Love My Life is a story that touches on the challenges of queerness self actualization and love as they coexist in a nebulous cosmos but that ultimately strives to be uplifting. Everything works out well for the characters in the story. In other words in my mind as a gloomy cynic its not totally realistic. Ichikos origin story and family are somewhat miraculous. The characters never really betray or hurt each other or even really argue while navigating complex circumstances. However I think theres certainly a need for stories that are uplifting and end tidily on a happy note and its quite suitably tailored toward this end. Insofar as it depicts the pleasant mildly bittersweet elements of love and growth it is sensitive and natural. The flat minimal art allows the reader to interpret the mood freely and impressionistically based on the words and the equally simple narrative everything is hinged upon. The feelings and expressions of the characters the moods of particular scenes arent heavily implied by the art itself despite some occasional cartoony facial expressions. The effect for me is a more poetic reading experience. I am largely deciding how things feel for myself. Things like homophobia infidelity and lies exist here but they do not culminate in substantial trouble for the characters. Perhaps there is enough of that elsewhere in queer fiction that its not needed here. I want to defend the art style somewhat as contrary to what seems to be a prevailing opinion in other reviews Ive read online its one of my favorite things about Yamaji Ebines work. First of all it is almost unnecessary to make a connection between Yamaji Ebine and Nananan Kiriko. They are two presumably queer women writing about similar subject matter with extremely similar art styles and both have been published in Feel Young. Indigo Blue came out about 5 years after Blue and obviously their similarities extend beyond their titles. Other than Nananan Yamaji Ebines style for me is evocative of the FrancoBelgian ligne claire comic art style as well as pop art and art nouveau which in and of themselves have been influenced by Japonisme western Europes 19th century fascination with Japanese art. Some of the other Feel Young artists like Kyoko Okazaki and Unita Yumi come to mind when looking at Yamaji Ebines panels. Yamaji like Nananan is taking this philosophy of flatness and equal line to an extreme while sacrificing some of the cartoonishness and messiness of someone like Kyoko Okazaki for a more clean and empty look. The design of the whole image whether it be a panel or full page is of key importance rather than a cute recognizably mangastyle character design or detailed realistic background. Negative space the emptiness between and around lines is treated as a tool. Emptiness cannot remain empty the viewer fills it in. I also see this art style as a rejection of the assumed limits that have seemed to envelope mangas stylistic diversity over time. Manga artists are not merely in dialogue with other manga artists and beholden to the commercialized stylistic tools of manga manga is a part of the lineage of Japanese and world art. In one panel Ichiko is seen holding a Wayne Thiebaud art book. I think artists like Nananan Kiriko and Yamaji Ebine want to preserve this lineage and dialogue with broader art rather than pigeonholing themselves as merely mangaka. Its not to say this manga is not merely manga its art but rather all manga is not just manga all manga is also art. Characters are supposed to be people why should they need to be stylized a certain way in order to appeal to readers who are people just like them? Rather lets focus on the image as a whole made up of lines and of empty space and treat a manga visually as a work of art.