I hate and love this manga at the same time. It handled the LGBT themes really well, with the main(?) character having already realized his identity. His love interest says he isn’t gay, but that’s it. He doesn’t ever say he’s bi, only that he likes girls and the main character. Which I’m pretty sure was the author trying to make it a sort of “people don’t need labels” type of deal, with the love interest even saying the line “I don’t think liking boys is weird”. Which I really liked. However, I think this backfired a little bit because it made the character come off as not really understanding what it means to be gay, and thinking of it in this almost fantasy light of a new, interesting, unexplored territory. Which one of the side characters repeatedly asks him about to make sure he understands what it means to be gay, and he says he does...but he’s not gay. I think what really annoyed me, was that every time anyone brought up the subject he’d say things like “I’m not gay” and “I’ve only liked girls my whole life”. Which made him liking the main character seem very fake. And how he was always very forward with wanting to try new things in their relationship, really solidified for me that this was just someone who wanted to experience something new and different. The main character also annoyed me, he was always very aloof in the relationship and didn’t really seem like he knew what he wanted, which of course is probably because of his background. But, I think this all came together to make me really not like them as a couple. Which is a shame, because I think the author handled the story and themes really amazingly, but something about the characters was lacking. I’ve also considered the fact that if this was longer, it may have not had some of these problems. I had heard good things about this manga and really wanted to like it, but I found myself not even being able to finish it. The sequel looks good(I think they get married?), but unfortunately I don’t think I could follow this couple that long. Anyway this is just my immediate thoughts that I wanted to right down before I forget. I’m sorry if I offended anyone, this was not by any means meant to be disrespectful in any way to the creator of this manga!
Umibe no Etranger