Oh my goodddd right off the bat I thought I was gonna be facing some major second-hand embarrassment from Sousuke but MITSUHIKO IS SO NICE! WHY IS HE SO NICE! OH MY GOD, he just takes it all in stride! Honestly, I love his character, he's so sweet tho he can be easygoing to a fault. But damn Sousuke lucked out, good for him. And good for Mitsuhiko too lol they are so cute together.
I like how in the second couple Tarou's just like "oh wait... I confessed to a high school boy...isn't that a crime???" Like bro, I had a feeling as soon as I saw him take off the women's clothing. He mentioned classmates and looked young and I'm like either this kid is a uni student or a high school student. And then he was like "I'm getting bigger so I'm not gonna wear the women clothing" and I'm like okaaaay def a younger guy. And then BAM confirmed with the high school festival. Tarou's hella easy going for just accepting it all
Okay I don't know if it's the original writing or if it's the translator's fault, but the writing of this manga just seemed super clunky to me. It's like how they say "show, don't tell" except it was ALL TELL.
Like I dunno. It's the type of writing you'd see if the author wants to establish a setting.
For example: It's like a guy goin "Hey there Matt! I haven't seen you since the apocalypse started 5 years ago, wiping out most of the human population and leaving its survivors to rebuild. Are you still with your beautiful wife Claire who was your childhood love?
Seriously. This is how it felt reading this manga for me. Too much telling, not enough showing. The character's WHOOSH through all their motivations and feelings in one page of dialogue and it feels unnatural. It made it even weirder in the sex scenes cuz it just feels like people sitting there discussing their preferences over tea.
"I see you like it when I touch you over here."
"Yes, it turns me on."
"Yes, I can tell from your voice. Hearing you turned on, turns me on. Very nice"
"Quite."
I like how the mangaka drew baby Hidaka here
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/bending_the_spoon/uu/to_chapter-4/pg-11/
Like sometimes when I see mangas that have a baby the baby just looks like a chibi person, but Hidaka looks like a legit baby here.
Is it just me or did Hazuki's personality do a complete 180? Like I'm very glad he was able to stand up for himself against Watanabe. But he was realllllyyyy annoying in the beginning. And constantly overreacting to every little thing. I found myself constantly being like "Hazuki can you like CHILL for one second?" Then he also sucks at talking to people like how he brought up the cultivated eels and the co-worker was like ??? But then after he breaks up with Watanabe and goes back to his contacts he's like a different character? Hella chill and relaxed. I liked him a lot more too. Like I get he's not gonna be all "damn happy couples should just die" anymore since he experienced a relationship and heartbreak. But I don't know... That change just didn't feel natural. He stopped overreacting to every little thing and was a lot more overall relaxed and confident. And he can talk to people better??? Like lending that other co-worker a book and she's all "wow he's so reliable." Like fine, if a break up ends up making a him a bit more relaxed. That makes sense. If he became more confident, I guess that might make a little sense too since he'll be focusing on himself. But bro even the "bad at talking to people" character trait was gone? I dunnoooooo. It was too far-fetched for me. lolllll Tho I liked relaxed Hazuki as a character more, at the same time I'm like WHO ARE YOU???
Also Watanabe should have suffered more cuz screw him lol. I'm glad Hazuki spurned him and I'm also glad the bar owner dropped a glass of alcohol on him and told him to get the hell out for what he did. But for real, when he confesses to Hazuki again and Hazuki just responds with "Thank you" he can tell Hazuki doesn't really believe him. So I would have liked a few more chapters of him genuinely trying to win back Hazuki's favor.
Ngl I wished the jealousy bit lasted longer but since these two are so well-established of a couple now, it makes sense they'd move past that. I'm just glad I get to see more of them~
https://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/hina_wa_mitsuiro_no_koi_ni_torawareru/mi/c7aca4306f7f2cae3a633ad15ee52011_chapter-9/14/
Shinobu's face here was just *chef's kiss*
But honestly I also don't think he should have gone back to Kouichirou. Like, it was such a basic trope. Shinobu pulls away, and suddenly Kouichirou realizes his true feelings and what he lost. I dunno tho, I didn't really feel it. It felt almost forced? Like Kouichirou does show hints of possibly liking Shinobu while playing around with him. He was watching him from outside the window when he had that other date, and he did get upset when he first saw Shinobu change and heard that he was leaving. And he does admit to Shinobu at the end that he was basically denying those feelings. But when we see him on his own, he's acting like simply not having him around anymore was hurting him and the prior feelings didn't exist. I dunno, I think I'd have liked a bit more of an organic easing into those kinds of feelings. Like it felt like a sharp change instead of more gradual. Instead of only jumping into his point of view as soon as Shinobu left, maybe it would have been nice to see his thoughts WHILE Shinobu was still there and see him struggle more to deny that Shinobu isn't just a toy, AND THEN Shinobu leaves, and he struggles in confusion more. Cuz honestly, I don't trust him either.
