stressedpenguin's manga / #8/10(76)

WARNING: mentions of suicide. Feels incomplete. I wanna know more about Mike's past, what he did for work, what he's gonna do now that he's quit that work. What about Ethan? Man's in a bad place even if he acts like everything's fine. This is such a small slice of their lives. I wanna see more (‡▼益▼) 8 ot 9/10

Pickpocket (seme) gets caught by a no nonsense retired cop (uke) and is forced to do some manual labor. To retaliate, he breaks into the uke's house but pa icks and leaves when he finds out the man's a retired cop. Then he finds out the uke's got PTSD after finding his partner dead in his house and that's why he quit. The distressed expressions in this are so good; I know that's a weird thing to say, but they do angst so well in this. There's genuine character development for both characters despite this being so short. The drama of the reveal is 10/10 angst without been dark or twisted or depressing. I just wish there was more to explore the semes relationship with his friends and rhe ukes relationship with HIS friends and his trauma. As a minor note, the seme's hair is on point Story wise, I'd give this a 7 but the art is so frickin clean and fluid it gets bumped up to an 8 so 8/10

LMAAOOOOO the mama and the guys at the bar literally watching this like a soap opera HAHAHHAHAHAHAHHA omg they're great Smut is 10/10. Dumb friends to lovers angst is 10/10. Just dont actually monopolize the guy that's unhealthy. This mangaka sure has a thing for those "I'm in love with my best friend and I'm scares to ruin what we have" plots but so do I lol Overall, series is a solid 8 or 9. High 8/10 for sure. Corny af, full of all the cliches and tropes I like.

Cute! Short and sweet. Just the right amount of absurd with a very loveable older uke and a stone-faced, elite business man, younger seme. And they get married! 7 or 8/10

That was an absolute roller coaster of emotions. Simultaneously heartbreaking and sweet and smutty and so fuckin FUNNY. The art went HARD on the emotional moments, you can really feel Naruse screaming his emotions out. This had me in one kinda tears over the bag swap and then in a different tears again during the running scene and the end. It was wild. The art really makes them seem almost insane sometimes. If it was just a bit longer I'd give it a 9, but for me this was missing something so it's an 8/10.

one of my ultimate comfort reads. idk what about this one just gets me but for me, it's got the perfect light angst + supernatural + happy ending + hot seme that is exactly my aesthetic type. *chefs kiss* 8/10

Yknow hanahaki used to be my favorite fanfiction trope so this was right up my alley. A mailman falls in love with an enigmatic flower vendor. One day while delivering a letter to the vendor's house, the mailman stumbles upon a secret. Where do all those out of season flowers come from? Very sweet and slower than the usually BL speedruns. Hard to really call this "smut." Its more like lovingly sweet sex. 8/10

"I either pet you or I die! This is the state I am in!!" - seme. Truly peak comfort read material old married couple of the whatever department they're in. it's got the good ol' gay uke in love with his straight senpai with the "Don't wanna confess and ruin what we have" trope AND the "he's straight so he can marry a woman, have kids, and live the mandated nuclear family happy life" trope. There's a misunderstanding as characters jump to understandable conclusions, and there's lots and lots of cheesy, heart-warming fluff 8/10

Well would ya look at that. Character growth and healthy communication my two favorite tropes lol. But seriously, I love that the seme starts out kinda bratty but genuinely makes an effort to change and express his feelings in a healthy way. Same with the uke, who's always been the perfect boyfriend but wont be taken care of himself. But now he's learned to let himself be spoiled just a bit. Is adorable. (*˘︶˘*).｡.:*♡ so shoutout to that dark haired senpai at the seme's work. She was a boss. 8/10

Stressed out salaryman (uke) being overworked at a black company suddenly runs into a kid, now grown up, he knew back in middle school (seme). Seme asks to move in temporarily while his boss, who he lives with, is in the hospital. Watching Hiro be stressed and worn down mentally by that job was starting to stress ME out (⋟﹏⋞). Shotout to Kaneko, his team lead or smth, for encouraging him to quit and pointing out just how badly the chief has twisted his image of himself. Kai's life was also sad af, just neglect after neglect, and it shows so clearly through his mindset. I really liked the old guy who took him. Also props to the son for recognizing what a shitty thing he did and genuinely apologizing for it. I liked a lot about this story, but the ending was just unsatisfying. It feels abrupt and like it didn't solve the underlying issues. Hiro quits his jobs, which I was rooting for. But Kai just abandons the old man who's cared for him for the past 5 or 6 years. There's nothing wrong with Kai moving on, I just wanted some scene with the old guy where he talks about it, so we can resolve that plot thread. idk. This was almost a 9; the ending brought it down to a 7; Kaneko, the old man, and the son brought it back up to an 8/10