stressedpenguin's manga / #melodrama(2)

Stories from the Shopping District

Ongoing | Sanba maekawa | 2000 released

Man I dont have any tags for this. Everyone's yelling about the uke sleeping with literally everyone so I'm not gonna touch that. What DID annoy me was the uke's constant self deprecation. Through no fault of his own really, the story turned into the uke going "oh no I suck I'm so dirty I'm so selfish" and everyone else jumping to reassure him that he's not. But he kinda... was? Purely from his POV, he calls the seme home from a 7 year study abroad--which isn't even a study abroad at that point, that's just where he lives now--with zero regard to the seme's established life and expects him to take over a restaurant because the uke wants to. To be fair, we do get that memory at the end that the seme promised to come back. But because it came at the end, I was already annoyed at him. Imagine how much more dramatic irony we could have gotten if we knew the uke wanted the seme to fulfill his promise while the seme was dealing with all the changes he was thrown into (not that that... is what hes actually trying to cope with, gosh everyone sucks) Also it just kinda pissed me off that the uke literally pushes the seme away the first time they hug and says they're complete strangers???? No???? YOU called HIM back to his hometown. You've been yearning for him and you're finally getting close. Why the fuck-- SPEAKING OF the seme.. SIR. I wish he spent more time thinking about all the ways his hometown had changed and not JUST that his cute childhood friend had slept with 100 guys I dunno man. This story suffered a lot from characters refusing to introspect and then communicate. They have to be told their own feelings by their neighbors who can see instantly what they're thinking. It makes them seem flat, avoidant, and melodramatic. I don't know why this story pissed me off in particular because I read so much crap like it, but it seriously got to me 3/10 for making me spend like 5 hours post-reading trying to parse out my own feelings

Cat and Bed

Ongoing | toujou sakana | 2019 released

Hmm. Started very cute, fluffy, and domestic. By ch 4 tho, it's starting to feel like this is an unhealthy situation for all of them. Seme is playing the doting bf for a bunch of lonely people who all have unique needs. That's draining. It's clear they all want to be special to him, too. Idk. I'm getting drained just reading this. Curious to see how it turns out, but it's looking like a breakdown. Idk. Update ch 6. That was wildly unsatisfying. Seme and uke's relationship barely exists because it's so far been all about fucking. It's weird that the uke encourages the seme to keep contact with all his ex clients because they were specifically coming to him for the loving boyfriend act, so now he's kinda just leading them on. Hiroki doesn't have much of a personality? Hes kinda just blank all the time? He barely reacts at all to the seme apparently having an obsessive ex that regularly escapes his mental hospital? Also that was such a sudden plot point? (Unless I'm misremembering) 3/10, this kinda... sucked