Responses
As far as the dad, I had actually interpreted it as “you’re not fit to run the company because you’re gay and won’t have kids so the legacy is better passed to your straight brother.”
But, that could be my own biases talking, given that I am queer with homophobic parents. It would be interesting to know the author’s true intent.
I also found Yuu confusing. Plus the thread with the brother seemed like it would be an almost “he takes everything from me” kind of moment, but it never went anywhere. Idk. I liked it well enough but it seemed like it was a bit “wide as an ocean but deep as a puddle.”
I'm never sure how much is the original text being confusing and how much is just the difficulties of translating, but it's always frustrating when the text seems to be confusing and contradictory.
For instance, there's one part where Yuu throws himself on Junpei saying he doesn't want things to stay as they are...but then a page or two later we have Junpei struggling with himself and reflecting that Yuu said he was fine with things as they are...
（￣へ￣）
And there would be times when Junpei would act and say things that seemed to be openly acknowledging and accepting that he and Yuu have something going on, and yet at other times he'd talk or act as if he was pretending that he didn't know Yuu had feelings for him, or as if he himself was doubtful of what Yuu's actions meant.
Although I could infer that Junpei was a serious person who was struggling to accept his own sexuality and what that would mean for his life, a lot of the time the text was just contradictory and confusing and I could only make guesses about where his headspace actually was.
It's a nice story, but honestly too many of the scenes feel like filler that don't say anything, explore anything or I progress the story because the text is contradictory or too vague to have any meaning at all. Which is disappointing because I do like this story and wanted to be absorbed into it a lot more.
Also, the whole thing with his Dad...was just a bit too vague to be satisfying. I think what happened was that his Dad was saying he wasn't suited to being the next boss of the company and also that he was forcing himself too much to be what he wasn't - both by trying to be his idea of the next boss and by trying to live as a straight person. He wasn't being true to himself and wasn't living and working in a way he truly liked etc.
But what Junpei heard was that he wasn't suited to being the boss and he wasn't doing a good job because he was gay. He was trying to be what he thought he should be and yet kept getting pushed back for it, especially from his father. And by spending time with Yuu and his family and working with the kids, he managed to relax his thinking and be open to what his father was really saying rather than assuming it was criticism and rejection.
But goodness, to make me have to work all of that out by giving me only a few vague lines of text here and there, even though it's the fundamental journey the MC has to go on felt really unsatisfying.
Anyway, like I said, I liked this story, I just wish the text had been a little less frustrating. I don't mind a lot of things being inferred rather than said outright, it's just a bit too much hard work when things are barely even inferred and instead things are just vague, empty, or contradictory.
It's one of those manga that really make me wish I was able to read the original Japanese.