At five chapters 133 pages total there isnt a lot I can say about Vanilla Chocolate Cigarette without it feeling like padding. So I wont belabor the point: Vanilla Chocolate Cigarette is a good sweet manga that you should check out if youre a fan of romance. This manga is quite obscure: According to the mangas stats page the number of people on Anilist that have heard of it is no greater than thirtyseven members. It doesnt even have a page on Myanimelist. Because of that as a reviewer I feel like its my duty to inform people of a good manga that theyd most certainly miss out on otherwise. Theres no need to give a synopsis: its on the main page and what you see is essentially what you get. One thing I enjoyed was how effectively the mangaka Kumaneko used the limited number of pages. As stated before the chapters arent very long yet each chapter still has a distinct story arc wherein the main character of the chapter brings up a problem or musing at the beginning of the chapter with said point being revisited later in a new light. This helps give the manga more depth than a simple lighthearted sliceoflife work. The result is a touching love story in spite of its brevity. In a few short chapters we see the arc of loneliness disappointment and love shown in a way that doesnt feel rushed. I suppose at the end of the day this is because the manga doesnt try to tackle too many things at once its a pretty tight story. Which it might not seem like on the outset. The first chapter revolves around Toyohashi and Takatsuki while the second deals primarily with Tsubaki. At first I thought that the story would be a series of oneoffs then thought they might have Toyohashi+Takaysuki serving as recurring characters but otherwise be seperate. But no Tsubakis ultimately the main character with the first chapter being a prologue of sorts that sets up the characters of Vanilla Chocolate Cigarette and its themes. I loved how Tsubakis friendship with his neighbors helped him grow as a person being able to be more open with himself and give him the confidence that hed be able to survive in his new environment. I enjoyed seeing how Tsubakis feelings with Azuma progressed. Due to the length it didnt feel rushed nor prolonged and it felt like we received an accurate snapshot of blooming affections. Its kind of a meme in the anime community how handholding is a lewd act but kudos to this manga showing how such a small act of affection and physicality can go a long way when youre lonely. I also thought the connection between cigarettes and love as two comforting addicting things was brilliant. Its ultimately a pretty trivial point but this is actually my first Boys Love manga. I suppose one thing that I love about this manga is that at the end of the day it feels like any other love story. Not saying that theres anything wrong with a love story where the orientation of the characters is prominent indeed I enjoyed the depiction of Toyohashi and Takatsuki being at different stages of openness with their sexality Tsubaki having to overcome his prejudice and the rare depiction of a bisexual character its just nice seeing how the story applies to anyone regardless of orientation showing that love is love regardless. Still the manga does a good job of showing that the characters do go through unique problems due to their sexuality without their sexuality being the point of the story. If I had to give one critique its that it possibly could have gone with another chapter just to see the characters more and see a bit more progression. There were also times when the speech bubbles had a weird order but this could have been due to the translators. At the end of the day I cant really find too many things to dock this manga on. Its not a ten because it doesnt blow me away but like a good short story it does well with what its working with being more focused on charactergrowth rather than plotprogression due to the constraints. This manga does romance extremely well. Given my thoughts on Rec I think I just enjoy romance stories that dont drag on that much and work hard to capture the magical moment where love blooms. If youre looking for something short and sweet like chocolate or vanilla Id heartily recommend Vanilla Chocolate Cigarette. 8.1/10 B