Manga Review | The Lines That Define Me Volume 1

In The Lines That Define Me, Vol. 1, Hiromasa Togami (writer) and Atsunori Horiuchi (illustrator) present a new art manga with a lot of heart.

The story follows Sosuke, a struggling college student who bumps into a famous suibokuga artist at a gallery. He becomes captivated by the art medium, so he agrees to become the artist’s apprentice, entering into the world of Indian ink painting and finding himself along the way.

First off, with so many high school-centric manga, I love that we’re getting a slightly older protagonist. Sosuke is a lonely college student adrift in life, and the manga does a wonderful job of capturing that. There are these smaller, subtle details in the manga that help add to the believability. For instance, Sosuke’s barren apartment with barely even any furnishings feels like a really realistic portrayal of a broke college student.

However, some of the characters feel a little flat at first—especially Chiaki, but as the story progresses, gradually we start to see growth and more and more layers to them.

All in all, The Lines that Define Me is a bittersweet, introspective manga about self-discovery, art, and grief that I would recommend to fans of Blue Period.

Thank you, NetGalley and Kodansha, for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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