stressedpenguin's manga / #kinda melancholy(44)

Very melancholy set of stories. Not my jam so over all 4/10 for me. Second story saved it from a 3/10 Story 1: I can't believe it's not incest and cross dressing Stort 2: manga editors, tachi x tachi Story 3: more incest but the incest is dead, swme plays substitute for ukes brother lover, and a lotta crying (not from me), uke feels guilty falling in love with not his brother

Really atmospheric and unique art but the botanist guy kinda.... sucked? Like Umi gets assaulted and mr botanist is like "that's what you get" like ??? It's literally not tho??? And this never comes up again. Botanist guy is just homophobic until hes not. Idk. I wanna say this feels grounded but that's not quite it. It feels floaty or like rather than being grounded on earth were being grounded to a cloud? 5 or 6/10. This wasnt it for me

guy is broke cuz he gave all his money to his gf who then disappeared does gay porn for money and winds up falling in love with the AV director. was kind hard to follow cuz the translation was a bit off. but meh. was okay i guess. also their faces bugged me. 6/10

Meh, friends to lovers but I didnt like the vibe, read this a long time ago and I remember nothing 4 or 5/10

The emotions are strong with this. Watching these two guys in their, what, 30s or 40s? Watching them grapple with feeling empty and lonely even as they live life as if nothing's wrong, watching them just want *someone* to grow old with, that "social security", its heartbreaking. And then as they discover what it's like to be together, it's so healing. The story is called "I'm Doomed if It's Not You" but it doesnt feel like they're all isolated like a lot of other romance. They have friends and lives outside of each other, but they're each others lifelines. It's a relationship that feels like... less rose-tinted romance and more... just people getting together? Idk how to explain This is a strong contender for favorite romance manga. 9/10, it's so close but my 10s are strict

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

Guy happens to see a very skeletal looking salaryman on the shinkansen one day and cant stop observing him. By chance they start talking and bond over horse racing. It's a slow story. Everything is revealed through Tohru's internal thoughts and his conversations with his friends and with Makoto. These two create a safe space together. The story has a strong atmosphere and sense of direction. Makoto crying because he's so overwhelmed that Tohru would cry for his sake is incredibly touching. There's so much about this that I love; I just cant express it well. I was rooting for Makoto to quit his job but I'm actually happier that it seems his power harassing boss has actually improved. Rather than running away, i love the aubtle message that these situations CAN improve and that we should aim to improve them. It gives me a bit of hope. (But also I'm all for starving out companies that dont treat their employees right bc we cant all afford to play the long game.) 9/10. This is a masterfully crafted story.

Uke's entire family died in a tragic accident, and now it's just him and his nephew trying to survive life together. The hot and mysterious guy running a small restaurant in the town they move to takes in interest in them and they start building a relationship. The overall tone is melancholy as all three main characters are suffering from painful experiences, and it's sweet how they fumble through supporting each other in their developing relationships. There's some angst, some drama, and some ghosting, and there's a This story gets two big pluses from me: 1) The kid actually has agency. He's not used as a plot device. The story takes him seriously; it doesn't do that thing where they just call him cute and ignore that he's a real person with real feelings. Still looking for a story where the adults validate even the silly things kids get upset over because... like it's silly to us but very impactful to them and--I'm getting worked up lol. Anyway, this story did the kid justice. 2) The single mom the uke makes friends with is amazing and feels like a real person. For all the degrading the seme did of women, I was worried this would be another BL where everyone woman is shitty. But this mom was incredible and her handling of her son was incredible. I know this is like almost the bare minimum, but I'm happy to see it. Also a plus is the sex is consensual. Aside from the somewhat dubious bit because alcohol, the seme doesn't force the uke into anything sexual. I appreciate it. This is an 8/10. Would be 6/10 but it gets +2 for the kid and mom friend

I... I was confused the whole time. Is there a prequel to this? Did I miss something? There was a lot of poetic...ness in this one that kinda obscured the meaning of... anything? everything? The only way we know theres two characters are in love is because they're in a BL, otherwise I wasnt feeling it. They barely talk ever. Also the MC suddenly brings up their mothers at the end and I still dont know why? I either missed everything or the story sucked at conveying its meaning 3/10 too much poetry

photographer runs into a young restaurant owner while visiting town to photograph the sunsets. he winds up working at the restaurant in return for room and board. Photographer is still haunted by the death of his past lover so we got some angst too. Some gripes: 1) romance characters need to stop kissing people without consent. 2) I was expecting the drama to be a bit more fleshed out? Seme confesses, kisses uke, uke panics and leaves. Comes back 4 pages later and they have exactly one conversation about the complicated feelings associated with losing a lover and moving on from them, and then we're done. Overall, fairly cute. It's got a good not quite melancholy not quite fluffy atmosphere. 6/10