I give very few tens, but this is probably a 9.5... or perhaps I need to wipe my eyes to make sure I'm clicking the right spots :) I don't know if this is a "masterpiece" as the rating system would qualify it but I do think it's a master-work; if I didn't love Morinaga Milk already and want to find everything she's ever written, I certainly do now.

I won't claim this has ground-shaking originality but the emotional beats are, in general, perfect. And I absolutely could not put it down--read the whole thing in one sitting. It's just beautiful, and I loved the experience of getting to spend so long with these characters and watch the story really develop through a considerable amount of time. I actually found both of them--all of them--quite plausible, and the story is by turns funny, sincerely emotionally impactful and melodramatic, innocent and mature, sweet and beautiful. These characters are very clear and surprisingly well-rounded, going beyond obvious cliches and showing real development over the course of the series.

I'd like to say something more profound about the genre and this work's place in it, but it's 4 AM and I just finished it--which probably says more about this book than anything intellectual I could write.

I think it was beautiful, throughout, and now I feel wonderful.

=====EDIT:=====
I've decided to revise this rating upward. Purely subjectively. I simply realized as I was going about my life that I was comparing whatever I was reading or watching to whether I'd rather be rereading Girl Friends. And I'd almost always rather be re-reading Girl Friends. If that isn't a 10 I don't know what is.