stressedpenguin's manga / #friendship(23)

this is my favorite mangaka. this is the manga with the two boys whose names both mean eight. 9/10

Happy to see tomo-chan getting new love thanks to the anime

Listen the penguin shows up in this girls fridge and everyone just rolls with it and I think that's beautiful 8/10

Lmao if they're all transferred then who's at the other branch? Honestly really funny cast. Also this ain't yaoi it's just shonen ai, a very comedic shonen ai. 7/10

Lmao no way this guy didn't know about wet dreams and jerking off in high school. Also kinda sus that the seme jumped straight to jerking him off instead of just explaining and using visuals n stuff. Seme is still sweet tho. Was hoping the story would explore the characters coming out. Basically I just want the comfort of knowing the other boys are not homophobic (pls) 7/10. Kinda unrealistic but cute nonetheless

Daughter of the yakuza becomes the teacher of a bunch if high school delinquents. She's so much fun and I love the genuine, caring, rough and tumble relationship she's built with her students. She's fiercely protective of them and they appreciate her in their own clumsy way. All the characters a super fun. I love the yakuza guys crying everytime something goes down with Yankumi. I also appreciate that they're still immoral yakuza even if they fiercely value family, loyalty and honor. Honestly this is (almosy) everything I wanted GTO to be. About a third thru, the focus shifts from the students to the yakuza, which is a shame cuz I was really enjoying the teacherness. We never REALLY get to know the students individually. Kuma I think is the only one we get to know on a deeper level. (me huffing copium that a manga from the early 2000s will have progressive ideas and treat women like people. Edit: To my surprise, it actually kinda did! Kinda!) We got SO close to getting a romance free story but tbh it wasnt intrusive and did add to the comedy of the characters. SPOILER I did almost cry over Shinohara leaving at the end. It really felt like they were losing a member of the family. Pain. Overall, I honestly enjoyed this a lot. Some of it hasn't aged well like the only openly gay teacher being an actual pedo and some... many... if the comments about the only other female teacher but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasnt grotesquely sexist or bigoted. So like. Sugoi. 7/10

Hands down most impressive part is how the story and characters still managed to have fun and be happy despite all the heavy, dark, and often violent lives they had to live. They all hang out and talk to each other about their problems. Everyone gets character development that helps them become happier. They're just one big supportive family in the end and I love them. Update ch 17. Dude this girl fucking sucks. You dont just out people like that and what the hell did she mean by "wants to do that" after watching someone else's nonconsensual sex tape WTH Update ch 34. I genuinely was not expecting to Sohae's character growth. A lot of it obviously happens off screen but I went from hating this girl to being sympathetic to laughing at her dynamic with the new group. I love Yosef being so crassly supportive and just chillin on the couch while they discuss how Jihyun should confess to Yohan. The characters lives and history are so heavy yet they're so fun. I'm scared for season 2. Pls just let them be happy Update ch 54. HELL yeah season 2 is about yosef and daeshik! Bruh yosef is so gentle and massive his hand is as wide as Daeshik's waist Update ch 87. They are a TEAM! They are FRIENDS! They are WORKING together and getting THERAPY and IMPROVING their COMMUNICATION and EXPRESSING THEMSELVES and I'm so fucking happy and why they hell is there still 20 chapters bro I'm scared pls just let them be happy Update ch 113. BRO I LOVW THEM ALL SO MUCH!!! All their silly little antics, the fact that they're all such sweet friends, all of it! Maybe my one complaint is that everyone got paired romantically in the end, and it felt unnecessary. One of these days we'll get aro / ace rep. Also gimme scruffy Yosef back I liked his longer hair 9/10 but seriously debating a 10/10

just a good ol' slice of life about high school boys cooking food and worrying about the future a lil bit i love shit like this so 7/10 for me

dropped at ch 12. two idols find smutty fanfiction about themselves and get horny. Got what I wanted out of it but might finish it later. 5 or 6/10

Country boy's bias from his favorite idol group moves in next door suddenly. It's clear the idol is burnt out and our MC wants to help. After a bit of a rocky start, they start becoming friends. Update ch 15. THAT'S THE END?? Okay. Okay ima rant for a sec cuz that's wilddddd Personally, I really like the friendship as a friendship and wouldn't have minded that it stayed that way IF the story wasn't relying heavily on classic BL tropes especially in those last few chapters. Escpailly the takeout girlfriend. The ending only felt abrupt to me because they were setting up a confession that never came. If the author never intended this to be a romance... I guess you could still argue it is, but because every romance story has a confession, not having one or at least an equivalent act becomes disqualifying... Anyway. After centuries of romance coding everything, we've all been trained or hardwired to read romance into everything. It's why characters that dont remotely interest or genuinely despise each other get shipped. People are just like this. Authors have to actively counterbalance tropes that are romantically coded to temper their readers expectations, not lean into them. At least half of us shouldn't be expecting a BL when it's a story about friendship. I prefer platonic relationships and think it's a shame that intimate male platonic relationships are so rare in stories of all mediums. I would've love this story if it was clearly about that. But it wasn't. This was just bait Ummmmm so that leaves me conflicted for the score. On the one hand I really enjoyed this cute, slice of life, friendship and healing story. But on the other hand, this wasnt just delusional yaoi fans thinking it was BL, in story elements were telling you it was BL. So like...mmmmmmm 6/10. Would've been a 7 or 8 but the ending realllly pissed me off