Maybeblue's manga / #Angst(46)

I liked the clean art style and the color palette, both the characters were likeable and I appreciated the lack of misunderstandings between them. I also liked the 2nd break up arc and the reasoning behind it, I feel like it was necessary to make their relationship recover from all the things they had to go through. I would have appreciated this even more if the arguing was longer than just a couple of panels, cause there was potential for a very impactful scene. Anyway these boys did have somewhat of and emotional intelligence and their problems were either caused by other people or by some wrong choices that they intentionally made, and that's why I didn't feel as frustrated when the drama happened. But then...wtf happened with the professor after the roofie thing?!?! Was he beaten up? Raped? Why??? It was literally a scene that had nothing to do with the main story and they also never mention it again so whyyy I mean I get the author wanted to make him pay for what he did but was there really no other way to go about it? I mean he was bad but that doesn't mean I wanted to see him go through the same thing the hyung did, I actually felt bad for him!! Wouldn't it be a lot more satisfying seeing him getting sued and arrested for rape and coercion? Also the way they handled the aftermath of the mc's rape experience was not ideal, even if you want to go for the "let's pretend it never happened" resolve (not the best choice if you ask me), it would have been cute seeing Jungwoo spoiling him a little more and giving his all to make up for all the shit mc was put through...they kinda were the same as always... like cute sure, but the same as always. Also also! there were too many people getting physically hurt... like mc had his face smashed all the time and the part where rich boy goes and beats up everyone in one night was funny but made no senseeee and the father was awful in every way, idk if it's because his character wasn't really developed but one minute it looks like he spoils his son and looks after him and the next he beats the shit out him and neglects him I don't get it

Honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought it would, the plot is pretty predictable but there are some good points to it. I actually liked the fact that their issues did need some time and multiple confrontations to be solved, I don't like it when all the negative feelings the characters hold suddenly disappear as if nothing ever happened because in reality even when people are able to talk their relationship problems out, they still need some time to get over all the angsty emotions they experienced. Also I don't think Yonwoo's plan for revenge was too out of pocket compared to others I've read, it made sense both in terms of what his reasons were and what effect he wanted to achieve. I often read this type of stories and get frustrated by all the drama that starts from some dumb misunderstanding, or by the fact that everything that the characters do it's unnecessary or could be avoided if they just communicated with the other person. Luckly this wasn't the case thanks to the fact that Keith was actually a complete jerk and Yowoon had every right to be mad at him, it took a while but everyone learned their lesson in the end. Now what I didn't like about this were the dialogues, idk if the problem lies on the translation or the original work was actually this awkward, but most of the times the dialogues were confusing or felt unnatural, and I think especially the scenes where they were addressing their feelings trying to sort out their problems could have been better, because they definitely had a lot of potential. Also the parts of the story with more action, like those chapters where they get kidnapped and almost die like a million times, didn't match the rest of the story at all and I think were pretty unnecessary too. They come out of nowhere and are given an absurd explanation (what was that with the cult thing? It made no sense, plus how did that even had anything to do with Keith??). I mean, the scene where Yowoon gets hurt and they cry etc was nice, and I also get why it was needed as a turning point for their relationship, but was there really no other way to go about it? It was an accident anyway so what was the reason for it to involve guns, fire, cars crashing and a whole cult to make it happen? Also the secondary characters were hella random, the only one that fit the story was the blond secretary, all the others felt like they would eventually play an important role but never did. Like mr.miller??? What was his purpose? The lady with brown hair that slept with Keith and then popped up here and there for no reason, what was her role? The handsome firefighter who helps Yowoon, too, wasn't necessary at all, if the author needed a character to be Yonwoo's friend and support, Josh would have been a far better choice 'cause he had already been introduced and it would have made sense for him to cover that role, otherwise what was his purpose in the first place? What I mean is that you usually develop a character, give him a backstory, a nice design and some unique traits if you want to make him special to the readers, you add those details either to make some pieces in the story fit better together, or to give him depth, because maybe he plays an important role or you want to give them more space in the story. You don't just give this level of details to anyone, because then as a reader I expect them to actually do something, or to make these details find their place in the plot. But here everything's so confusing to me! These characters are not detailed enough for me to become attached to them and their own lives, but they're too detailed to just be background characters the author uses as tools to make the plot going. Some of them didn't even need a name for how unimportant they were.

I think it would have liked it more if the whole story focused on the main couple and their struggle to face their past and understand (and make the other understand) that they love each other for who they are despite resembling each other's past lovers. This idea, if given enough context and if explored thoroughly in terms of emotional insights, would have made a great story as it was, but the author actually tried to fit in it a lot of different themes and even tried giving every single character a story of it's own in less than 70 chapters, so it's only obvious that it lacks depth more times than not. Instead of coming up with a new story for every secondary character, it would have been better to provide a better explanation for the reasons they acted the way they did in the past (in other words, to give us a more definite picture of their personalities). To me it was often confusing, I always felt like the author was giving some things for granted but never took the time actually express them clearly, so you kinda always have to trust what the characters say they perceived to make the story make sense, you're not given enough material to understand and judge things on your own.

I have a feeling the author actually planned to write more chapters but endend up cutting it short for some reason. The story itself was quite good and, the pacing wasn't weird or anything, but so many details that were introduced never got to be explained and the fact that they only hint at some type of romantic feelings in the middle of the story and then never again makes me think this wasn't the ending the author planned. The more serious and dramatic aspects of the story were definitely made justice, but the actual development of their relationship is non existent, I'm not even sure you could call this shounen ai