Mimi's manga / #slice of life(108)

Update 2: I read this before chapter 5 and the extra was added, but I don't think I'm going to update this again after this. Felt 50/50 about this book, but I kept thinking about two of the chapters way too much that I had to own it. I thought that this manga was mainly centered around fetishes but it seems like only ch.1 & the extra is about asphyxiation. The rest of the chapters I would consider extreme but not fetish-y. Personally feel that each story here would've been better as its own thing because it feels like Hidesato wanted to write more. I think ch. 3 and 5 (from what I've skimmed through the raws) don't have enough to be whole books so they fit fine here. However, chapter 1 can stand on its own. Chapters 2 and 4 NEED their own books. In fact, I don't think 2 and 4 belong here at all. They don't fit this book to me. My thoughts on each chapter: Ch.1 - Could've been a more interesting story. The asphyxiation thing isn't my thing so it was... interesting to read, but it being a short story wasn't a good move. Ch.2 - I talk about this further down in my 1st update. Ch.3 - Didn't really have a story and was kind of weird. This one negatively felt messy and all over the place. Ch.4 - Was not prepared to read that and it's never going to lead my mind. Update 1: Looking back on it, I honestly feel that chapter 2 might not need to change anything other than its homophobic dialogue since it doesn't add to the story. It just points out how horrible of a person the main character's girlfriend is... and that's it. I love studying psychology and mental disorders are a HUGE interest of mine and why I was drawn to chapters 2 and 4 the most. When I used to be in group therapy back in my teens I met someone with MPD/DID and their stories on living together in one body gave me a lot of context into what some people go through with MPD. While not the exact same experience as it was written in this story, it was very interesting to hear. Chapter 2 embodies a lot of similar feelings and experiences that they told me as well as another book I love called Many Minds One Brain by Christopher Badger where his experience was pretty close to what I just read in this manga. Whether or not the author meant for chapter 2 to read so disjointed that the reader is just as confused as someone with this disorder may be, I'm not sure. But seeing how well done and traumatic chapter 4 was written... I think so. I honestly want to see chapters 2 and 4 get full stories. Mainly chapter 4 where it takes place either during their high school or adult years and it's about the friend who you see in the story helping the mc deal with and heal from what happened and his Maladaptive Daydreaming. Even if it's just helping by being there and comforting him. You guys, I think about this chapter and its continuation potential way too much.

This story really minds me of Kowagaranai de, Soba ni Ite in the way the couple in this story had to deal with keeping their love alive after a tragedy that centers around one of the characters. It's a very bittersweet story that made me cry more than once just like Kowagaranai de, Soba ni Ite. My only problem is that it had the chance to be even sadder with some and it kind of missed the ball on that. I wanted that "really sad" ending and those "I gotta sit my book down for a fucking moment because, fuck dude..." that I did not get. There are a couple of moments where you feel they either tried or just didn't want to push that far into anything too traumatic so they end up picking the least emotional outcome that felt flat to me. The build-ups are amazingly emotional while the outcomes are fanfic-y at best. But that doesn't change my mind on how much I love this manga. It's a great hurt/comfort book.

I honestly really enjoyed this. I thought some of the translation was weird but the overall story was nice. It focused more on one's past and characters' development rather than something like sex and I welcome that in BL manga.

I need to read more BL like this. I love how adorable and likable the characters are and the story focused more on the characters being in school and friends instead of trying to push things along and try to get to anything about sex. I've seen too many school au's where the people are a good 16-18 and there's sex involved. I get it that people do end up doing it around those ages but being in my 20's I don't really want to read that and it almost seems like that's all there is. Having just a pure love story of this dorky high school kid having a crush on his friend and the story grows around them being friends is refreshing and makes me cry. Thank God for this and thank God it got officially licensed because I was about to buy it in Japanese... I think I'll still buy it in Japanese, to be honest. I'm very excited for Motto Ganbare! Nakamura-kun!!, I read the first chapter and it seems it's being slowly released through a magazine and I'm not sure how far they are over there... So just waiting on that is keeping me really hyped.

I really liked the art style but the main couple were probably the least interesting characters out of the 3 stories. It wasn't a bad story to read and the characters weren't unlikable, but I felt the story that had the other two getting engaged was the best out of the 3. I also really wish the two delivery guys got either another chapter or more of a story in their chapter mainly because they were also likable but their story ended too quickly.

Love the art, there were some points in the translation that pissed me off but nothing really horrible to drop or hate this book. While I do think the story was fine, it didn't really leave me wanting to read more about this couple. Those *clap* bonus *clap* chapters *clap* felt like they dragged on way too long. Like, the manga ended 4 times already.