Reset (Reset/Reboot Volume 1) Review

“I’ll never let anyone else have you,” Sou to Touma. “Never ever.”

Third-year basketball team captain Sou Takamiya is in a secret relationship with first year Touma Hiraishi, the team’s manager. Although Touma is two years younger than Sou, they’re childhood friends and he’s always been there for Sou whenever his older friend is dumped by his girlfriends (which seems to happen rather frequently).

But when Maki, a first-year teammate who’s getting over a break-up with his girlfriend, starts chatting with Touma about relationships, he’s surprised when Touma suddenly confesses to him – and then explains that was how he took advantage of his current partner (without telling Maki who that partner is). “Think about it. They were crying over their lost love… and out of nowhere, I say I love them.” But even as he says this, he’s thinking, This thing I obtained so easily…I’m sure it’ll slip through my fingers soon enough.

Even though Touma feels guilty about the way he initiated this relationship and suspects/fears it could end at any time, Sou has noticed how well Touma and Maki are getting on together. And Maki has figured out that the partner Touma feels guilty about just happens to be Sou.  Eager to help, he cheerfully assures Touma, “I’m gonna fix that complicated love of yours!” But then he happens to overhear Sou rejecting a love confession from one of the girls, telling her that he has a partner but the partner might not feel the way he feels about them. Given a joint punishment by one of the teachers to run laps together, it’s time for a confrontation of sorts between Sou and Maki. Maki assures Sou as they run that Touma doesn’t know he’s guessed they’re together… but what Sou tells him, with a calm and collected smile, leaves him feeling even more unsettled than before. However, it’s not until a team party that the extent of Sou’s possessiveness toward Touma becomes obvious and Maki feels he has to step in to protect Touma…

Reset is – I think – the first of Ichi Ichikawa’s BL manga to be licensed in English, so praise to new imprint J-Novel Knight for bringing us what (hopefully) will be a three-book series. The mangaka’s best-known series is Tadaima, Okaeri, a gentle exploration of family life in a present-day omegaverse setting which has been made into a TV anime. The same qualities that make Tadaima, Okaeri stand out are to be found here in Reset: an attractive yet sometimes ethereal art style matched with sensitive yet realistic characterization. But don’t be deceived!

At first Reset seems to be establishing itself as another three-way high school relationship as Maki arrives and begins to intrude on the established pair of childhood friends who have secretly become lovers. Are his motives in helping Touma as altruistic as he believes them to be? Then events take the story in directions that I, for one, wasn’t expecting. The ending obviously surprised (and in some cases perplexed) some readers in Japan. But I found this to be a genuinely refreshing and character-driven variation on a well-worn theme and I’m now really intrigued to see where the mangaka takes her three main characters in the two-part sequel Reboot (no details yet from J-Novel Knight but hopefully we won’t have to wait too long). There’s a chamber music quality to the writing/drawing with the interactions between the three main characters (a trio!) woven into the everyday life of the basketball team which roots it in the everyday, helping to make it feel authentic (something that sadly doesn’t apply to many BL manga). It’s a really good, insightful read that makes the reader think about what does – and doesn’t – make a relationship work.

Aleksandra Jankowska’s translation for this J-Novel Knight digital edition reads really smoothly, helped by clear lettering by Dylan Long Anderson. There’s a striking colour image at the start, a bonus chapter ‘Ignorance is Bliss’, and an afterword page by the mangaka at the end with another, softer sketch of the three main characters (a double-page spread).

J-Novel Knight digital releases include BL manga All Eyes on Nekoyashiki-kun! Notice Me, Not My Characters and Last Summer Sparkle as well as light novels such as The Despicable Duke Settles His Affairs (soon to have a print release, I understand).

Reset is a really strong entry in the J-Novel Knight BL list from a talented mangaka who’s long deserved to be published in the West and I hope we won’t have to wait too long for the sequel!

Read a free preview at the J-Novel Knight website here.