Mede Shireru Yoru No Junjou
Smells Like Green Spirit
This is such a bittersweet read and wonderfully weaved. Doesn't really focus on romance but more on friendship and finding out one's sexuality. I absolutely adore the way the author set the pace as if as readers, we are privy to someone's actual real life experiences (wc to some might actually be). It explored various outcomes to people who struggled with their sexuality and put it in a more realistic way, even the rape scene was indefinitely toned in a very unromantic way, it was scary and suffocating despite the fact that the rapist is someone who's regarded as good looking, his actions was nonetheless portrayed as it is -- horrifying, and what's more it was wasn't just shoved off, it was vital to the plot and was used for the main characters to reflect on, wc is kinda rare in BLs. I also absolutely adore the shift between artstyle and even the whiplash between the moods, it can be funny and then heartbreaking the next. It defi has drama elements but never pushed to the level of forceful angst, it was mellow and made sense, like some fond memory. Anyway this belongs in my top 5, even top 3, soo sooooo good 5/5.
Utsukushii Karada
3 at most, the art is really, truly beautiful and I bet that's the main reason why people are deceived into giving this a high rating, coz by golly the plot is so freaking angsty and dramatic, quite boring tbh, I get the translator's notes too, I also found it hard to finish this work and lost interest midway; good thing it's short. Like the seme is basically just a horny sadboi tattoo artist who fell in love with the uke coz he's pretty, and then the uke is this implied boytoy (also a sadboi) for a known artist who's just pathetically codependent from start to finish. I guess they wanted the sensei (artist) to be the villain here but there's not enough backstory or interaction to justify it, so when he slapped the uke and asked him to leave immediately it felt lukewarm, like where's the internal struggle for the uke? why is he so attached to the sensei in the first place? is it because he was the first to appreciate him? the first one to shower him with admiration, after all, he was his muse. It would make sense if the uke is not conventionally attractive for that appeal to work, coz if everyone already thinks he's pretty what's more to another compliment, you get me? if however it was simply because he was picked up by the old fart and was raised to be the beautiful "creation" that he is, then his attachment for him should be stronger than his attachment to the seme whom he just met a few times and now has developed feelings simply coz 'his touch is different', ya kidding me he's just handsome and ya'll both horny, that's all there is to it. The supposed sweet moments also come off as cringey too and the characters were just flaunting their beauty like a pretty vase that's all hollow inside, which to be fair is not bad at all coz the artist really is talented in drawing pretty characters, however this did give me anxiety coz I really want to be a mangaka who's able to make both good art and story, but upon reading this I'm fear that what they say about not being able to have it all might be true.
CASTLE MANGO