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

Another one I'm not sure if I'm dropping or if it's just on hold. I'm giving it the tag anyway.

I am so disappointed. I don't think this was bad, I just felt like it was rushed in its storytelling. By the time I got to the extra chapter about taking a summer vacation, it dawned on me that I was at the end of the book. Nothing really happened and it felt like I should've still been on chapter 3. Like, I jumped into this thinking I was gonna read something adorable, sad, and a bit bittersweet with some kind of slow burn showing these two friends trying to get to know each other and be friends again after not seeing each other for so long while also trying to be a couple. There were some stuff like how Outa expressed to Tomoaki that he wanted to open up about what he's feeling more so that they can get on the same page. This is brought up twice and in both instances where I thought we were going to get more character development, nothing happened. Both of these characters didn't really mean anything to me by the end of it, I found myself getting angry at even the smallest of dumb BL tropes. Man, I really wanted to like this because this is my time of story but the rushed storytelling really got to me.

... Almost. I almost got through without crying. But I'm saying this in a mid to negative way because I don't think this story deserved my tears. I was excited coming into this because of Bokura wa Nando mo Koi o suru and how I cried so hard at the end of that story that I thought this would have me laid out on the floor the same way. To start I think it was a little confusing in the beginning who was saying what, how Nagisa felt about Kaito separate from Minato, how Kaito felt about Nagisa separate from Minato, and I'm not a fan of hate sex. Even though early on I had a feeling that Nagisa felt more than jealousy and envy towards Kaito, it was a confusing road getting there even after the festival. I wanted them to really talk more about them. Whenever there was "talking about them" it felt more like they were talking about them related to Minato rather than them related to each other. And while I can understand the conversation of them + Minato, because this is a love triangle plot, I think when they finally started to focus on them as a couple it was a little too late to get to know them as a couple. There were points toward the end that I thought was very sweet, really cute. Backstory stuff was more my favorite to read because you got to know the characters and how they felt about each other that you didn't get from the present day with the only thing missing was how Minato felt. There was one part of the flashback stuff where I did almost cried but not for the character, more so for the context around sharing a part of yourself only to be put down felt. But what actually broke me was the end with Minato's mom and his journal because as the flashbacks happened you had a feeling. You always knew. But to actually know his wish really messed me up even though I knew what it was!