nobile's manga / #cute(495)

Classic case of miscommunication between two sort-of friends and their wishes/regrets about their shared past. I just love Sensei's art style, it's so eye-catching.

So they have all 3 chapters from the main story and two one-shots (chapter 5 and 4). The main story was pretty cool, had an interesting/appealing premise, but even though all the chapters from that story have been released, it still feels like it's quite unfinished, there's something lacking, all the relationships weren't properly developed (even though they're deeply intertwined), it just seemed like a teaser or a pilot for a future series. Was quite disappointed for that, actually. I get this strong feeling that I've read Chapter 5's one-shot somewhere else, but I cannot for the life of me recall. It was rather cute, played with people's preconceived ideas on others based on minimal exposure, and what it takes to accept them for who they really are. I liked it a lot. One-shot from Chapter 4 was actually more like a prequel to the main story. It talks about Momoka and Chitose's relationship before anything from the main story ever happened. It wasn't bad, but it still felt lacking; much worse after knowing how the main story develops.

Main story is about a grim reaper that becomes enchanted by an infinitely kind human, the very one whose soul he was supposed to recollect. After spending time with her, he decided he'll do everything in his power to keep her from Death's door. I had read some comments about how the "last chapter was too sad" and I spent way too much time attempting (but failing) to prepare my heart for the sad to come. - Fortunately it wasn't that story that had that. The second story (and a one-shot, fortunately) is about an exorcist who, out of kindness, ends up helping out a succubus that doesn't want to behave like other succubi. Happy that her powers had no effect on him, she agreed to marry him, unaware that every kiss they had fed his soul into her.

I think the stories just went downhill. I liked the first story, it was kind of cute. The second story was alright, although it was a bit too sad for me, since you're quite aware that nothing really solved anything at all, and the thing that was so romanticised would become moot in the end. But the stories after those two... all consecutively worse than the previous one. One-dimensional characters, shallow feelings glorified and set on a pedestal as if they really formed deep bonds.

So many stories with such beautiful people, glasses no glasses, light or dark hair, tall or short, Sensei just makes everybody look absolutely gorgeous. It seems the title story has something to do with one of the stories here: http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/gosan_no_heart/ -- I take that back, read the whole thing and I couldn't find the related characters....

HOW DARE MIKI CHANGE HIS HAIR AGAIN!!!! He looked SO GOOD with dark hair and glasses.... Maybe I'm just projecting my love for Kyouya Ootori xP

Two stories, I have a lot of conflicting feelings about them, the subjects themselves are things that I really can't deal with at all, but Sensei is so good making great characters, that you end up overlooking the horrible stuff they do. Damn you Sensei.

Guy finds his best friend jerking off while saying his name, he tries to make sense of the situation and come to terms with his and his friend's feelings. But it seems that [despite his actions] his friend is denying that being the case.

So many stories, this book compiles two other books (and a handful of other related stories) so that you can read everything in one go. I discovered that many of those stories were actually connected to other ones, I was quite pleased. Also, many of the stories here seemed to be sort of like a dark take on famous fairy tales, I loved that.

The only princess of a small kingdom decides to run away with the stableboy just before her wedding to a prince from a powerful kingdom (who is known for not being interested in anything but his sister and the military). King and the two older princes panic and end up forcing the youngest prince to pass off as his sister and marry the prince. Not long after the wedding, the young princess-prince gets discovered by the royal apothecary (who happens to be the crown prince's lover), and not much after that his very own husband discovers his secret too. Instead of doing all the things that princess-prince was afraid of, his husband just decides to play along with the ruse. Lots of "political" plotting and drama, it's pretty interesting how weak allegiances are, and how some others seem to be stronger even when no one seems to be aware of them. It seems that the uploaded chapters here aren't quite complete, here's where I read the story: http://view.thespectrum.net/series/kiss-me-princess.html