Is Neighborhood Story Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Overview

Before Ai Yazawa made her name with NANA, she wrote Neighborhood Story, a compact coming-of-age romance about Mikako, an aspiring fashion designer navigating art school, friendship, and her long, unspoken feelings for her childhood friend and neighbor Tsutomu. It's a smaller, more contained story than what Yazawa would go on to write, but it's got the same eye for character and clothing that would define her later career.

The setup is simple: Mikako and Tsutomu have grown up next door to each other for over a decade, and when his sudden popularity at their new art school starts drawing other girls' attention, Mikako has to reckon with feelings she'd never quite admitted to having. From there, the story follows their circle of friends through romantic misfires, creative ambitions, and the general mess of figuring out who you want to be at seventeen.

What it does well

Mikako is the clear draw here. She's stubborn, prone to jealousy, and not always likable in the moment, but that's the point — she reads like an actual teenager working through feelings she doesn't fully understand yet, rather than a smoothed-over romance lead. Her drive to become a fashion designer gives the story a goal beyond the romance, and the manga treats that ambition as seriously as it treats her feelings for Tsutomu.

The romance itself benefits from all that shared history. Mikako and Tsutomu aren't strangers falling for each other over the course of the story — they're two people who've clearly cared about each other for years, and watching that finally surface feels earned rather than sudden. Yazawa's art and fashion sense are also already sharp here, years before NANA made her a household name for it; the outfits aren't just decoration, they say something about who's wearing them.

And at seven volumes, the story knows when to stop. It resolves its central relationship and its major side plots rather than dragging them out, which gives the whole thing a shape that a lot of longer shoujo series never quite manage.

Where it falls short

The manga's fourth-wall-breaking jokes — characters commenting on being in a manga, or wondering if they'll be the next lead — show up often enough to be a real tic rather than an occasional gag, and they undercut the more sincere moments around them. It's a stylistic choice, but it's one that hasn't aged especially well.

The side cast doesn't get the same care as Mikako and Tsutomu. Several supporting romances get real page time without much payoff, and it's not always clear why the story is spending time on them instead of its central couple.

Mikako's jealousy and reluctance to just talk to Tsutomu directly also wears thin by the later volumes. It's true to a teenage character, but a few of those miscommunications go on a beat or two longer than they need to.

Verdict

Neighborhood Story is a smaller, earlier work from a creator who'd go on to write something much bigger, and it shows both the strengths and the limits of that earlier stage. It's a quick, sincere romance with a genuinely likable lead and a real ending — not essential the way NANA is, but a satisfying read in its own right, especially for anyone curious where Yazawa's career started.