0 Percent Bouquet of Flowers
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.
Ashita Asatte Sorekara Itsuka
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...
Tomorrow We Won't Be Friends For Sure, Right?
"I don't remember allowing another person to get close to you" .............. head in hands. Besides the possessive lover thing, it was kind of cute. It was alright. I didn't think it would be that short, I thought it would be something like a 30-page oneshot because it feels like I'm missing a previous story or another chapter.
One Week Family
Very cute but also very average in terms of story. As much as I loved this family of Yuu, Kei, and Ren I felt like it wasn't as emotional as I hoped it was going to be. My most invested parts were Yuu and his conflict with being a child who has no time to BE a child because of his job as an actor as well as not being able to spend time with his mother, the only parent he has right now, who is a CEO. With Kei being his parental guardian and now Ren who’s fulfilling a similar role, when it came down to them doing the mundane it was very cute and made me sad. I do wish there was more emotion put in the scene where Yuu got to talk to his mom about how he felt, it was still nice... I wanted her to cry but it was still nice. The only time I felt bored was when we took time away from Yuu, away from the three of them learning about each other more, whenever we cut to Kei and Ren's acting job conflicts. It was boring to me and some explanations were a bit dumb because it just felt like “rich people” problems and, Lord, did I not care. It wasn't even about anything interesting either. One had a fear of and felt jealous over being surpassed by other child actors while the other was dealing with only being seen as the superhero character he played. It's fine but also I'm bored. There were also parts where they would talk about growing as people or talking about Yuu's conflicts only to cut away to their industry problems and I just rolled my eyes. Another small thing that got to me was the progression of the confession. A part of me felt like it was rushed, just a little bit forced and that's probably because we're at the last chapter so it felt like we had to bring it up now. It was fine but I do wish we got that confession earlier so we got that time to see them also grow as a couple. Lastly, there was so much apologizing. Everyone was overly apologetic about everything, like, girl, it’s ok.
Roku to Rui
Why couldn't this have just been a cute & heart-gripping story about two friends mending their friendship and trying to be lovers? Why did this have to be littered with sexual harassment for no reason, conflicts and BL tropes straight out of 2010? What the fuck was chapter three, even? I wanted to really like this, man... The even sadder part is, when it's just about Rui and Roku being friends again and adorable together it’s actually really cute to read! There are a lot of really soft moments in this but it’s the conflicts that frustrated me because they felt forced. Rui thinking that Roku is cheating on him pissed me off the most because if his brain wasn't so gender-locked I would've understood a little bit when he found those feminine clothes, but he got all worked up over mugs with hearts on them. Like, dude, shut the fuck up and chill. I've been going from "aww this is cute" to "I'm going to break some windows" and it's not been fun. Art's cute, though.
Ameagari no Bokura ni Tsuite
Vol 1 - 2.5/5: Man, I hate when BL authors forget that there are other letters in LGBT than just L and G. I have nothing to say about this absolute mid-ass story. This volume one was fine. Maybe less than fine but nothing that actually pissed me off (yet). That being said, it's still a 4.5 out of 10 because I was promised sad and it's giving me pathetic. Vol 2 - 2/5: Volume 2 really set me off, huh. I am so annoyed by everyone in this damn book. For starters; Kanade and Mashiro are grown ass men acting like dumb ass 11th graders going out for the first time with the added layer of them being closeted. On one hand, could’ve been adorable. They kind of picked up where they sort of left off but this time they’re actually dating. But on the hand we got, it was just annoying conflict after conflict with no attempts to communicate to each other and I fucking hated it. I think what annoyed me the most about how they acted as adults was because when we got flashbacks of them in high school all their actions and behaviors made sense because they were teenagers. It's really cute and it fits. Like, them at the cafe place almost made me cry. These same behaviors that they're still showing now that they're dating as adults are not cute. It's annoying. It's not cute to see Kanade blame himself for telling Mashiro to stop because he was being forceful and scary. It's not cute to see Mashiro push away his mother, who's been mentally ill and in need of help for years, as well as not communicating on anything. Speaking of Mashiro’s mother, I don't really like the way she's written. Not specifically her but the role the author wanted her to play. She's written as "the villain", an obstacle between Kanade and Mashiro when really this lady is mentally unwell and has been needing professional help for years. Her husband passed, she became super dependent and attached to her son, her romantic relationships have been very messy and unhealthy which makes her more attached and dependent on Misharo. The grandmother is the only person with any sense but still no one tried to get her any help? I'm very annoyed with how the sorry has treated her so far the most.
Ameagari no Bokura ni Tsuite -Sono Saki-
Restart wa Tadaima no Ato de
me, someone with mental health issues, low self-esteem, and deals with self-worth: Why is everyone so mean to Mitsuomi... Ok, to be honest... I wasn't expecting "grumpy/sunshine". I haven't read the tags for this in a while and, in my mind, I was going into it now thinking "depressed/puppy-like". I had to rethink my approach to this now. With that new dynamic in mind, I this story was just alright. Nothing really pissed me off, nothing happened that would've made me angry. But nothing really hit me where I wanted it to either. I wanted to be much more interested in this than I ended up being. I can see the cute, the sad, but I didn't feel what the author wanted me to feel and I was kind of disappointed that it wasn't moving enough for me. I'm still reading the sequel and I'm still buying these physically.
Hana wo Tadoreba Kimi no Yubisaki