As the title suggests, this story centers around a replica. Second, or how she gets referred to as the series goes on, is by the name Nao. She is the replica of a girl named Sunao and basically she is seen as Sunao’s copy. For the most part, she goes to school for Sunao when she doesn’t feel good. Essentially, if there is something that Sunao doesn’t want to do or can’t do, it’s up to Nao to do it.
In the early parts of volume one, one of the good things this series does is that while stressing that Nao and Sunao are essentially identical on the surface. However, personality-wise, they seem nothing alike. Sunao seems much more groggy, and at times Nao is afraid of Sunao, like in a master-slave relationship at times. Where it feels like being a replica sounds awful because her life is just to be used by Sunao.
Of course part of it is that a replica is linked to their original in terms of their memories, but not the other way around. Even interesting her memories from Sunao depends on her interest. Such reading of Sunao’s memories is like reading a book, and thus it makes sense for her to grow a fondness for reading. The literature club is pretty important in the story because that is where Ricchan and Sanada are introduced in the story.
Throughout the course of the volume, we see Nao fall in love with Sanada. Though it later gets shown that the Sanada that Nao talks to is also a replica named Aki. While Nao doesn’t really have a purpose per se, Aki’s main purpose was to get revenge against the seniors that hurt Sanada. Of course she didn’t want to lose Aki; thus, she pushed for a different manner for Sanada to get his revenge. This is big for Nao because this is where, despite being a replica, it is clear there is something she wanted and sought out. At the same time, Aki felt the same way for Nao. This is important in the final part of the volume.
Nao dies before the final chapter. Well, Replicas can’t die. On the one hand, you might think, Oh, that’s neat that a Replica can’t die. For Nao, though, it is a reminder that she isn’t a real person. If a human dies, there is no coming back. At that point it might be better to commit suicide. Much like how Nao didn’t want Aki to resign his fate to be used for revenge and that’s it, Aki wanted Nao to know how much she means to him. As Ricchan points out, she and Sunao couldn’t be more different. It makes sense the one friend of Sunao’s who is linked to them knew it all along.
Towards the end of the volume, Sunao is seen in a better light. As it gets revealed that replicas feel pain. For example, Aki feeling Sanada’s injuries and Nao feeling the pain from Sunao when she is on their fever. As a replica, they are meant to serve their original.
For Sunao more specifically, she looked at Nao and she was the ideal version that Sunao wanted to be. It seems weird they went from being close enough to feel like sisters to where Nao is afraid of Sunao. As such, Sunao had an inferiority complex toward Nao, and she dealt with it whenever she went back to school after she called back Nao. It is good that the two of them sorted things out and now communicate.
As the novel ends, we have Nao and Aki together. It’s a bit difficult to see where this could go to build on volume 1, but I am intrigued by where it takes the story.