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

Aw! I've seen the drama based on this, so I wanted to read the manga. The drama is a faithful adaptation! Two middle-aged men who stay together out of mutual respect and a desire for companionship, and (I think) gradually fall more in love with each other as their relationship progresses.

This mangaka is always so creative! A human with a soul bond to a powerful demon is reincarnated into a 17yo high school student who cannot get close to other people, or they end up gravely injured. Also features the bonded demon's hilarious older snake brother and others!

Yoshino celebrates his 30th birthday by visiting a gay bar for the first time, and gives his first time to Rou, an attractive younger guy who is flirty but not serious about him. They put each other through the lack-of-communication roller coaster and end up together, with the promise of (I presume) a ring in the box Rou brought home.

A lonely writer is saved by a persistent child who comes to visit him. This veered awfully close to uncomfortable. The writer is open about falling in love with Subaru when he's still a child, though I think it grew from the loss of companionship after Subaru had gone to America and strengthened as he matured. I wish the author had felt saved by a child rather than saying he'd fallen in love with him, and even held that child up on some sort of moral pillar. That might have made for more interesting tension when Subaru returned and erased the skeeve factor.

The one with the submerged elementary school and childhood friends getting back together over fireworks

Surprisingly touching. Two men licking the wounds from past relationships come together when a professor agrees to adopt two kittens on the pretense that the student who had rescued them continue to care for them. Neither forgets the past, but they are able to move beyond. Sept 2020 ETA: Interesting twist on professor/student. Although they're from the same university, they're in different departments. Also their relationship is pretty open. The only reason I dock this a star is for the pacing. It moves a little quickly. This could've been twice as long to show Kiriya opening up more gradually, especially when his hand is broken. It strays to cliche at times: the apartment burning down to force living together, the jealous wife chasing out the MC for crushing on her husband, dual tragic backstories, kittens. But it's tossed together in a way that's satisfying.

Concerned his adult son is gay, Nobu -- a 47 year old widowed single father -- follows him to the club district where he's mistakenly picked up by Hijiri, who assumes he is a shy client and goes home with him. After a night of drunken sex (dubious in consent since it starts while Nobu is asleep, but in context, Hijiri believed Nobu had hired him to do it), Nobu comes to his senses but turns protector when he learns Hijiri has nowhere to go. Hijiri has a tragic ongoing backstory. His stepfather has assaulted him for years and forced him into the sex industry, which Hijiri agreed to out of guilt since his stepfather took care of him after his mother's death. Nobu steps into a father-of-sorts role with him, dragging him out of the sex club and offering to take over his debts. However, they're always lovers. This wasn't father/son play. They actually come to be pretty fond of each other and by the end get rings. I really wish the stepfather had been thrown in jail, though.

A failed photographer's motivation returns when he meets his neighbor's eldest son.

Simple love stories (a boss and secretary, a 33yo teacher and man 15 years his junior), but I was surprised how much the second one touched my heart. ETA September 2020: Huh. On re-read, it's the first story between the boss and secretary that I liked. The second is okay but didn't do much for me. The art style really is pretty.

Okamura is asked to help an insecure, socially awkward client to become more approachable. They become close friends quickly, but when it starts to turn romantic, Okamura worries he'll have to give up a close friend when the relationship inevitably comes to an end, so he refuses to let their love evolve.