While starting off strong, Sparks Volume 1: Portals turned into a dragged on middle to end story. Perhaps it would be better to read all volumes that will be included at once, but who knows. However, I should have realized with an author name like REVEL GUTS, this was not going to be the usual reading.
Let’s get the warnings/possible triggers out of the way: They include (but not limited to) course language, some sexual situations, drug and alcohol use, vomit, and missing students the teacher doesn’t report. And the main romance is around a same sex potential relationship.
The manga black and white illustrations made things dull. The right reader will love, but I was not that reader. Some of the sexual images/nature comes from the LGBTQ parts. The public bath is somewhat homoerotic, but not necessarily gratuitous. As well as the graduation party hints at a coupling between the same gender and what seems to be two of the satyrs kissing while dancing. Nothing wrong with this, just buyer beware if that is not your thing.
Unfortunately, there are several questions that do not get answered (but that just means if you are hooked and want answers, you want book two (due July 2025). And there are some things that feel like you should have already known about the characters, the land, the world they live in but seem to have missed. Or more likely, wasn’t told (hopefully yet). The creator includes a few extras at the end that explain winter and summer uniforms for their Academy/school and a little about the magic the satyrs have (or don’t have) but there is still missing information.