If there is ever a manga that knows how to play with your heart, it would be Girl Friends.

This manga is a beautifully illustrated, enjoyable and emotionally involving chronicling of the lives of Mari, a young girl with a girl friend who she starts to wish was more like a girlfriend instead. And yes, the space does make all the difference.

For that is Mari's dilemma. She falls for a friend. A girl friend. This manga covers all the drama, feelings and confusion that one feels while falling in love. What is worse for Mari is that she is in love with not only someone who doesn't know it, but with her best friend. And to top it off, that friend is a girl.

Issues of sexuality are perhaps hard to deal with. It's scary enough to fall in love, and sorrowful enough to be in love who doesn't return it - but then there is being in love with someone who you cannot afford to lose.

The writer of this manga is brilliant. The scenes are never dull and every scene packs a punch.

Mari and Akko are excellent characters. Mari is our voice, and she feels all that insecurity and fear we would feel. Akko is just a fun, awesome, cool girl with a loving side and a silly side to her. She really makes you fall in love with her, and it's easy to see why Mari'd fall for her too.

This is an absolutely brilliant yuri manga. It is cute, the characters are lovable, and the situations are all too relatable, even if you're not gay or lesbian.