This manga is about a country where people have to exchange power through kissing to survive ^_^; When very young, they are paired up (usually male/female pairs, but same sex isn't all that uncommon) with the person they will exchange power with for the rest of their life (one giving, one receiving). This story centers around a certain boarding school and a few of the different 'couplings' in it. It's actually less mushy and romantic than it sounds. Though it's naturally mostly about the relationships of the couplings, the world and the participants view of their situation gets set up very well (though it's mostly kept pretty simple), and we even get to see things like how foreigners see them, and what happens when pairs are separated for a time, or one dies.

The couplings are actually a little less interesting than the world. They're sweet (more in actions than in words, which was cute), but not much else. At first the main pair appear a little distant from each other (a little strange for people who've been together for so long), which made them seem possibly a litte more complex and intriguing, but in the end of course they are just kind of in denial of how close they really are, which is to be expected. But it got resolved so early on it seemed like an awful waste. And then they spent the rest of the time beign undestatedly sweet to each other, just like the rest, heheh. The characters never identify their relationships as anything more than close friendships. It's just very suggestive that they ought to. ^^

It really actually wasn't bad (even for me who doesn't like a whole lot of pure sweetness, which is probably an accomplishment), it just would have been nice if they could have developed or run around a bit more with this neat world they created and strung out the tension they made in the relationships a bit longer than perhaps this one volume would have allowed. This could have been really neat if it were a longer running series, I think. As it is though, it's still very nice if you's like to see sweet without being uber-mushy, and a rather simple and harmelss but very nicely made fantasy-esk world.

EDIT: These is now a reprint of this manga available (with a different cover and NO furigana) as well as a second volume. Haven't read it yet, but I doubt the second volume will be enough to change my opinion of the first. ( )