Is Adabana Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read
Quick Answer
Yes, if a short, bleak courtroom drama with an unreliable-narrator structure sounds like your thing. It's only three volumes and it commits fully to its premise without padding.
Quick Verdict
“Tells you the ending in chapter one, then spends the rest of the book making you regret thinking you understood it.”
Best for: Readers who want a tight, literary courtroom thriller that trusts them to sit with discomfort instead of resolving it neatly.
Not for: Readers who want a fast-paced mystery with a twist-driven plot, or who want characters to get a clean, hopeful ending.
- Type
- Manga
- Genres
- Drama, Thriller
- Status
- Completed
- This review
- Minor Spoilers
- Author
- NON
- Publisher
- Dark Horse Comics
- Platform
- Dark Horse Comics
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manga (seinen), 28 chapters, 3 volumes |
| Run | 2020–2021 · completed |
| Community score | AniList 7.5 · MangaUpdates 7.2 |
| Content | Suicide, poverty, abuse, violence |
| Where to read | Dark Horse Comics — official |
Overview
A high school student, Mako Igarashi, is found dead in a snowy town. Her classmate, Mizuki Aikawa, confesses immediately. Case closed, you'd think — except Adabana spends its three volumes refusing to let that confession be the whole story. Defense attorney Yutaka Tsuji takes Mizuki's case, and as the trial unfolds, the manga alternates between two accounts of the same six months: one built from Mizuki's testimony, one reconstructed from what Mako actually experienced. They don't match. NON, the writer-artist, isn't interested in a whodunit — the who is never in question. What this book wants to know is why two girls with no real adult support ended up as each other's only lifeline, and what that costs.
What it does well
The structure is the book's whole argument. Reading the same stretch of time twice, from two girls who were both lying to themselves about what they needed from each other, is a genuinely effective way to dramatize how two people can live through the exact same events and come away with completely incompatible understandings of what happened. NON doesn't cheat this — both versions are internally consistent, both are sympathetic, and the gap between them is the point rather than a twist to be 'solved.'
Mizuki and Mako themselves are written with real specificity. Mizuki is crushed under academic pressure from a mother who won't let up, in a family already marked by a prior suicide. Mako is quietly supporting a relative out of a poverty neither of them talks about directly. Neither girl is a type; NON lets their bond develop in small, specific beats rather than a single big turning point, so by the time the trial reaches its worst revelations, you believe exactly how they got there. And because the whole thing is three volumes, there's no room for filler — every flashback chapter is directly answering something the courtroom scenes just raised, which keeps a structurally complicated book from ever feeling like it's stalling.
Where it falls short
Volume one asks a lot of patience up front. You're dropped into a confession and a body with almost no context, and the dual-perspective structure that makes the latter half so effective is disorienting before it clicks — some readers will bounce off before the payoff arrives. The courtroom characters meant to be our way into the case, Tsuji and his associate Hayami, also stay fairly thin next to Mizuki and Mako; they function more as a frame than as people in their own right. And NON's artwork is deliberately plain — functional line work, no showy panel compositions — which fits the tone but means the book has nothing to fall back on visually if its subject matter isn't working for you.
Verdict
Adabana is a short, bleak, carefully structured courtroom drama that earns its ending by making you sit with two incompatible truths instead of resolving them. If you want a fast mystery with a satisfying twist, this isn't it — but if a literary, unflinching look at what two failed-by-adults teenagers do for each other sounds like your speed, it's worth the afternoon.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- The dual-perspective structure is the whole book — the same six months plays out once from the confessed killer's point of view and once from the victim's, and neither version alone tells you what actually happened.
- NON writes two teenage girls with almost no adult support system as genuinely, believably drawn toward each other for survival, not as a plot convenience.
- It's exactly as long as it needs to be. Three volumes, no filler arcs, no padding to hit a chapter count.
- The courtroom frame gives the slow reveal real structure — every flashback chapter is answering a specific question the trial just raised, so it never feels like it's stalling.
Weaknesses
- The pacing in volume one is deliberately disorienting — you're dropped into a confession and a crime scene with almost no context, which some readers will find alienating before the structure pays off.
- The defense attorney and his associate, the audience's entry point into the case, stay fairly flat compared to the two girls at the center of it.
- NON's art is plain and unshowy by design, which suits the tone but means there's no visual spectacle to fall back on if the subject matter isn't landing for you.
Similar Titles
Same willingness to sit with bleak, unresolved teenage pain without softening it for the reader.
If you want the courtroom/psychological-thriller structure without the grimness, this scratches a similar analytical itch.
Another story about what kids do to and for each other when the adults around them have failed to show up.
Where to Read Officially
| Platform | Format | Pricing | Region notes | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dark Horse Comics | Print & digital volumes | Paid | Region availability varies | Open |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Adabana finished, and is the ending good?
Yes, it's fully complete at 3 volumes (serialized in Japan 2020–2021). The ending doesn't tie things up neatly — it's an honest, bleak landing that fits the rest of the book rather than a twist for its own sake.
How long is Adabana?
Just 3 volumes, so it's a short, dense read rather than a long-runner — you can finish the whole thing in an afternoon.
Is there an anime adaptation of Adabana?
No. It exists only as the manga; there's no anime or novel version as of this writing.
How dark is Adabana?
Very. It deals directly with suicide, family suicide history, poverty, and abuse — go in expecting a genuinely heavy read, not a mystery played for twists.
