Pop Shock Culture's Katherine Dacey criticises the manga for her feelings of déjà vu "with its recycled character designs, clumsy socio-political lectures masquerading as conversation, and the “I didn’t realize how much I liked you until you forced yourself on me!” epiphanies that her uke characters experience". Coolstreak Cartoons's Leroy Douresseaux describes the "mix of poignancy and surprises" in the manga as "engaging". Mania.com's DanielleVan Gorder commends the manga's "character's expressions, which can convey volumes without words". Jason Thompson, writing for the appendix to Manga: The Complete Guide, noted that Truly Kindly was one of Yoshinaga's early works, saying that "some of the plot twistsfeel arbitrary", and her artfeels "flat", but the rest of the anthology "are just plain good relationship stories".