I kind of went into this manga thinking its a cute school romance and then suddenly found myself reading a complex and slightly disturbing story about getting in and out of unhealthy romantic relationships. It starts off in a very shoujoesque fashion: it follows Yukari a diligent high school student whos become somewhat of a caretaker for her dark mysterious badboyish classmate Yuusuke. One day thinking that he got into some trouble she follows him into what turns out to be an underground music studio and discovers that he is a vocalist in a band. And she falls in love with the love song lyrics that he wrote absolutely silly and yet very serious song lyrics very appropriate for a lovestruck 16yearold if you ask me haha. So far this checks off all the the boxes you regular kyaaaaromance is supposed to have: a hotdarkmysteriousdreamy male lead who is in a band and verynormalnothingspecial female lead. Except its not a kyaaatokidoki romance. Because Yukari quickly realises that to write a tragic love song one should probably already be in love. I guess that time has finally come. We are finally over stories that glorify toxic romantic relationships. Now we see more and more manga exploring the criticising the dreamy canon of romance we see stories that deromanticise the idea of falling in love. Studio Cabana is like that it doesnt romanticise love but calls out unhealthy relationship behaviour that some people gravitate towards when they fall in love. Since the main characters are teenagers it comes from a place of naivety and romantic idealisation to a path to healthy relationships. I love that it constantly and unexpectedly changes points of view helping the reader understand the mess of feelings that determine the characters behaviour. And I really like that some of the cast is adult because compared to adults the teenage characters look exactly the way they should look like kids. I love that Yuusuke who looks like this typical romanticised dark mysterious love interest turns out to be very human just a teenager and his pain and frustration are so raw and real despite sometimes being absolutely silly naive and overdramatised. It kind of reminds me of my 15yearold self who 100 felt like the world was about to end because of my feelings despite rationally realising that thats probably not the case. But interestingly even though the main cast is composed of teenagers who act like teenagers the nature of relationships they get entangled in is...adult...perhaps more adult than they can take. It clearly contrasts with their naive outlook on love. Reallife relationships are dirty and messy obsessive and at times very unkind. But the characters are on their way to actually build something real and genuine despite all the mess and uncertainty. At the moment of me writing this Studio Cabana has a little more than 4 tomes. And it already has so much to say and offers so many different perspectives on relationships. I cant wait to see what happens next