First off, the art work is very nice, not spectacular, but very nice. The writing is intelligent. The story, or rather the sequence of story lines, is slice-of-life, quotidian except for the fantastic elements. It's high school kids striving to understand their adolescent conflicts. One of the big differences is, and one of the reasons I liked it is, the main boy character is not constantly struck dumb and impotent by social interactions, as is the usual case. He is cool and competent while at the same time aware that he is struggling for answers just like his peer group. He does his best without making a big deal out of it. He is not an agonized loner although he does tend to stand apart. Perhaps the sense of cool detachment is what induced boredom in some of the watchers.
