Yukidoke no Koi is a Boys Love manga by ‘Itz’. The volume has 7.5 chapters, however this review will only focus on chapters 1-5 and the extra 0.5. The last two chapters are one-shots which seem to have been tagged on at the end to sell the main story as a volume. When I first started reading this series I thought it would be a love between salarymen, by the time I realised it was student x teacher, I was already in too deep to stop. I’ve never been a fan of student x teacher works, the stories make me uncomfortable and I struggle to actually believe the romance. However Yukidoke no Koi, turned that on its head, providing a heart-wrenching romantic story.

Sumito Takeda is exploring a snowy park with his friends, he stops to take a picture of an unlikely sight – cherry blossoms blooming in winter. He lowers his camera, and is struck by something even more unlikely – his teacher crying, alone in the park. When he returns to school he becomes increasingly attached to the teacher, Someya Yoshiyuki. He wants to know the reason behind the tears of his handsome and popular teacher. But as Sumito begins to intertwine his life with Someya, he can’t help but fall in love. Someya, on the other hand is amused by this sweet and kind student. But there’s a wall that Sumito cannot push past, a wall to stop Someya from getting hurt once again.

Itz has created a really beautiful manga series, the story was woven so delicately almost like the snow flakes that feature so prominently in the comic. Thankfully, unlike most teacher x student stories, this manga doesn’t focus too heavily on the ethical to-and-fros of such a relationship. Which sure are important to discuss, but after reading series after series of Sensei going “We can’t!” and Student-Chan going “We CAN!” and then Sensei going “fine, let’s go~” it gets a bit boring. Rather Sumito and Someya’s relationship is explored through Sumito’s hopes for his future, and Someya gaining the courage to let himself love again.

The art style is quite gorgeous and I loved the designs of both characters. In some series, the character’s designs lead into their trope – a shy uke with feminine features, an aggressive seme with those yaoi hands. It seems like quite a strange point to make it this review, but I enjoyed not being able to tell where their relationship would go, just based on how the characters look. After reading yaoi series for almost 7 years, stories blur into one another. But Yukidoke no Koi was a refreshing change. Scenes were constructed to carefully build the character’s relationships and give us an insight into their hopes and dreams. After finishing the five chapters I felt like I actually knew these characters, they weren’t just stereotypical characters that get thrown in the ‘forget-me’ pile.

My only complaint is that I would have liked the series to be longer. Rather than having the 2 one shots at the end of the volume, I would have loved to have read 2 extra chapters just to have some more romance scenes of them together. But despite it being a tad short, I absolutely loved this series. I highly recommend this series to anyone who is interested in BL – veteran or newbie to the genre 9.5/10