Heartbroken after not getting to be with Minori-sensei (a massage therapist who seduced him), the fourth head of the yakuza, Tatsuyuki, drinks his feelings away.
After passing out on a park bench, he is carried away by a stranger; a stranger who seems to know exactly who he is...
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A close to 5 star story for me; only thing that breaks it is the dubious consent after Nozomi carries Tatsuyuki home with him in chapter 1. It’s not cool to sleep with people who are completely wasted, when you are sober, Nozomi-sensei.
Other then that, I very much enjoyed this manga.
Story is interesting, art is beautiful, and I cared about that characters.
Tatsuyuki is a good example of an unconventional “yaoi bottom”, and I like that he feels like a strong character, without being cartoonishly intimidating. His design is also just soooo fucking beautiful. Nozomi was not too bad either, though his initial methods of getting closer to Tatsuyuki were... questionable. Stalking is not cool.
I found the pages featuring Nozomi’s backstory highly disturbing, so I skip those. But in regards to his backstory, I really liked that after learning about it, Tatsuyuki was very careful about not triggering Nozomi when they slept together. It was very cute, and showed that the author took the care to not gloss over the abuse, like is unfortunately the case in many other smutty manga.
Side characters were fun as well, Reika was my favourite. It’s nice to see positive depictions of female characters in BL.
I still feels it’s a shame that I won’t be giving it 5 stars; it was sooo close ;W;
Yondaime Ooyamato Tatsuyuki