Nozomi wakes up to find that she has forgotten everything except her name and she has shrunk to the size of a soda can. She finds herself trapped in the garbage-filled messy home of a shut-in named Yume. Yume has cut off all contact with the outside world, surviving off of copious amounts of alcohol and junk food. Nozomi is doing her best to survive in this oversized world while trying to figure out what happened in the first place. Meanwhile, Yume seems to have decided Yume is a figure of her drunken imagination sent to put her on the right path.

While the artwork is drawn in a rather cutesy manner, there is a number of scenes directed towards fan service that don't seem to connect with the story being told. It tends to make light of a serious situation, treating an alcoholic and possible suicidal person as a punchline. I can only hope this shapes up a little as the volumes progress. It's obvious the author has it in mind for Nozomi to help Yume deal with her issues (although I don't know how much help a teenage girl is with adult problems). It seems like this story isn't sure if it should be a comedy or if it's dealing with a more serious subject. The balancing act between the two just isn't working for me.

A teenage girl wakes up with her memories wiped and her body shrunken to about 5 inches tall. This is Nozomi. We meet her while she's hiding out in the apartment of Yume, a full-size adult who is struggling. Nozomi is also struggling to survive by sneaking around Yume's place, which is currently overrun by trash bags and empty beer cans. When Yume discovers the tiny intruder, she thinks Nozomi is a figment of her imagination there to help her get her life together.

The premise is interesting, but I have one major issue with this story. Yume seems to be suffering from an alcohol addiction, severe agoraphobia, and depression (tw: suicidal thoughts), and this is treated especially unempathetically in this volume. It's understandable that Nozomi is a teenager who hasn't developed the empathy of someone older, but she is particularly cruel in the way she speaks to Yume. I'm hoping this changes as the series progresses and the characters develop, but in this volume, Yume is shamed for her problems.

Through much of the volume, it is unclear how Nozomi became tiny, which is a bit frustrating; however, there are intriguing elements introduced in the final chapter that hint at an explanation and serve as a decent cliffhanger to bring the reader back for volume 2.

For the most part, I did enjoy the artwork, but there is unnecessary (light) fan service throughout.

Full review posted to Goodreads on 5/15/23: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5544656916

A cute Japanese high school girl (Nozomi) wakes up 12cm tall knowing only her name and age. She ends up co-habiting with a 22 year old NEET shut-in (Yume). This is the Borrowers but make it Japanese, make it Moe, and make it Fan-service.

It was only fine! It was a little boring if I'm honest! I didn't take to the characters, or the artstyle. This manga just didn't appeal to me but then again, I don't think I'm the target audience for it! I don't need panty shots and high school girls undressing in my manga to get me to read it! But if you do - on you go!

2 stars

Thank you to Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for providing me with and eARC copy so that I could give an honest review.

Unfortunately this volume just didn't do it for me. The concept is a unique one that could have been taken in an interesting direction, especially with the element of mystery that was introduced. However, it did not live up to this and instead was quite flat. Our two protagonists were pretty one dimensional and exhausting sometimes, and I didn't get attached to either of them. The art was also a bit wonky at times, and I didn't find the humour funny either. I'll be passing on this series in the future.

Not for me, unfortunately. The plot idea, while cute and interesting, wasn't executed in a gripping way. I didn't find the characters to be likeable in any capacity. The art was just okay. I'll skip the next volumes of this series, but I'd consider giving this author another chance in the future.

This was a nice quick read about a high school girl that finds herself shrunken into the size of a soda can and a shut in NEET trying to live her messy life.
This Manga took a serious topic and combined it with some comedy which I enjoyed. It provided enough intrigue for me to continue reading the series especially the mystery revolving around the question why the high school girl shrunk and why she lost her memory.
The way she starts to help the NEET overcome her severe social anxiety is heartwarming and fun.
Nevertheless I think this has a little too much unnecessary fanservice which doesn’t add anything to the story and has the potential to turn the story from wholesome to cringe in future volumes.

This was an interesting first volume. Nozomi is the most interesting character because of the situation that she finds herself in and Yume is just annoying but I still like her. I'm very curious to see where this story goes. I can't wait to find out why Nozomi is small. I really hope that this manga keeps going because I'm hooked on the mystery!

Thanks to NetGalley & Kodansha for letting me read this in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Art style is okay, but I was put off by the gratuitous panty shots and long hair barely covering up genitalia... the characters are irritating instead of intriguing too. I don't find either of them likeable or characters that I could be invested in caring about. I found the original concept interesting but unfortunately the execution doesn't play out. Sorry, this was a miss for me, and I love manga :(

A weird one. I don't think this was for me.

