muse ✨'s manga / #beautiful art(62)

This is a collection of love stories, all with a natural theme: fungi, fish, and foxes/supernatural elements. The art is gorgeous and the stories themselves gentle.

A festival and fireworks. I cried at the end when Kagayama says "Good luck" to his past self. Beautifully done.

A refreshing, sweet love story between a man who works the floor at a nightclub and a man who comes to the club nightly. Beautifully drawn, realistic, touching, happy.

Ao has a crush on a man whose son attends the kindergarten where Ao works, but when he discovers the man is his twin brother's boyfriend, he is forced to give up.

This was the slow-burn love story of my dreams. After being cruelly dumped on Christmas Eve, Ei finds a man and a kitten asleep outside of his apartment in the snow. He takes them in out of pity, and Junpei becomes a fixture in his life, helping him to emerge from his stoic shell and to learn to love someone good for once. This was one of the most realistic stories I've ever read. A few years ago, I probably would've been frustrated with Ei's behavior, especially taking back his ex. But I did the same thing because I was so desperate to save my relationship, which I clung to because it was familiar, not because it was happy or healthy. People do make mistakes. They do seek out other humans just for comfort, even if they love someone else. They do withhold their love for fear of being hurt. This was touching, exquisitely drawn, and the pacing was just right. I cannot recommend it enough.

Kohei is hearing impaired and isolated as a result. People mistake his silence as elitism, so he's left out of activities and feels like he's bothering people if he asks them to repeat what they've said. But one day, a loud, carefree boy named Taiichi falls onto the roof where he's eating his lunch and befriends him. This is a really gentle and lovely story about first love, but it's more about friendship and trying to understand and bridge differences between us. ETA: All volumes of this manga are licensed in English

Well-crafted, well-paced writing and interesting characters, and the art is beautiful. Both works I've read of Ogeretsu Tanaka's have been excellent. This contains two stories which are set in the same universe: 1) A man who had been unattractive growing up has reinvented himself as a stylist and is asked out by the guy who had tormented him in high school. Still hung up on past anger, he grasps his chance for revenge. 2) The second story I almost bypassed. It focuses on a man several years out from an abusive relationship where he had been the abuser. Rather than forgive his past or excuse it, the story shows that he lives with his guilt and shame. However, he has taken steps to change, and he's honest with his new lover about his past. ETA: Having now read the story where he abused his former partner Yumi, it's no wonder he continues to feel guilty. No amount of abuse is okay, but this was constant and violent - even sadistic. He needs long-term therapy.

TRIGGER WARNING: This depicts on-page physical assault on a partner. I become deeply upset every time and don't want anyone to go in un-warned. Yumi is in a long-term relationship with a vitriolic and abusive partner when he reconnects with someone he'd loved in high school. I hesitated to read this because it deals with domestic abuse, but it doesn't romanticize it. His partner is aware that his behavior is unforgivable and eventually begs Yumi to leave him. Yumi is the one who walks out the door. The partner's story continues in "Renai-rubi no Tadashii Furikata" and he experiences constant guilt over his past behavior. I read that story before this one. I'm glad, because I wouldn't have been able to enjoy it after reading this. In fact, I'm annoyed he was given a redemption arc, but I am biased; I was on the receiving end of long-term psychological abuse. Yumi's reactions to being abused were genuine to me, as far as my personal experience goes. I had to stop reading a few times to catch my breath - especially when his injuries are shown - but I'm ultimately glad I read this.

After an injury dashed his hopes of being a pro athlete, Kumagaya gets a job as a mover and reconnects with a former classmate, an arrogant businessman who is seemingly affectionate only toward his pet hamster. In spite of how that sounds, this is not crack but a really nice love story.

A lonely man living at a boarding house is comforted by the proprietor's 7yo grandson and decides he always wants him in his life, and thus begs his parents for their blessing. When I read this, I didn't interpret it as an adult in love with a child. I saw a lonely adult who was really fond of a kid -- and fell for him as he grew into adulthood. But I've never gone back to it or felt any desire to reread it. Even though nothing happened between them until Hei was an adult, something about this story doesn't sit right with me. I don't see the MC as a predator per se (compare with 'Nichan' by Harada), but going to the boy's parents when Hei was only 7 is a little iffy regardless of what type of love the MC felt for him. It's great he waited; it's great he rejected him while Hei was young and encouraged him to have other relationships. I'm just saying that if this were an adult and my nephew, I wouldn't be comfortable. As a piece of fiction, I enjoyed it! It was a pleasant slow burn with a happy ending. But I can't shake the creep factor.