stressedpenguin's manga / #showbiz(49)

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

Dropped at ch 12. Was kinda expecting better communication btwn the characters like IDK a contract laying out all the terms? But no the seme is relying on the fact that the uke is too much of a wimp to go running to the press that a powerful CEO is propositioning him for sex. I already dislike all the characters. Not interested in continuing -/10

It's just silly and unserious. The uke is very clingy, super insecure, and a just annoying enough that I didn't really like this. I don't think you can take this seriously. It's goofy. The seme is an actor freeloading off the uke who is a massive fan. Uh 3/10 for annoying me

Very short actor x actor, light unrequited love. The confession is kinda forced idk 5/10

Really did not feel the romance aspect of this one. Also the model and makeup artist / brand owner having a romantic relationship seems like a major conflict of interest. I know that's true for like every boss x subordinate relationship but for some reason I FELT it more here than other stories 5/10. It was unfortunately both a boring romance and a boring work drama for me

Last read vol1 ch... uh... 5 I dunno if I'm interested in a second volume tbh 6 or 7/10 for what I remember of it.

Short and cute reencounter of two filmmakers. 6/10

It was a oneshot?!??!!?!? Noooooooooooo 7/10