Basically a high school girl the size of a ant, wakes up one day in a apartment with a shut in who drinks all days and has no life or job. She has to figure a way to co-live with this loser, and the other side of the book has the loser unsure if she's too drunk to realize there's a human the size of a ant living in her dirty apartment with her.

It's just nothing really interesting to me. The situation is silly/weird enough but it's not funny or interesting enough for me to care what happens to these characters sadly. I really don't like the drunk loser, she has no redeeming qualities, and the little ant girl is cool but when they bring another who's like her by the end I'm just more like "huh" then "oh wow" and that's never a good thing. Art isn't bad though at all.

For strange and weird, this might be for you. For me not so much. I do wanna thank Netgallery for providing me with a ARC for a fair and honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

2.5
Not going to lie, but this was a miss for me. Both Yume and Nozomi are written in a way that is clearly intended to be funny, but instead, they're just annoying. The mystery of why Nozomi is tiny with no memories of her prior life is the only interesting part of the story, but it's barely talked about until the final chapter. The relationship between Yume and Nozomi is also kind of grating. Nozomi is only mean to Yume, but Yume is constantly drunk so she doesn't even notice. Also, this is an ecchi comedy. I'm really not into ecchi stories, and I wish the manga had been labeled properly. The random sexual scenes of Nozomi, who is a teenager, were really uncomfortable to read. Also...this is a minor thing that threw me, but what is with them showing Yume's bare feet like...all the time? Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, but it's weird. It happened enough that I noticed it, and that in itself is weird. Even though I'm curious about why Nozomi woke up as a tiny person, I doubt I'll be seeking out the next volume. The art style is okay, but it's nothing to write home about.

This was quite an interesting book. The concept was a little unclear and the reasoning behind things are also a little muddy, but I didn’t join the fan service and also the relationship between the two main female characters. I may read more of this, but unfortunately it was not my favourite, but I also did enjoy it so I would rate this three stars as it was a middle of the road. I would recommend if someone is looking for a Book that’s interesting but they don’t rely heavily on plot.

I was hoping to be able to read this manga. I was so excited when I saw that it was approved. I like the way the cover was designed. The only question I had after reading this Managua was how did Nozomi actually enter Yumes apartment. I thought it was funny that Nozomi made Yume believe she was a figment if her imagination when Yume got drunk.

Nozomi is a teenage girl who shrinks to the size of a soda can and winds up living with Yume, a normal -sized woman who's a beer-loving NEET (term for a slacker who's not employed or in school). Complications, of course, ensue. Unfortunately, I wasn't really drawn to any of the characters, but I could see this being a hit among people who like cute girls and/or slapstick humor. The translation notes were very helpful.

Thank you to Kodansha and NetGalley for the copy I received in exchange for an honest review.

[Big thanks to Kodansha and Netgalley for an ARC of this manga in exchange for an unbiased review]

Little girl in the big apartment! Nozomi wakes up with no memory and she’s the size of a soda can. Or a beer can, as she’s trapped in the apartment of Yume, who’s succumbed to the NEET lifestyle and spends her time not interacting with anything that won’t raise her blood alcohol level. But it turns out that these two kind of need each other, provided they can find any sort of common ground.

This story makes a narrative choice that sort of has a certain sense behind it, but said choice harms it almost irreparably at the start - it spends the first two chapters on its two leads separately and then has them start interacting. That’s a good idea, in theory.

The problem is that neither Nozomi nor Yume is developed enough or interesting enough at the beginning to hold on to the reader’s attention. Nozomi’s got the easier time since her situation is so unique, and her means of survival are interesting. Yume isn’t anything especially new, a problem that haunts her throughout the volume.

This notion bears out because the story starts to get quite a bit more interesting when the two of them interact. It’s not amazing, but it definitely gets better as it goes and things start to develop into its central conceit.

Nozomi is pragmatic and Yume is an airhead with an anxiety disorder. Nozomi takes charge of things a little bit, since it’s clear Yume is probably just going to live her life inside forever. Nozomi, again, does most of the interesting stuff here, as Yume is just kind of a mess that we’ve all seen before.

As I said, the premise is strong, it just doesn’t quite make good on it. There’s also a lot of the ‘yelling at somebody to just get over it’ approach to solving mental health issues that drives me a little crazy. Concept good, execution lacking.

