muse ✨'s manga / #reencounter(186)

ExR's first title

Another melancholic, beautiful story by Asou Mitsuaki. A bartender struggling to overcome the abuse and trauma he faced from parents and a teacher connects with a distant relative who is determined to treat him well. This doesn't hold the emotional power of Only You, Only or Season, but it was moving and I liked it. I cried right at the end. I think if I had read this a little more slowly, over coffee, I would like it quite a lot. ETA June 2020: I reread this with tea across a couple hours during the rain, and gave it full stars. This is beautiful.

Two boys who fell in love in middle school reunite in college (and one's a lot taller). A college student who fell in love with the subject of a painting falls for the artist. A boy whose mother told him he'd never be happy is living his best life with his boyfriend.

A tailor determined to stay in his deteriorating neighborhood finds it hard when gangsters show up, determined to ruin it. But a childhood friend reappears and might be able to help. I prefer this author's story "Get the key to my heart" over this, but this was cute.

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.

After his best friend Hiromu finds him with another boy in high school and calls him disgusting, Ichi loses touch with him, though they live in the same building as adults. When Ichi's grandfather comes to visit, Hiromu comes back into the fold, and he and Ichi have to come to terms with their relationship fallout.

ETA September 2020: Past me gave this a 3. Present me thought this was cute as heck. A single father left by his wife falls for the actor from a hero show his son adores. They're really fluffy. Former basketball teammates meet up after a reunion. It's vague, but I think we're supposed to infer they understand each other now and might get together.

I work in publishing and relate to this series on many levels. Kisa & Yukina are my favorites to read about because they're at a stage where their relationship is steady and evolving, so they're dealing with fun roadbumps like not enough time to meet up, being super fucking tired from work, realizing you don't know odd specific details about your SO, family members, impending life changes, and more! Yokozawa and Kirishima have quickly become my second-favorite couple in this, although I mainly know them from their OVA and light novels. I'll probably die before Onodera falls in love. April 2020: Yokozawa and Kirishima had a proper chapter??? They got engaged??? I??????? Cried. March 2022: 16 days until Onodera falls in love, but we got a FAKEOUT DREAM SEQUENCE that made me scream a little.

Two in one: Ten years after a rejected confession, two men get another chance...but the one feels so much guilt, he resorts to abusive sex as atonement. After college, a guy moves to the country and falls for the only person his age. The art in this is GORGEOUS. Also the author is an eruri shipper :-D

An office worker constantly harassed by a coworker...and others. This must not have made much of an impression because I remember nothing about it.