There were a few posts showing interest already
https://hexbear.net/post/2909543
https://hexbear.net/post/2955745
so I figured I'd let people know! Idk if there are any scanlations in the works (let alone an official English localization), but if you're decent at Japanese I'd say the first chapter is pretty accessible. My kanji knowledge is pretty terrible but I was able to muscle through with only looking up a few key words and just relying on context for the rest. This is just a setup chapter, so there's not much to go on:
brief summary
It introduces you to the setting and the main character, teaches you a bit about how ordinary Russians benefitted from communism, tells you about the MCs hopes and dreams, and then has everything come crashing down after Nazis roll into the village accusing them of harboring partisans and start summarily executing people.
The art is great, IMO--to be expected of the mangaka of Our Dreams at Dusk (highly recommended if you haven't read it already, and a short read at only four volumes!). Also there was a neat touch which I haven't personally seen before: when German is being spoken, it's still written in Japanese but typeset in the typical Western horizontal style which makes it clearly stand out without requiring any annotations. Look forward to seeing where it goes, and I hope it'll get an official localization to maximize its exposure to Western audiences! Also from a raw reading perspective, it's nice to get in on the ground floor since it can feel really daunting to have 100 chapters ahead of you when reading is somewhat slow and effortful.
- thelastaxolotl [he/him]M·5 months ago