What’s going to get me to come back, and I do intend to give this the two volume chance, is that it actually has some interesting mysteries going on, more than you might expect. Nozomi’s condition is neither as singular nor as cut and dry as it seems and that little carrot has me pretty intrigued.

The art’s okay, it makes some weird grabs at fan service that it never quite commits to, and it gets the job done. Again, Nozomi fares much better just because of all the fun perspective shots.

So, I would call this uneven, but it isn’t, it’s more skewed towards my polite indifference with just enough to make me want to know a little more about what’s going on and if the increased interaction between our leads will bear any lasting fruit.

3 stars - there’s something here and, while I am worried this will succumb to the curse of the three volume manga series, I’ll come back to see if it’s got what it takes now that all the wheels are finally in motion.

To put it simply, a high school girl, Nozomi Koiwa wakes up and finds herself to be really small in height. After running away from a cat, she comes across Yume Okubo, a girl who has been stuck inside for months because she fears people.

I decided to give this a read because I love reading manga in general, although this isn't my usual reading preferences. I think it is a unique and fun story in its own way, but I don't think I'm the intended audience for this. Still, it can be a fun and lighthearted read for the first volume!

Moreover, the illustrations is really interesting because everything is a lot larger than it normally is, because for Nozomi Koiwa, things appear gigantic in her perspective.

Thank you for allowing me to read this!

I really liked this first volume. The characters are the opposite of each other, and I think that brings a lot to the book.
Nozomi is very resourceful and sees opportunity in everything, while Yume is depressed and dependent. However, a relationship soon began to develop between them, in which each one receives something from the other. But I can see that relationship growing into something more throughout the volumes and helping each other.

I really liked the art, through little Nozomi's perspectives we can see life from her angle and feel her situation. And we are also able to sense Yume's issues with having anxiety and fear of being judged.

I think this first volume was a good start, because on the end it have left me whit some questions. Curious for the second volume.

Small Nozomi and Big Yume is an odd one. Our main character is Nozomi Koiwa, who's a high schooler. At the beginning of the story she wakes up and has shrunk to the size of a soda can and cannot remember basically anything except her name. She somehow ends up living with this alcohol loving 22-year-old woman, who's a neet. Nozomi makes Yume believe she's just her imagination and tries to help the woman out to try to organize her life. But, it seems Nozomi isn't the only one having shrunk... Well, the setting is interesting, but the series is only three books long, so it may not be enough. The pace is really fast and Nozomi doesn't really try to solve her situation enough to make this more interesting. It's just about Yume getting drunk and not understanding why she can see the little school girl.

The art looks nice, a bit sexy at times, which feels weird considering the topic. I'm much more interested in the reasons than in Yume's situation though. The shrine seems to be the key to everything. Still, it's great that this is a shorter series, since we need more of those. The topic is quirky too in a good way.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance copy!

3.5 stars
From the premise I had a thought that this would be very "The Borrowers" type of vibes. While it does have some similar aspects with Nozomi the tiny school-girl living secretly with Yume the shut-in they do start interacting in this first volume.

Its an interesting start and setup to a story but I'm not sure where it plans to really go other than Nozomi helping Yume get over being a shut-in and MAYBE a future plot of Yume helping Nozomi find out why shes so small suddenly (and a school girl?). The art style is nice but a lot of angles and panels felt very male-gaze to me which isnt necessarily a bad thing but I lose focus if the story is telling me one thing but the art is emphasizing this panty shot at the same time lol. But to be fair there is a large audience that will love that kind of thing.

I can see this manga getting a lot of attention as both girls are very cute, so id like to see the story get stronger as it progresses!

Good start for a series. Nozomi wakes up tiny and with no memories of her past life other than that she’s been normal-sized school-girl before. She finds shelter at a home of a shut-in woman, Yume, who has severed all contact with the outside world because she’s afraid of people.

The two have very different temperaments and Nozomi really has no sympathy for Yume. But when Yume asks for her help in straightening her life, Nozomi agrees, though her methods come in the form of tough love. The first volume ends with Nozomi finding out that she’s not the only tiny person around, a mystery that’ll continue in the next volume.

I liked the artwork and the story. I’m not sure who it’s meant for though. The concept of a shut-in isn’t very familiar in the west to begin with. The overly-lush way the girls are drawn suggest pre-teen boys, but the sad undertone is more suited for older audience.

2.5 stars.

An inexplicably tiny high school girl is secretly living the the home of a 22-year-old shut-in.

While I think the concept is interesting and the art is fine, I am just so very much not the intended audience for this.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free review copy.