Comic World
The simple artwork and story's "light, ephemeral touch" was praised by Dirk Deppey in "The Comics Journal", and "PopCultureShock" called the character designs "slightly rough, clumsy", which they consider makes the characters "more human and more believable" because they are "more vulnerable, more imperfect, more fragile". "PopCultureShock" also praised the background art, which "bring[s] the streets of Hiroshima to vivid life". "Manga News" described the apparently simplistic art as beautiful, which emphasizes the story's depth without ever going over-the-top or into excess morality. "Comic World News" called the story "humane" and "profoundly moral", and praised the characterization as being "real". "Otaku USA" described the scenes of daily life as "welcoming" and the art "lovely", saying the "antiwar message is unspoken, and comes naturally from the desire not to see the characters die." A review at About.com described it as a "deeply moving story" that's "told in whispers rather than screams," and praised Kōno for resisting "the urge to pile on the melodrama" and so conveying "a deeply moving story." "" called the work "a beautiful manga and an understated antiwar statement", praising its "dreamlike and evocative" stories and its artwork, especially the "lovely" backgrounds.