Is Spacewalking With You Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read

Overview

Kobayashi is a mediocre student who can't keep up with his classes or hold down a part-time job, not a bad kid, just adrift. Then Keisuke Uno transfers into his class, and Kobayashi notices right away that Keisuke doesn't operate like everyone else: he's rigid about routines, struggles to multitask, and has quietly built an entire system of workarounds just to get through an ordinary day. As Kobayashi starts paying attention to how much effort it takes Keisuke to "act normal," he starts examining his own habits too, and the two of them end up changing each other in small, unglamorous, believable ways.

What it does well

The specificity is what sells it. Keisuke's traits, the rigidity, the trouble multitasking, the visible effort of masking to fit in, read as carefully observed rather than invented for a plot device, and the manga never turns him into an inspirational lesson or a punchline. What makes the story land, though, is that it doesn't stop at "Kobayashi learns to accept Keisuke." Kobayashi looks at his own aimlessness through the lens of Keisuke's deliberate effort and starts making his own adjustments, so the friendship reads as a two-way exchange instead of one kid fixing another. That's rare, and it's a big part of why this won the Manga Taisho, a prize voted on by bookstore staff and considered one of the most reliable signals of genuine quality in Japanese manga. The tone stays warm and often funny without undercutting the sincerity underneath.

Where it falls short

It's a quiet, small-scale story. There's no larger plot engine driving it beyond Kobayashi and Keisuke's day-to-day friendship, so readers who want momentum or a wider cast may find it thin. Despite the award, it's still not especially well known among English readers, so you won't find much of a fan community around it yet. And with only a handful of volumes out so far, it's a shorter read for now, one that's still building toward wherever it's headed.

Verdict

This is a small, sincere story that earns its acclaim through specificity and genuine reciprocity rather than spectacle. If a gentle, funny, neurodivergence-aware friendship story sounds appealing, it's absolutely worth the read, and it's free to start.