Boxer,’ Volume 2

04/24/2023
Run On Your New Legs Volume 4 — But Why Tho

REVIEW: ‘Run On Your New Legs’ Volume 4

04/24/2023

Get BWT in your inbox!

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and get the latest and greated in entertainment coverage.
Click Here
TRENDING POSTS
Wildgate promotional key art
9.0
PC

REVIEW: ‘Wildgate’ Is Co-Op Space Mayhem Done Right

By Adrian Ruiz07/25/2025Updated:07/30/2025

Built for friends and tuned for competition, Wildgate is messy in the best way: smart, surprising, and bursting with room to grow.

Glass Heart
7.0
TV

REVIEW: ‘Glass Heart’ Offers Messy, Musical Catharsis

By Allyson Johnson07/22/2025

The musical drama series ‘Glass Heart’ soars when it focuses on the epic performances of it’s fictional band, TENBLANK.

Simon in An Honest Life But Why Tho
3.5
Film

REVIEW: ‘An Honest Life’ Is Terribly Dishonest About Its Own Politics

By Jason Flatt08/02/2025

An Honest Life is an overly severe misfire about a law student who falls in with anarchist burglars that can’t decide who it resents more.

Black Women Anime — But Why Tho (9) BWT Recommends

10 Black Women in Anime That Made Me Feel Seen

By LaNeysha Campbell11/11/2023Updated:12/03/2024

Black women are some of anime’s most iconic characters, and that has a big impact on Black anime fans. Here are some of our favorites.

But Why Tho?
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest RSS YouTube Twitch
  • CONTACT US
  • ABOUT US
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Review Score Guide
Sometimes we include links to online retail stores. If you click on one and make a purchase we may receive a small contribution.
Written Content is Copyright © 2025 But Why Tho? A Geek Community

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

But Why Tho Logo

Support Us!

We're able to keep making content thanks to readers like YOU!
Support independent media today with
Click Here