muse ✨'s manga / #asou mitsuaki(10)

Asou Mitsuaki has climbed to my top of favorite authors. This is the person behind "Only You, Only" and "Season." I think this might be an earlier work, a collection of oneshots, but they contain the same type of mature and subtle, well-paced relationships in her longer works. The most developed piece in this is about an 18yo student Yuusuke who places an ad for his ideal man, but never has the courage to approach them when they show up. He takes a chance on Gouki, who is ten years his senior and not interested in anything serious. Despite that, we watch them fall in love and later navigate hurdles like work and past lovers.

Azuma, the teenaged son of a deceased kimono maker, falls for the mysterious Matsuoka--a man who insists on caring for Azuma and his sickly mother, saying he is only paying back a kindness. As he falls in love, Azuma grows jealous of his father's memory, believing that he was Matsuoka's savior, but his eyes are opened in more than one way when he visits Matsuoka in Tokyo. Original notes: A beautiful story. Matsuoka seeks to repay the kindness of the only person who ever treated him as human, the young son of a former employer. This author is spectacular.

A gay man falls in love with his company president's son, but when the president learns of their relationship, he undermines it, coaxing his son into an arranged marriage. A realistic, mature love story that ends well and happily, with incredibly touching moments - both happy and sad. I cried quite a bit, but the conclusion has me smiling. This is JUST as lovely and touching on re-read and they buy a car! ETA: I bought the manga since I've re-read it so many times.

A set of intertwined stories set against a high school backdrop. The president of the school trip club desperately tries to befriend a withdrawn student, going to the length of following him home and meeting his grandparents. The other story involves the president’s best friend and younger brother. Asou Mitsuaki is a subtle, delicate writer and artist. This was not silly. It had a wonderful emotional depth, like all of her work. I absolutely love her stories.

I liked the first about an overweight boy who admired a classmate and had a misunderstanding at their graduation that is cleared up at a reunion two years later. The others weren't interesting to me. ETA: I liked all of these on re-read. Past!me is a problem.

Another melancholic, beautiful story by Asou Mitsuaki. A bartender struggling to overcome the abuse and trauma he faced from parents and a teacher connects with a distant relative who is determined to treat him well. This doesn't hold the emotional power of Only You, Only or Season, but it was moving and I liked it. I cried right at the end. I think if I had read this a little more slowly, over coffee, I would like it quite a lot. ETA June 2020: I reread this with tea across a couple hours during the rain, and gave it full stars. This is beautiful.

Asou Mitsuaki takes on omegaverse! Regarding the translator notes: Don't bash Mangago in favor of Mangadex when scanlations as a whole are a problem. Just because you're not earning $300k/month doesn't make what you're doing any less of a copyright violation. If you really care, support Futekiya and other legal sites.

Harada level twisted. A man gets revenge on the biological father who abandoned him by seducing his chronically ill younger half brother.

Two men who weren't close in high school meet again at their high school reunion. A one-shot with a hopeful ending by Asou Mitsuaki.

A violinist and a deaf man meet and become friends in a slow burn romance. According to the final author’s note, a second volume is coming. I don’t know why people were talking about crying. This isn’t sad. Isuzu isn’t a character to pity. He’s deaf and he lives his life. The story does highlight disadvantages he would come across in every day Japanese society, such as not being able to hear the announcements at the train station. It’s not a comment on the character but on the lack of accessibility. I feel bad for the violinist dealing with bullying from people at school.