muse ✨'s manga / #mature characters(69)

A year out from a failed relationship, a lonely tailor is mistaken as someone intending to commit suicide and stopped on the platform by a high school student. That encounter changes his perspective, and he grows closer with his boss, whom he ends up falling in love with. Heartwarming and looks to be traditionally drawn in ink.

A chemistry teacher, Jinno, moves into the apartment next to a former student who had often talked to him after school and once said he liked him. Jinno asks him to have dinner so they can catch up, and since they both live alone and Morimoto enjoys cooking, he suggests they eat together sometimes. Their relationship grows sweetly domestic: they have dinner and sometimes lunch together, help each other with household tasks, and go clothes shopping. Jinno likens their relationship to dating and has no fear of that, slowly becoming aware of his own feelings and attraction, which he suspects are mutual. There is no relationship drama in this. Jinno works up the courage to ask Morimoto out and realizes that Morimoto had actually confessed to him in high school. They start dating and get a happy ending. A nice read on a sad day.

A manga where someone can cook without injury! A man who works as a cook in a family run store takes notice of a salaryman who always seems to pick up the dishes he makes. This was sweet, with no unnecessary miscommunication, grown-up characters, and no unhappy feelings. I loved it.

A thirty-year-old man falls for the young, sweet bartender at the bar he frequents. I really wanted to see the scene of them having dinner with the bartender's dad!

After his older brother dies, 34yo architecture professor Shougo is left with a mansion and a live-in butler. Secondary story about two roommates who fall in love. Ties into the first (one's a college student).

This might be the most realistic story I've read, which means it's far from being the happiest even though it ends on a happy note. Prepare for your heart to be beaten over and over as you go through this. It's a story about how people hurt each other. Although they're in a relationship, when Kyou meets a young woman at work, he once again questions his decision to be with Imagase. The thing is, they're NOT bad for each other. They're a good fit. They live together easily. They're sexually compatible. The problem is that Kyou can't accept he's fallen in love with a man. He won't acknowledge his love at ALL, even though he's miserable for months after they break up a second time. Part of the issue is that Kyou has zero confidence and is a pushover - that's established in the prequel - so when Imagase would lament that they weren't good for each other, Kyou listened. When Imagase said he was just "playing" lovers, Kyou listened. Can they last? Yes, but they both have some maturing to do. This needs a sequel where we check in with them in a year or two. The real sign that Kyou has honestly embraced Imagase as his partner for life will be if they meet each other's families, since that was brought up several times. I loved this, but it was incredibly upsetting and I cried a lot, especially when Imagase was in the bed Kyou shared with his girlfriend and said, "You were mine. You were mine."

When his dad falls ill, Yukinori takes a leave from his job to take over as acting president in his stead. A clumsy man, he fumbles his first days on the job and is mocked by the employees and looked down on by Maki, his father's right-hand man. To ease things with the employees, Maki tells them the acting president is taking everyone out after work, but to Yukinori's dismay, they end up at a brothel. When he confides in the worker that he doesn't want to sleep with her, she cheerfully returns with a bottle of alcohol and Maki - who is also gay. This story follows their initial fall into love and the trials of navigating a relationship. Absolutely delightful read. Kept me in bed until 11:11am on New Year's Eve. Also includes a story about a horrible guy who invited his ex lovers to his wedding.

Past!me said, "The art is pretty, but there wasn't much relationship development or emotional impact." Maybe she'd had a bad day. On re-read, this was really cute. The main story: Friends of 15 years get together when one is threatened with an arranged marriage, leading the other to confess. Opens with the side story of the cute shop attendant being eyed up by the MC. There’s a third story that’s pretty bland but fine. The main couple shows up again in the epilogue.

Kengou's childhood friend Touma refuses to part from him, becoming a lawyer and eventually scheming his way into the yakuza in spite of Kengou's resistance. The one with the sake cups semen joke, which...tbh I thought was kinda hot.