Why yes, I did see Honey, I Shrunk the Kids when I was younger. All joking aside, I will start with some positives here. One of the high points of the entire manga is its artwork and panel layouts. The background and character designs are full of life, with exquisite detail and extra shading to give them an added sense of dimension. There's a natural flow to scene transitions, with even small comedic side paneling used for a punchline. One of my favorite parts about the manga is its attention to detail about size differences, as our main character Nozomi is roughly only a few centimeters tall. Thus there are moments where the manga needs to frame her next to items that are big to her but smaller to the average person. Yes, there are some moments where the pages can get busy with all of the details, but for a series that conveys that troubling sense of scale, the book excels at that wonderfully.

The presentation is also good at helping foreshadow or imply potentially heavy or disturbing subject matter. There are moments of suspense where you don't necessarily know what's lurking around the corner without it feeling like the book is going into any horror territory. I like what Small Nozomi and Big Yume occasionally does with Yume's character. She's a shut-in who has massive anxiety about meeting people. Whenever the idea of going outside gets brought up, the art does a good job of conveying just how heavy of a burden that idea is for her. It makes you wonder how deep her anxiety and depression go and helps allude that there is more to this character than what appears on the surface.

That being said, outside of its artistic direction and presentation, Small Nozomi and Big Yume struggles to sell its audience on its other interests. While the synopsis and opening pages do present this story like a mystery, the volume spends most of its time ignoring it. Instead, a lot of time is dedicated to Nozomi acclimating to her new way of life, but it's not nearly as inventive or creative of a direction. This makes the overall pacing drag, and I'm wondering when we will get to the meat of the story, which doesn't come into play until the book's final few pages!

It also doesn't help that our two leads don't interact with each other for a good portion of the book, and when they do, it's under a specific pretext that makes emotional investment into the relationship rather tricky. One sees the other as a means to an end, while the other thinks they're talking to a figment of their imagination. There isn't a friendship being built outside of the occasional moments offered, making it very hard for me as a reader to get legitimately attached to anyone. It's like occasional one-off ideas are floating around in the background, but they're so small and barely brought into focus.

Given how popular the trope used to be, I'm surprised we don't have more stories focusing on small characters interacting in a big world. However, based on this first volume, not much is done with that premise. It feels like the book was treading water until the eleventh hour when it teases bigger things. I'll check out the second volume to see if there's any payoff to any of this meandering, but until then, I don't think you're missing a lot by skipping this one.