Nogiri. Volume 3 Cover Art, Love in Focus, Kodansha.
Love in Focus – Information
Author of Story: Yoko Nogiri
Chapter Count: 3 volumes, around 14 chapters
Status: Completed
Content Warnings
These content warnings do not reflect the contents of the review below; only the literary work itself.
- Loss of loved ones
Spoiler Disclaimer
This recommendation post may contain small plot spoilers for review purposes. Any major spoilers are hidden by default and are able to be revealed via click or tap.
Love in Focus – Plot Summary
Love in Focus follows Mako Mochizuki, a first-year high school student who loves photography. Her grandfather taught her all about it while he was still alive, and so she developed quite a liking for it. After junior high, she decides to move away from home and enter a high school that has a photography club—with an instructor who happens to be a professional photographer!
Mako moves into a boarding house that is made up of mostly photography club members, along with her childhood friend, Kei Akahoshi. On the way there, she runs into a guy named Mitsuru Amemura, and accidentally takes a photo of him!
She apologizes and runs off, but turns out he also lives in the boarding house. Due to Mako’s mistake—and Mitsuru’s mild, slightly unfriendly demeanor—their relationship is a bit uncertain from the start.
Mako soon meets the rest of the boarding house tenants, and starts her photography-filled school life (and unknowingly, her love life)!
Nogiri. Volume 1 Cover Art, Love in Focus, Kodansha.
Why I Enjoyed Love in Focus
Love in Focus is a short romance that features a lovely, wholesome story with a bit of a bittersweet ending. The characters struggle with their own youthful problems, including falling in love.
The plot heavily focuses on a love triangle between three students who are simply trying to discover their true selves. It’s a calm, uncomplicated, and cute story—and I really enjoyed these aspects of it!
This manga is short and sweet, making it an easy read for someone who wants a quick shoujo fix. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected myself to, but I can’t really think of exactly why. Maybe the vibes were just nice, since the story felt rather calm or undramatic.
Or, perhaps I have a thing for mangas featuring photography, since I also really enjoyed that aspect of Insomniacs After School. Either way, the Love in Focus manga series makes for a great light read.
This shoujo wasn’t what I would call cheesy, but often featured a few inspirational moments about enjoying life or being yourself. This aspect of the story was rather heartwarming, and really made the manga have a better overall impression in my opinion.
Although this manga includes a love triangle romance, it isn’t overly complicated or dramatic, so the calm vibe of the story doesn’t feel interrupted.
The art style is also very nice in Love in Focus. It is soft, but doesn’t have the very exaggerated features that shoujos often have. I especially love how the author designed the male leads.
I feel like the character designs in general weren’t too different from typical shoujo protagonists, but the art style made them feel different… if that makes sense? I’m also a sucker for the trope where a character hides their attractive features, haha.
The visuals of this manga also just felt very calming, as it featured a lot of beautiful photography in addition to many heartfelt emotions from the characters!
Any Cons?
Not really any cons for this short shoujo manga, other than I would have loved for it to be longer. I think that a lengthier plot would have allowed the characters to have more development throughout Love in Focus, but the pacing was well done for 3 volumes’ worth of content.
Some sources mark it as a slice of life or school-life series, but I personally don’t think it had enough relative content to be considered either of those. It was just a simple love story, in my opinion.
There is a love triangle that feels almost unnecessary, but honestly I didn’t hate it. I liked all the characters, and simply hoped for a happy ending overall!
The only other thing I can think of is that Mako seems a bit pushy at the beginning, and is pushy in general (haha), but isn’t purposefully being inconsiderate. I almost had a bad impression of her, but thankfully the author makes her rather earnest.
Additionally, if you don’t like love triangles, this manga isn’t a good choice for you.
Final Thoughts
Love in Focus is a great choice for readers who want an easy, simple romance manga story to finish in a short time. The feel of its plot is pretty calm, wholesome, and sweet.
There’s no crazy conflicts, drama, or twists; which can be very nice at times. If you’re looking for a short and calm romance to enjoy, give this one a try!
Disclaimer: Any images used for this blog are for illustrative purposes only, are not owned by me, and are under ownership of the artist or publisher.
Images Credit: Nogiri, Youko. Love in Focus, Kodansha, 2019.
