stressedpenguin's manga / #idol(15)

Completed at ch 7. Woah shout out to the seme for being responsible and having boundaries and not sleeping with a minor Update ch 6. Aw I hope there's another chapter. They're cute but this felt rushed and I wanted more with the other members. Like that was adorable that they all hung out and napped in the same room. Gimme more of that! 7/10. Miiiiight bump it up to 8 cuz it was just so frickin funny

Dropped at ch 2. Nope. Making him vomit all the food he ate because hes on a diet is fucked up. Dropping this 1/10. Don't usually rate things if I haven't read at least 70% but this crossed a line I didn't know I had

Dropped at ch 37. 90% if the problems could have been prevented or reduced if the staff, the idol, and the public had any communication at all. I'm not even talking about the romance shit. It was obvious MC's company cares and listened to him, but they didnt fucking tell him he had a dangerous stalker? They didn't put out any PR announcements like "as always, please be careful with food gifts and never consume anything that has a broken seal." Then on top of that, Mr. Zero Self Preservation Skills didnt just... tell his staff he doesn't want anymore contact with the psycho ex?? He doesnt have to explain why but like, the staff could try to limit his exposure to him??? Especially the manger?? And Mr. Perfect Bodygard didnt say anything either? Just a quick "hey manager, as his bodyguard who's got an eye for danger, my client seems obviously uncomfortable with this guy. We prioritise the safety of our talent, so let's not keep putting him in the room with someone he clearly doesn't like." Basically, the staff were fucking incompetent given how many crazy psychos were attracted to this wildly famous idol, the uke doesnt have a single self preserving bone in his body, and the seme was the only mostly competent person for still having security follow his client even when he was wrestling with his emotions. I have zero interest in watching this clown show continue with a THIRD stalker 3/10. Maayyybe 4?

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

Just a lil idol with a secret identity x fan thing. Pretty surface level but still fun to read I guess 4/10 for me tho