Mimi's manga / #age gap(8)

I'm sure this is a super cute story about two people growing old together. I'm sure this has really heartwarming scenes that would make me cry. But I did not know the age gap was so significant when they met. I don't really read descriptions, I like to go into these books mostly blind with only mangaupdate's tags (bs I don't trust this site) to guide me and, honestly, I wouldn't've touched it if I had known that was when they met. I'm already someone who doesn't like age gaps anyway, but I thought they were both mature adults at the time of meeting. That aside, though, I think the way dialogue is written where they wouldn't shut up about being old got old really quick. I completely understand that some people start to think about a lot of these things like the passage of time, the world around you changing, dying, figuring out what to do with that time since you're not working anymore, and so on. I get it but how they kept talking about it at the drop of a hat was a bit overdone. I wanted to keep truckin' but then I remembered the age gap thing that weirded me out so I'm good.

An age gap? That's five years apart?? At the time of their ages right now??? I honestly don't know how I feel about that since a 20yd Yoshito would've held feelings for a 15yd Tomoe and I'm a little ?!???!!?? about it. Which kind of sucks for me because I liked how quiet this story is. Between Yoshito's and Tomoe's backstory along with Tomoe's fear of abandonment, this has a "grey rain clouds around 4 pm on a Thursday but it doesn't rain" feeling and I love that. Just really wish the age gap wasn't so prominent. I also really wish chapter seven didn't start the way it did and instead had this very heavy, still air as they talked. But no. I did appreciate the flashback bits. Still ruined the tension from chapter six immediately for me, though.

So here me out, getting through chapters one and two felt like when it's mid-summer down at your grandparents' place in the country and people are doing stuff inside, time is moving, you hear people talking... But you're sitting on the sofa, in your room watching tv, or on the porch outside. Time is moving slowly for you but you know things are happening around you. You're aware that things are happening around you but the time it's taken to get from 1 pm to 2 pm has felt like five hours in-between. I don't usually read other's reviews unless I'm super unsure about what the tags are leading to. But I saw two people saying how average this was and I kind of agree. I love slow-paced stories but there's something about this that felt like nothing's happening despite a good bit of stuff happening between up to chapter three. Some parts did annoy me but it's the usual bullshit you'll find in a BL. I didn't start feeling fully annoyed by the plot until around chapter four to the point where I already knew how the story was gonna go and contemplated dropping it. I'm more mad rather than annoyed that Takayuki was never held accountable for manipulating Aki for so long and I'm mad that the author basically wrote him getting a slap on the wrist when confronted by the end of it. I wanted rage from Aki. I wanted Takayuki dead. The only reason I finished this was because I've put too many books on hold for similar annoying reasons and just need to finish something. But, yeah, as a whole, I can already feel that this isn't going to be something I'm going to remember once I'm done reading it. Also, Takayuki's kind of creepy and not in the way the author meant him to be. He's creepy in an "adult who's been interested in a kid since they were 15 and waited til they're 18 to date them" kind of way. Hmmmm I wonder why...

Eh, it's ok. It's a little too simple and slow for me and how big the age gap was (one dude was at the tail end of 19 while the other was 33 I think) was kind of weird to me, but there was nothing too creepy or straight up fetish-y about it like some other age gap stories I've unfortunately read. It's just kind of slow and sweet and absolutely nothing at the same time. That being said, I'll still buy this. At the end of the day, it was cute at a 3 star level and that's enough to take myself over to cdjapan.

I'm sorry but I was really bored during the main story. I don't know, the story felt kind of stale but also cute. I just couldn't bring myself to care about either of them as much as I wanted to that when their conflict happened I didn't feel anything. It wasn't a bad story, I just didn't care. Now as for the 2nd story, I was giddy for more of Minakami. I remember thinking to myself “man, I really like the design of the cafe owner. I really want to see more of them". But they just had to ruin it by the college guy be 19. Ugh. It's a cute story but they could've made him at least 24? Even before finding out his age I couldn't stop thinking how I would've loved it more of it was about him and the bartender from the place Suzuki worked at instead because I need more mature couples in my life. So that kind of sucked seeing that Isaki was under 20. And then they hit me with a joke like “What kind of useless adult am I, getting involved with a kid" like, ew!? Like, ew? Like, ew. Something I do like, though, was the way this author draws mouths and eyes. Specifically their smiles, though. It makes me think of how fixated I was with another author, Kei Sumiya, who’s smiles during some genuine moments are so radiant, shiny, blinding, and warm. The :3 smiles Kure does makes me smile, I love it. It’s like when you’re talking to someone who understands the importance of emoticons and put shit like :) and -A- and (^u^) at the end of their text. I’m in love. I’m in love with the way Kure draws smiles.

Started 12/27 I think I understand why people kept telling me that the Wild Rose story was really sweet and the only one of the 3 to get a finished scanlation (at the time) after all these years. I'll yell about it later when I get my thoughts together.