muse ✨'s manga / #doctor(8)

A boxer and a chef who have been friends for ten years finally admit their love. A man who became a doctor to save his lover still pines for him a decade after their breakup and starts a new love with a colleague.

An absolutely beautiful, mature, and bittersweet story. When his lover, hospital director Tsutsumi, doesn't recover after a stroke, Nakamichi - a pediatric surgeon - quietly cares for him while accepting his inevitable loss. His private grief is interrupted when Tsutsumi's son begins an internship at the hospital and expresses extreme disapproval of Nakamichi's relationship with his father. What follows is a gradual story of understanding. As the younger Tsutsumi comes to know Nakamichi, he grows angry at his father for keeping Nakamichi a secret, and eventually his feelings turn to love. I'm so happy I read this in spite of the slightly lower rating. This was such a thoughtful, powerful story - it made me cry many times. Although Sensei is essentially absent throughout the story, he plays an integral part. We never quite see Nakamichi get past him, although his affection for the younger Tsutsumi has grown to the point where Nakamichi is ready to accept him as his lover by the end of the story. What struck me most was how much Nakamichi changed after he transferred to the country hospital; I wonder how happy he truly was before. I feel he'd resigned himself to scraps of stolen happiness - like the cup - but never imagined a lifetime of it. The hospitals themselves seem like metaphors for Nakamichi's mental state: the city hospital is sophisticated but confusing. It's so large, the staff doesn't even realize Nakamichi was the one who cared for sensei before he died, just as no one recognized his grief. But the country hospital is small, simple, and surrounded by nature. The people are friendly and help each other. Now that I think about it, Nakamichi and the younger Tsutsumi's relationship is associated with nature and the outdoors, beginning with their moment in the hospital garden when Tsutsumi falls out of a window and then holds Nakamichi as he cries. In contrast to his father, the younger Tsutsumi is open about his affection for Nakamichi, even crawling into his hospital bed toward the end of the story. And while Nakamichi's relationship with sensei had been completely behind closed doors, utterly secret, in the final scene, just as Nakamichi has decided to accept the younger Tsutsumi's feelings, someone slides open the door to reveal both of them in the bath. I so appreciate the subtlety of the writing in this story and its exploration of complicated feelings. I look forward to reading more by this mangaka.

Walking home from work, a surgeon finds a man who has been shot and cares for him. The man, a member of the Yakuza, misremembers the doctor's name and believes he was saved by a woman. He tries to find her, only to meet the doctor. What follows is a really sweet love story! I adored this.

When a man's lover wakes up from a coma, he doesn't remember his former life. I've read this before but it wasn't marked. Maybe was part of another compilation?

Head's up for past nonconsent in the blind neighbor story.

Oof. This was interesting and I couldn't stop reading it, but this is NOT a story that's going to improve the day. It wasn't intended to, though. I had no sense that the author believed this is healthy, just interesting, which is fine by me. The plot: Teenaged Naoki becomes obsessed with the doctor who treats his asthma, drugging his alcohol to sleep with him and later chasing him to America when the doctor moves for research. Even though they're together, Naoki doesn't trust the doctor not to leave him. After an afternoon Christmas shopping with a friend's help, the doctor returns home only to be accused of cheating and pretty brutally raped. (He's shown with blood streaming down his thighs.) Even so, he forgives Naoki and stays in the relationship when they move back to Japan, though he distances himself a bit. When Naoki's father demands they break things off, the doctor agrees, which nearly kills both of them. Naoki attempts suicide in the hospital and suffers a severe asthma attack. His father relents, realizing he's made a mistake in separating them, but the damage is done. The doctor moves onto the same floor as Naoki to keep an eye on him, which only fuels Naoki's ire. Things come to a head when Michael, the friend from America, visits and Naoki resumes his accusation that the doctor was once unfaithful to him. Believing things are truly over, the doctor accepts a marriage interview, only to have Naoki show up at the hotel, finally having heard the truth about the doctor from his father. Things end on a happy note, and maybe they'll be better off when Naoki is a little older, but this was pretty much a roadmap of Things Not To Do In A Relationship. The "jazz" theme was used sparingly and maybe made more sense in the original manuscript the mangaka worked from. The concept of dreams vs. reality was used a lot more, and Buddhism played a role in many parts. There was even a nice slam against the homophobia some Christians have that made me cheer a little.

A country doctor finds a man with his throat slit, bleeding out in the snow, and takes him home. And then they fall super in love and have a ton of sex! And adopt a kid for a while, meet old friends, make some great food, and grow old. No death, but we see them together many years later. I cried. One character is a former prostitute. He'll use this to his advantage at one point (he sleeps with someone to get something even though he's in a relationship), and we also see flashbacks of him with his former lover. He and his current partner are very happy.