nobile's manga / #compilation(96)

Main story (1-3) is about two guys as they awkwardly move on from being just friends to something else. Oneshot on chapter 4 is about a socially awkward firefighter as he meets the person he saved and fell in love for at first sight. Oneshot on chapter 5 is about the "perfect" Student Council President as he's forced to help out a guy practice his "technique" to win over the guy he loves. Oneshot on chapter 6 is a retelling of the Snow White fairytale, with a pervy twist. Chapter 7 was a short side story about the couple from the first few chapters.

Three stories: First: School seems to be under some sort of dictatorship, under the Student Council's rule, and the new transfer student caught their eye. Second: Tomboyish girl has had a crush on her weak-bodied friend for 10 years but he seems to only like cutesy girls. She decides to make the cutesy girls fall for her instead so that he has no other choice but to stick with her. Third: Beautiful Girl with androphobia meets handsome boy with gynophobia, both decide to work together to overcome their fears.

I was rather disappointed in this volume... I'm not sure if the mangaka made this before/after the Rock Shounen stories; but the plot, character development, story progression, everything about the writing really, it was all really bad. Shallow, one-dimensional characters, the reasoning behind every decision, it just screamed "lazy writing/planning". I think the last story was the one that bugged me the least out of all of them, but just because of the end of it, nothing else. Three stories: 1-2: Girl studying in a catholic school works for the school newspaper, she gets involved with the black sheep boy from school, first by claiming he has to be the culprit behind some recent crimes, then because some stalker dude is messing with her and she can't rely on anyone but him. 3: Reminded me a lot of Tamako Market, just not cute. Fish mongler's daughter is constantly annoyed by the cake shop's son, both constantly annoying each other. One day as she was being mocked by some kids (she loves cute things but nobody thinks of her as cute), she's saved by a costumed rabbit who runs away immediately after she saw it. She discovers the rabbit is known as the Optician's Rabbit because he's always giving balloons there, she also happens to have a huge crush on the optician's son... could he be her saviour? 4: Bored, rich girl decides to sponsor the Chemistry Club to ease her boredom with their experiments. She requests them a love potion and since she's so annoyed with the club prez, she decides to test it out on him.

...just don't, it's too bad to put into words.

The premise had potential, but honestly I don't think it developed well at all. Girl is "saved" from delinquents by another delinquent who took her in as her "dog". In one of the many fights the delinquent had, someone got the upper hand and hit his head badly; this made him have a sort of "mental regression" to his 7-year old self, it made him kind, thoughtful, cute, and completely devoted to the girl.

I think the guy slapping her was way off line. Yes, it was wrong for her to say "go die" to her stalker, but it DID NOT warrant a slap. She was NOT in the wrong for going off on that guy that fetishised her without even getting to know the real her. It seemed more lie that guy slapped her 'cause he was pissed and felt like she was going off on him (since he and his father were quite similar as the stalker). But seriously, being told "you should be happy someone thinks of you this way" is INSULTING AS FUCK. What, is she so ugly that she should cry tears of joy because some pervert thinks she looks cute and put a made up personality on her body? Give me a break. The second story was far better, even if it was only 7 pages long. Funny, cute, relatable, interesting characters..

I love, love the mangaka's art style, it's beyond beautiful. And I really like the use of colours on some stories, it really complements them well. There were SO many stories... Some of them kind of sweet, others a bit dark, some were pretty sad actually, and there were a few that just were a bit too confusing for me. Still, even despite that, it's a definitive 4/5 volume.

First chapter is part one of a 3-part story, I'm not sure why the rest wasn't uploaded. I really don't want to pass too harsh judgement on that first chapter without reading the rest of the story, but it really is a bit too "troubled" for me The other chapters belong as a "side story" to another series. It goes like this: 1) Barairo no Hoo no Koro 2) J no Subete Vol.1 3) 2 Shuukan no Adventure 4) J no Subete Vol.2-3 Man... what a rollercoaster of emotions, I feel sooo bad for how much so many of them had to go through. I'm quite fortunate to have been alive in this time, when issues true equality is able to be fought for a bit more openly than back then (we still have a long way to go, but we've definitely gone a long way since those years). This series definitely is worth reading, it touches on several topics that are still quite relevant today and really makes you see how much the characters suffered throughout their lives, not just by other people's hands but by their own "demons" as well. For this particular section of the series, I feel bad mostly for Gerry than Eugene (or even his wife). We don't really get to understand Eugene's real reasons behind his betrayal back in school, we don't even know if his claim that Gerry was "becoming scary" was even true or not, so in this regard I kind of side in Gerry's position and well.. he probably felt very hurt and confused by Eugene's actions, he obviously still loved him even after he did that to him, but decided to give him space, to honour his supposed wishes. After all that, he comes back to his hometown(-ish?) and does a good job as a doctor there. It was Eugene who didn't give a flying fuck at the fact that he got his wife pregnant (yeah, it wasn't a marriage for love, but he still played his dutiful role as a husband? Or yeah, he could hate her for it, but it was still his OWN child!!!), I feel bad that Gerry was caught between those two spurned "lovers". Everyone's happy at the last chapter, but do we really know for sure how long ago that letter was sent... I can't help but feel a bit cynical about how things sort of concluded for Gerry, Eugene, and his wife.