美智子's manga / #interesting(37)

"One night in his adolescence, Kayano, suffocated by his controlling mother, falls for Takao, a boy he finds beaten and left in a park. He discovers that Takao is greedy and grasping, and pretends to be a selfish jerk who plays cruel tricks on others. As Kayano meets each of Takao's ridiculous challenges, and carefully eliminates all the obstacles, he discovers a side to Takao that nobody suspected. Even though the characters in this story are so flawed and unsympathetic, and Takao, in particular, is such a manipulative jerk, it's a great story." very enjoyable

"two different stories about men struggling to come to terms with attraction to other men, linked together with a family connection and a bathhouse" first story is about an insecure baker who visits a public bath and catches the eye of the pushy attendant second story is about a high school kid from the bathhouse family and his childhood friend

"A serious manga about partner abuse. Yumi's boyfriend beats him, demeans him and tries to isolate him from others by controlling when he leaves and returns to their apartment. Yumi tells himself that there isn't anything this man could do to him that would actually hurt, but when Mayama, a friend from school who never called or texted him in spite of his obvious attraction, suddenly shows up at Yumi's workplace and appears to have kept a flame burning for him, will this change?"

Shio, a blogger, meets up with some friends he met online through his blog and also is going to meet Miya, a blogger he hasn't met yet. He is surprised to find out that Miya is a very tall man (everybody thought he was a woman) who has a very calming effect on others. spin-off of sangen tonari no tooi hito

"Iga and Yuu are working on a landscape project. Iga was gonna be the heir of his dad's company but his dad told him the heir was his little brother. A confused Iga moves on another project and there meets Yuu, a guy who loves photography and works at his dad's flower shop. Actually his dad is his uncle, Yuu's parents died when he was a child and his uncle adopts him, his uncle is in a gay relationship and that shocks Iga a little, but with the time he's gonna realize he has feelings for Yuu as well as Yuu has feelings for him and they give it a chance."

"A young man works for a mycologist in the forests of Japan, studying fungi and mushrooms. Slowly, as the scientist opens his eyes to this new world and its astonishing beauty, the young man comes to love him. A schoolboy has an astonishing gift of inner sight which reveals a secret side of life when people go to sleep. A young man strikes up a friendship with a fox spirit. Aoi Aki's artwork is superb. The stories move at a gentle and realistic pace. The relationships are natural and unforced."

Fujimori and Matsuda attended the same high school and college; unbeknownst to even himself, Fujimori had made it a habit to hang around his senpai under the pretext of enjoying the delicious sweets that Matsuda was so good at making. But after Matsuda moved to Toyko for work, Fujimori cut off contact with him. 5 years later, they reunite unexpectedly.

"A father is stressed beyond his capacity to cope while trying to raise his preschool-aged daughter while working in a Japanese restaurant. He is saved by a hopeless flirt and serially unfaithful gay customer who is attracted to him, but he is straight and very suspicious of such a flighty man. The relationship takes time to develop and is full of realistic emotional responses." one of my favs

"A gorgeous collection of stories by Minezuki Akira: (1) The first story isn't as engaging as the other two. In it, a fast-food manager falls in love at first sight with a proficiency expert sent by the parent company to monitor his shop. (2) A ghost or demon who feeds off of human warmth falls in love with a medicine seller who travels on his mountain during a snowstorm. (3) A sculpture student falls in love with his mentor, an artistic genius who sculpts by touch. The art is so beautiful."

"Shoutarou, an emotionally frail middle-aged writer who was abandoned by his wife, now lives with his editor, Masami, who was engaged to be married to Shoutarou's daughter. His daughter ran away on the night before the wedding, and now, Shoutarou feels he must help Masami cope with the feelings of abandonment, all of which have been re-activated in his own emotional experience. A surprising twist challenges his assumptions that he is unloveable."