I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #Asou Mitsuaki(2)

A beautiful and realistic slow-paced story about Kido Yuusuke, a young gay man fresh off recent heartbreak, who tries to play it cool with the casual dating scene, but has the misfortune of "Grindr-ing" Kamiyama Kouki, whose own tragic past has made him a kind and considerate lover beyond the norm. What else can Yuusuke do except fall for him in a big way? But does the older Kouki even want those feelings from such a young and untested partner? The second story is also a sweet one about a gay man, with a history of being exploited by closeted homosexuals, who becomes flatmate with a straight man. Asou Mitsuaki's soft and very beautifully drawn pictures have a quality about them that reminds me of 19th-century European engravings.

There isn't a socially awkward situation that Tsuchiya can't aggravate by making it even more socially awkward, but Serizawa does himself no favours by holding his cards a little too closely to the chest. Serizawa wants Tsuchiya to help out with planning school field trips to a region of Japan he seems to know intimately, but that's a cover for his real feelings, and Tsuchiya knows it and throws it back in his face. Asou Mitsuaki has a great sense of drama and can make the unlikeliest characters seem alive and in the moment. It helps that her artwork is so beautiful too.