muse ✨'s manga / #bully(9)

A 26yo virgin mistakes a stranger for his favorite porn star and propositions him. This was surprisingly moving, although the love interest is a bully. He softens a bit as the story goes on.

When he discovers the coworker he dislikes sleeps with men, a man attempts blackmail only to end up sleeping with him repeatedly. The premise and setup is interesting, but there's not enough relationship development to make the confessions meaningful or give the story heart. Despite the characters' ages, their relationship is childish and never advances beyond the confession stage. They get hung up on feelings but there's no sign they care for each other beyond having sex. The story would've benefited from a non-sexual interaction or evidence of growing feelings - any of BL's usual tropes would've done here. My biggest gripe is that the relationship lacked the maturity I expected from two working adults and would've made more sense in a high school setting or younger.

It starts like this: A boy with a crush bullies his crush's friend to try and gain his attention. But it turns out the boy has a history of being bullied himself and feels alone in the world. Not an excuse to be an asshole, of course, and he makes amends for that. The cliche setup, complete with bad communication skills, eventually changes into a real relationship dealing with long distance and parental issues. Not a favorite but it was worth reading.

This looks like Harada, and it is marked as Harada, so I believe she drew it. But this is nothing like her usual work. The first couple of chapters feature a senpai who bullies his incompetent junior, going so far as to date him in some sort of effort to get him to improve at work. That felt like her. Unfortunately, the bulk of the plot is driven by a meddling woman coworker I wanted to slap. She was so juvenile it was absurd, constantly interfering with their relationship and on friendly terms with a cross dressing manager from another company who had raped the senpai. She goes so far as to invite him on their company trip to test the relationship for her own amusement. I feel like this might've been an earlier work or maybe something Harada was asked to draw, because it just didn’t have her usual sharpness. And to end it on such a saccharine note... I have read much worse. I wouldn’t really bat an eye at this except that it was marked as hers, and she writes loads better stuff. It has one thing going for it, which is team switch. I didn’t expect that and it was a nice change. if you were considering reading this and have not read her other stuff, please skip this one. Read Momo or よると朝の歌. Although this is marked as incomplete, I think all it is missing is a bonus chapter. The main story is finished.

A university student bullies an expressionless grad student but then gradually developed a terrible crush on him. He eventually becomes a bit of a gentleman and even integrates with the grad student’s family, and things go well for them. Not the healthiest relationship but entertaining.