Mimi's manga / #slice of life(112)

Cute art style, not really the best of starts when dude literally rapes the other guy by taking advantage of his drunkenness while he slept... Really getting tired of this. I'm also not sure how this is a side story to Motto Musunde, Aite Waya? These characters weren't a part of that story at all so that kind of confused me.

Even though it had a strong Junjo Romantica feel to it I really wanted to read more about the first couple who work at the bookstore. Still very pissed that dude cut his hair but they were pretty interesting to read. The second couple was also interesting and probably had my attention more because of their backstory together. I think this and the chapter with the morphic catboy would have been better if there weren't any sex scenes. Mostly because it felt like it took away from what story we could in a couple of pages and the catboy looked a bit too much like a kid even though he wasn't. I just kina... eh. And you best believe I skipped that chapter with the spirit who's "kid-like in appearance".

"This is sooo stuuupid..." I can't tell you how many times I mutter that while reading this. It is definitely a product of 2010, that's much for sure. The only story I kind of liked was the 1st one since that couple didn't seem to disgust or worry me. Other than that you have two incest stories (what the fuck) and 2 stories about manipulative and abusive boyfriends (what the fuck).

I really wasn't here for this translation. I don't know if the original Japanese was also this cheesy, robotic, fanfiction from 2010 but that's what the translation made it feel and it made it a slug to read through. The main couple wasn't really that interesting to me since their only personality trait was this "I'm rich/I'm poor" one-dimension dynamic that got old quick. The couple in chapter 5 was just as boring. It started out with promise but ended too soon and dull. The only characters I loved and wanted to actually read more about was the owner of the restaurant and the butler. I'd love for them to have had a better ending and get a whole spin off manga.

I was so put off in the beginning because of the art style. I didn't really like it that much and it kind of disinterest from continuing, but, honestly the first couple/story ended up being my most liked? I was worried about the tragic and bullying tags this had and thought it as gonna be one of those "character bullies the one they love" kind of thing. It wasn't that completely but I still was kinda 50/50 about the characters and stories. By the end I did end up liking one person. The only one that mattered, the reason I'm going to go down this hellhole of a spiderwebbed series-Natsuo. He is so innocent... I love him... so much. The second story was still "eh" but ok. I enjoyed it a lot more but I think that was because I was confused. I didn't know this was the third book in a series yet, btw. It wasn't as sad as I wished it was compared to the previous story, though. Speaking of sad! I did cry at the end of chapter 5. Thank you for giving me that, that's all I wanted from that couple.

HOLY FUCK DO I LOVE THIS COUPLE. Ok, right off the bat, I got tired of the number of sex scenes that were in every chapter. I could really do without that. There was also some dialogue that I saw as borderline homophobia but can also be interpreted as someone who didn't see being gay as normal because of where he grew up. It definitely isn't as bad as some homophobic lines I would see in BL. Other than that, the characters, the art style, their story and them being just an adorable ass couple made me cry. I wish there was more to type about, though. It's really just a cute story about two people getting to know each other more... while also having a lot of sex. I really hope sublime or someone publishes this in English because I will buy this in both languages. Also, thank you for that page at the end of chapter 6 where Kurokawa talks about how cute his boyfriend is. I legit cried. God bless. Update: I’M SORRY BUT 2019 ME MUST HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE WEIRD RECORDING THING GLASSES DUDE WANTED TO DO???? So, like, glasses dude wants to film them having sex but the other guy really wasn’t comfortable with that. And instead of just going “ok, I respect that” he just kept??? bringing it up??? It was kinda the one thing that really annoyed me. More importantly the bit at the end! Glasses dude finally got to record them doing it but it was still him pushing the other guy to agree to it. I would’ve loved it if the other guy came up to him after thinking it over, something like “our relationship is in a good spot right now and now that we’re living together I want to do something nice for him” kind of thing. It would’ve ended up being something he wanted to do because he knew it would make glasses dude happy. The whole story is really sweet and I think the both of them as a couple is really sweet, which is why the way we got the recording scene pissed me off so much because even during the recording it scene itself was really fucking sweet!

I had very small high hopes for this manga. It has to be because of the weird translation but at the same time I'm sure some of the writing in Japanese would have been questionable still. All the stories, other than the one about the two who work in the game industry, were boring or weird (ch 2) and while I was able to understand the homophobic nature in chapter 4 having a queer character call himself the f slur, everything in chapter 5 was just as uncomfortable. Going back to ch 4, I want more stories that touch on the harassment queer people face and then overcoming that. I can do without the slurs, thanks, but I did feel for that couple and the struggling relationship that was getting abusive to a point that they were in. I wish they had their own book.

When the misunderstandings are so prominent that manga updates the lack of communication tag… I don't normally comment until I'm completely done with the series or book, but I gotta talk about things in this 1st vol. I'll update this once I'm done with this series. I think the story is really cute and it touched on one of my biggest problems with BL and that's communication. So many problems can be solved if they just talked and not making them talk just to amp up the conflict really pisses me off. They did this a little bit. It would be misunderstanding followed by making up followed by misunderstanding followed by making up... That might actually be more annoying with how many times this happens. I also feel like this story didn't need as many sex scenes as it had and I hope the later vol 2 tones that down (but after reading ch 2 of vol 2 eeehhhhh). As for translation, which is its biggest downfall for me, it felt poor. There were a lot of words that didn't need to be there, a lot of weirdly said sentences. Often times I felt like other words could have been said when translating this that would be a better fit for the flow of the story. I'm glad that I do get to read this in English but I do hope this gets officially picked up for mainly this reason. Update: I don’t remember if I ever came back to give my 50 cents on vol 2… I’ll do that whenever I get around to rereading this. There’s a lot of older books I read that I need to just re again…

Eh... I don't think these stories were all that great but they weren't boring or a pain to read through. I personally did not like Wataru (the idol that was dating his manager) as his character was the "possessive" or "manipulative" boyfriend. I'm not here for that. Also, chapter 10 meant nothing and didn't need to be there.

… Bruh. I’m so happy about this getting a physical release really soon because this just became one of my favorite manga. I’m gonna start with the only problem I had about this story and that’s the amount of affection Yutaka had towards Tane. You can kind of understand why Yutaka was at peace around Tane because of his backstory but the author didn’t give Tane much of a similar connection to kid!Yutaka to justify why he’s happy to see Tane happy and it comes off as a little creepy. I know the author wasn’t trying to write him that way, but without Yutaka talking about how he wished he was as happy as Tane as a kid and/or showing that Yutaka is really good with kids in general to make a good father figure is a missed opportunity to me. Yutaka’s childhood was a lot for him, so much that even eating in front of people was uncomfortable. But after meeting Tane and Minoru and having that “found family” moment was he really able to be happy and feel like he was part of a family. In that sense, I can also see why he cared for Tane like a son/little brother. It just wasn’t written well enough to 100% convey that affection. Other than that, I loved this story. I love the characters and how it focused on their development. I also love Tane’s crush on Yutaka as it’s very clear from the start to see it and made me laugh. The time skip was very adorable and I thank them for writing that bit in.