EnBogreol's manga / #Pretty Seme(37)

I’m only here for the second couple (chapters 6 - 9)

Itsumi is a high school student with an intimidating face and style that makes people think he is a violent delinquent. In reality, he is a kind and gentle person with a soft spot for cute things. Recently though, things have become strange for him, as he is constantly approached by the handsome, adored, perfect school president, Seima. Much to his shock, the latter refers to him as his “Cinderella” and then asks him out??? What is going on?! —- Itsumi is bae, the gap between his appearance and true nature is just so cute! I have such a soft spot for delinquent bottoms lol. Seima is an example of another favourite trope of mine: the perfect prince. I think he manages to reach a good balance between being princely and “perfect”, while also still feeling suitably human. Like, he’s not a flawless robot, seen for example when he is just as flustered as Itsumi when they are romantically or sexually intimate(which is pretty rare for “top” characters). And his interactions with Itsumi are pretty entertaining. My favourite was when he came to Itsumi’s aid during the confrontation with the student council/bullies uwu. The story felt a little short, but that’s probably just me having gotten attached and wanting more lol. The art is beautiful; love the style. The story itself was simple, but sweet. Nice overall, and something that I go back to every once in a while ^^

Shunpei and Fumihiro are childhood best friends and neighbours. After Fumi comes out to Shunpei, the latter finds himself suddenly being much more conscious of their relationship. During a jealous/protective fit, Shunpei ends up offering himself to be Fumi’s lover. Things look perfect, as Fumi confesses his feelings for Shunpei, but things get complicated when he states that he refuses to be the bottom. Shunpei doesn’t want to either, so what now? —- I find myself coming back to this one decently often, and it’s decent over all. Still has problems though... The biggest one is Fumihiro’s insecurity in their relationship, with him becoming irrational and aggressive when it’s really not necessary(Like when he explodes at Mayu, Shunpei’s ex, when she hasn’t done anything wrong). It also kind of feels like Shunpei is the one who always has to apologise and fix things, when Fumi isn’t always innocent in their dumb fights. I get that he is insecure because his feelings have been unrequited for so long, but come onnnn(Shunpei literally trained himself to bottom for you). He has moments of being cute and loving(like when he made breakfast and then went to wake up Shunpei), and you do feel for him and his frustrations of having to live with his secret feelings for so long. So not the best, but forgivable IMO. Shunpei is a decent character too, but I also find myself frustrated at him and his moments of hypocris(becoming jealous when learning that Fumi watches porn, when Shunpei watches it too, like bruh), and he can be painfully dumb sometimes. But he doesn’t seem like a bad dude either, and much like Fumi, mostly just seems to be an immature high schooler. I hated everything that had to do with Hagami. Fucker refused to back off when he was told no. And I don’t understand why Fumi didn’t just turn him down completely, and ran off with him after causing a mess that Shunpei then had to fix. Communication people, communication. Aki was awful too. Creepy, fetishist fujoshi trash. Like, who gets mad about not being able to fantazise about their gay neighbour, because his partner is your brother and he doesn’t have the “role” that you think he should have?? And also refuses to let them be intimate with each other for the same reason?? Leave them ALONE, this isn’t about youuu. I get not wanting people to screw while you’re still in the house, but she literally stops them when they try to go to Fumi’s home instead???? This is a great example of why the word “fujoshi” has such terrible connotations. Something I liked about it was that they didn’t dive into anal immediately, and actually showed the long and difficult process of getting Shunpei’s body ready. This is pretty much the only example I’ve seen of this, with only one other example coming to mind(Neko x Neko), so the realism is appreciated. The childhood friends aspect also appealed to one of my favourite tropes, so that’s a huge plus lol.

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... —- 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;

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