muse ✨'s manga / #school life(123)

The wealthy Haruhito channels his frustration over one-sided love into bullying his crush, Misaki, a poor boy who will do anything to make money from his family, including selling water and weeds in the hallway. Their grandfathers had known each other during the war, and Misaki is taken care of by Haruhito's grandfather, eventually agreeing to become his 'lover' in exchange for money to help the family (they drink tea and take walks), which forces Haruhito to voice his feelings. Everyone in this is a little frustrating. The boys dance around each other. The grandfather's reason for 'dating' Misaki is, I think, an indirect way to give him money without hurting his pride. The chairman had been in love with Misaki's grandfather, but he never told him, and they were never together. He seems delighted when Haruhito confesses to Misaki so easily, something he was never able to do. Ten years later, we learn that Misaki has never told Haruhito he loved him in return, in a future scene where he drops it mid-business conversation. That's probably the happiest moment in the story. When the chairman is with Misaki, he takes on the appearance he would've had as a young man when he was together with Misaki's grandfather. I think this was done to show us how he sees himself when they're together, and that he sees Misaki as an avatar for the man he loved. I think his feelings toward Misaki himself are innocent. I really liked their interactions for the most part. What I liked best was the sketch of Misaki's grandfather as an angel in Heaven, saying it's taking the chairman forever to get up to him. :-D

The granddaughter and fourth generation of a yakuza family follows her dream to become a teacher, transforming the lives of the students in her care. Her other dream is a life with the family's lawyer, but one of her students, Sawada Shin, has his eye on her. SPOILERS This is officially the best thing I've ever read. I devoured this across a few days. Ojou is precious, hilarious, loyal, and so relatable. I expected she'd end up with the lawyer, and that Shin would grow wiser after his first love, but no!!! She fell in love with Shin after he graduated! We get to watch their relationship develop across a couple of years. I'd love to see them in the future after he has graduated law school and they succeed the group. Aw I bet they'll have kids too. :-DDDDDDDD I'm pretty sure, after extensive googling and my poor ability to read kanji, that this is the 4-panel manga from a 2009 release showing their two kids: https://up.gc-img.net/post_img/2017/09/fgPHGvzbTBoVKHg_lRWj9_99.jpeg The first baby is calling out "Techya!" and striking his face. He increasingly experiences more pain and finally says, "Seriously??" I haven't translated the final panel yet but I think it mentions blood. From https://girlschannel.net/comment/1360570/99/ The panel and the magazine containing it were listed in the Japanese Gakusen wikipedia.

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.

Akihisa leaves his otaku image behind when he moves away from Tokyo, determined to live a normal school life. But a manga volume leads him to Yuu, a fellow third-year everyone else avoids. Head's up for dubcon. Asihika is drunk when they first sleep together. There was the understanding of a relationship with a physical component and he wasn't blackout drunk. Inhibitions were definitely down. They'd fooled around previously and Yuu thought they were in an exclusive relationship, so it wasn't strange to me they ended up in bed even if they should've waited (I've done this muuuch drunker so I'm obviously biased). Is this a road map to how you should behave? Probably not. (Don't be like me!) But manga doesn't exist to teach us how to behave.

Taira's sense of smell leads him to the person he likes, but they don't hit it off right away. The assault warning is for the main story. Chapter 5 is a ride: a guy obsessed with someone he can't have (his brother), so he gets plastic surgery to look more like him.

Two background characters go to extremes to live their own lives against the backdrop of a stereotypical BL situation. (This is really funny! I’m just rating it a 3 on the emotional scale since I wasn’t really drawn into the pairing, but the story itself is fun.)

The prequel to the one about the couple who takes care of their best friend’s baby. This hit all of the right emotional buttons. I loved it. and we got to see more of the teacher who will eventually be the father of Tomoe’s baby.

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.