stressedpenguin's manga / #❗mentions of suicide(1)

Aishiteruze Baby

Complete | maki youko | 2002 released

Playboy high schooler's aunt disappeared, leaving behind a little girl. To teach him some responsibility, our playboy MC is put in charge of the little girl, and he quickly becomes attached to this cheerful young girl who deserves so much better than a mom who runs out on her Update ch 14. Starting to try and tackle some really heavy themes (child abuse and suicidal ideation). It's not the best handling, but I'm overall happy. Not that I'm an expert. I'm also really happy that the little girl, Yuzuya, continues to be the center of the story and we havent been derailed by a melodramatic love story Update ch 33. Wow that ending is abrupt and a little irritating. I wish the author had the time to follow through with the aunt having to earn back everyones trust in her by being a part of Yuzu's life for more than... like 10 pages??? Clearly the author wanted to fo that but ran out of time. That's gotta hurt Kippri the most. I actually really liked this one. I love Kippei and Yuzu's relationship. I appreciate that Kippei's romance with Kokoro is important but didnt overshadow Yuzu. There were a few dramatic arcs that I'm siffy on (mostly the noncon kiss from that creep). I think the rest of Kippei's family should have been more involved with Yuzu, but at least they weren't completely detached. This is gonna be a hot take but... Yuzu... her personality wound up being pretty bland. She felt like someone was checking boxes of what they think a kid with abandonment issues would look like. I didnt find her on her own particularly compelling. I mostly cared for her because Kippei cared so much for her and I cared about Kippei. Overall, I'd give this a 7/10