The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Number Call

What's It About? 

High schooler Eito Tachibana has always hated his name, including all of the jokes and puns about the number 8 that have come along with it. One day, he meets a classmate named Tomoya Hatta, aka Hachi--the Japanese word for "8." What begins as casual greetings and small talk in the hallway soon becomes something much deeper, and Eito realizes that it's more than just a similar nickname that draws him to Hachi. Could the number that Eito resented for so long finally bring him something--or someone--to love?

Number Call is a manga by Nagisa Furuya. This volume is translated by Sawa Matsueda Savage, lettered and retouched by Nicole Roderick. Published by Kodansha Comics (March 12, 2024).

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Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman
Rating:

Even though her stories are all a little bit the same, I love Nagisa Furuya's BL manga. Typically, her works feature two boys who become friends and then boyfriends, slowly moving from one phase of their relationship to another. They're pretty much the definition of "slow burn," but she does it well, and Number Call is no exception. Eito and Hachi meet by chance, bond over their nicknames, which sound like words for the number eight, and eventually fall in love. There's only one kiss in the entire volume. However, it still manages to be pleasingly romantic – and, it must be said, incredibly familiar if you've read any of Furuya's other books. Although I hesitate to call her a one-trick pony, she's a creator who has been refining the same basic storyline for quite some time.

This book is her first one, dating back to 2014, and it explains the familiarity of the storyline. Essentially, Number Call lays out the formula Furuya's works will follow, and it's easy to see elements of what will turn into The Two Lions or My Ultramarine Sky. You have the two high school boys, you have their supportive-yet-goofy friends, and the book is divided between their two perspectives, with Eito claiming the first half and Hachi getting the second. What does this mean for readers? If you're looking for racy fare, look elsewhere in this Guide, but also, if you haven't enjoyed Furuya's brand of low-key BL before, this one probably isn't going to work for you. It's the embodiment of a Nagisa Furuya manga in all ways.

If you're a fan, though, this is lovely. Eito's issues with his name stem from a variety of places, with his frustration at having been given a name with an unusual reading mirroring what some people go through when their parents decide to give them a cute or deliberately different spelling – meaning that it may sound fun from the parental side. Still, those parents have forgotten how mean kids can be. Hachi, who's in the science track at school to Eito's humanities, really likes that their names (or nicknames) are linked by the number eight, and he doesn't realize that Eito not telling him the actual reading of his name is a sign that he doesn't mind it so much when Hachi misreads it. The two complement each other well, and when Eito can't face the fear of Hachi not liking him back, they drift apart. There's a sweetness to the book that's appealing, and if it isn't as tightly put together as some of the creator's other series, it's still a cozy read.

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Lauren Orsini
Rating:

Did somebody order a slow burn? Number Call is billed as a romance, but it moves at a glacial pace. Considering the entire story wraps up in one 200-page volume, I suppose it could be even slower. We know that Eito and Hachi are going to get together, but when they finally do, the curtain falls and leaves me asking, "... And then what?" What about a first date? Telling their friends they're an item? First time meeting the parents? This story takes so much time trying to get where it's going that there's no time to enjoy the destination at the end.

For most of the story, the two romantic leads are little more than strangers. Eito, as you've probably picked up on, has a name that sounds like the English number eight—a source of classroom teasing all of his life. When the wind blows his test papers out the window (he has, embarrassingly, scored an 88 on each one), a stranger retrieves them for him only to laugh at the pun. Eito can't get the guy out of his head, and when he later learns that his name is Hachi (which sounds like eight in Japanese), it all clicks into place.

From there, the story progresses into a queer coming of age. Eito wrestles with alternating frustration and curiosity—he can't figure out why he wants to know more about Hachi, but he's sure it's not because the two of them have similar names. Eito's self-discovery is the most honest and heartfelt part of the manga; his anxiety and navel-gazing will be relatable to anyone who has ever been in high school and trying to find themself. Even without the weird name, Eito's self-othering mirrors how every kid feels out of place in adolescence. When Eito learns that the seemingly popular Hachi also feels misunderstood, it means everything to him.

Simple, clean line art that borders on boring tells their story in spare, minimalistic black and white frames. Our leads are not particularly handsome or outstanding in any physical way. They look like the same dude in alternate color palettes: one with black hair, one with white hair, both with narrow, appraising eyes and slanted mouths—Hachi's more likely to form a quirked smile, and Eito's more likely to frown. They spend so much time circling one another and sizing each other up, using go-betweens like Eito's nosy friend, guessing at intentions instead of asking directly. Truthfully, this is how many high school would-be romances go, when both parties are too chicken to pursue it any further. "I wish we could have spent more of high school together," Hachi tells Eito in the epilogue. Me too, dude.