I don't know if I'm explaining this right or my thoughts are coming out right. I just feel like that whole part was kind of lacking. I think seeing Kouichirou's side of things while "dating" Shinobu could have made it more believable.
And I definitely think Shinobu should either not have gone back to him, or had him struggle more with a "okay, I don't want you to die over this, so we can start as friends again I guess" sort of dealie if he REALLY wanted to throw him a bone lol cuz I was DEFINITELY enjoying Shinobu's sass.
And also? He clearly was constantly saying Shinobu's name in his sleep, maybe a scene with one of his one-night stands commenting on it would have been nice. I actually thought one of them was gonna when he mistook him for Shinobu after waking up, but noooo. lolll Yeah I think a third party going like "you messed up big time" to Kouichirou would have been fun too.
Anyway, I'm glad Shinobu had the courage to leave for a bit. This manga didn't quite reach it's full potential, but it was almost there.
Wait, was the police who found Souta when he was in middle school Kazuma? I thought he said he was a normal salaryman lol then again he seemed unsure so I guess... he forgot... his occupation as a ghost?
I think Kazuma has always been a salaryman and when he found Souta he was drinking with his senpai. They saw something wrong, he spoke about a school bag left on the street or somethig like that. The senpai called the cops and Kazuma was just comforting Souta waiting for the police.
Oooooooh ok that makes more sense. Thanks lol
Okay I got a lot to say here loll
This manga was great, it really subverted a lot of my expectations.
When I first realized Subaru was trying to act like his ideal shoujo manga hero, I was prepared for a LOT of second hand embarrassment, but surprisingly I didn't get any. Which I'm THANKFUL for.
He was actually a cute, sweet boy lolll
When Subaru wanted to go after Hiroko cuz he thought she was a sweet girl, I was like "but bro, you're gonna have to pretend to be this prince guy your whole life!" And then it was revealed that Hiroko was ALSO pretending. I laughed but I also kinda wanna read a story like that where the guy is a total softie good boy trying to act like a prince shoujo character while the girl is totally a delinquent type/tough girl trying to act like a good girl shoujo character and they both end up dating and trying to hold onto their personas. lolllll So IF ANYONE HAS RECS LIKE THAT DO TELL ME!!!!!!!! Doesn't even have to be shoujo, a BL with this premise is fine too.
But yeah it got a lot better when it's just revealed that everyone's pretending to some degree because that's life. We all hide parts of ourselves in order to be liked by others.
The ONLY thing I didn't like was Jinnai revealing that he purposefully kept people away from Subaru because he wanted him to only depend on him. Like Subaru changed his whole persona because he thought he was being bullied. He wasn't. Just like his friends and classmates thought he was cute when his prince persona began slipping, the kids in his middle school probably thought he was adorable and wanted to befriend him. But Jinnai scared him away. That's some manipulator BS right there man. Total red flags in an adult relationship. I'm only gonna let this slide since Jinnai tried helping him keep up the persona in high school so he wouldn't lose the respect of his peers, so he did technically do a 180 when he got older. He did try to hide Subaru's nature from his friends when they asked him what's up, saying only he wants to know about it. But that could still have been to protect him. And so I'm glad Subaru did tell the truth and open up about his interests.
Subaru constantly trying to emulate shoujo/BL was kinda cringe tho lollll but he never got embarrassed about it, so I guess I don't have to either?
Anyway I still liked the manga and I'm glad I read it. It helps that mangaka's art is hella nice loll
(and lowkey I'm glad this one wasn't that smutty. Like I came here from 24 Jikan Ochi nai Kiss, which had ALL the smut and adult characters. Since these guys are still high schoolers, I'm totally fine with the smut being downplayed, that's my personal preference. I mean it would be too wild if it was a lot cuz Subaru is too pure for this world lollllll)
And if you actually felt the need to read this entire comment, KUDOS TO YOU AND THANK YOU! ヾ(☆▽☆)
Oh I thought Caleb would come back as a human but that's okay too loll
Seriously, though, knew from the get-go he'd be hot as hell.