beta
rereading this again and the 2nd experience of this manga still brought about the same fluttery, heartwrenching feelings i felt and made me tear up like the first time i stumbled across this. the art style is just so pretty and distinct, and i love the atmosphere that was painted by the tenma and uno's voices - love love LOVE being in tenma's headspace and just viewing his perspective on love and tagging along on his roller coaster ride of falling in love with uno, getting to know him, and having that love and effort be reciprocated in the end by uno himself likeeee i just LOVE tenma's voice as a character guys :") his relationship with his parents brings me so much joy and he is such a distinctive and mature character - his narration feels so compelling to me because he feels so grounded as a character, he's written really well and so all his lil quirks and just his views abt love and his experiences makes him a relatable character that you want to root for. also he is constantly #drippedtfout, brings me back to the good ol days of late 90's - early 00's era shojosei where the characters wld actually be fashionable and have distinct fashion styles (miss seeing actual fashion subcultures i.e. lolita, goth, punk, gyaru, etc. depicted in my manga :"( ).
anyways who the fuck do i have to kill to see this made into a movie like the manga is just so atmospheric and cinematic PLEASEEE I NEED TO SEE THIS ON THE BIG SCREEN
honestly i think this difference in perception btwn me n the rest of the comments here n why most of the readers seem disappointed by the story is because for me first n foremost this isn't actually like, a love or romance story even though it is BL lol. like yes nacchan n issei's relationship does play a major role in the story but honestly? this story reads more to me like a character study of nacchan, and the relationship - though major - serves more as the background to the foreground of telling nacchan's story, about him in stagnation and struggling against his conflicting desire of wanting better or more for himself in his life versus his fear of essentially stepping out of his comfort zone.
and personally? for what it is, by which i mean reading this as more of a character study or character-focused narrative over a love story or a story About the romance, i think it executed it pretty well *shrug emoji* i personally like how grounded nacchan's source of turmoil/personal conflict is, like it's something that is very very relatable esp for jobseekers and workers in current times i feel lol. hence why his character felt compelling to me ig, ive seen many ppl react the way nacchan did when confronted with their own struggle regarding the misery and mundaneity of their own lives and the fear they have that paralyzes them from putting in the work into pursuing something that'll actually make them happy - and lowkey i've also felt the same envy he felt about issei's life/work from time to time.
Idk overall this feels like a pretty enjoyable more mature story to me, and i think it's cause the actual point of it isn't about the romance or about centering the romance. Like issei & nacchan's relationship does play a huge part in the story but i like how their relationship isn't written for us to consume for the sake of it being a love story/romance that the story is centering on. instead, nacchan & issei's relationship, both in the past and in the present, serves more as a vehicle for the narrative to explore what issei and nacchan's characters are really like. we get to see a lot of interesting tidbits about the both of them as characters through how they navigate this relationship and how stuff like work, their differing lifestyles, etc. factor into that - their relationship felt more like a goldmine of information about them as characters rather than the centrepiece love story.
BUTTT ig tldr if ur looking for the more classic actual romance-focused bl story you're not gonna find that here and you probs wanna pass on this if you, yknow, wanna read a LOVE STORY love story. if you like a more grounded n realistic character driven narrative And you wanna read a bl then all things considered, this one is executed pretty well in that regards imo *shrug emoji*