ArtemisFowl's manga / #fantastic(6)

I think this was a really smart, in depth look at why relationships can fail. It’s often not for anything dramatic and black and white, like cheating or abuse, but instead for the simple reason of one or both parties failing to treasure the other person as they should. In this case, it was Jinwoo that stopped treasuring Candy in the ways he had before, and had started taking him for granted at some point. I think the author also tries to point out an error (at least to some degree) that Candy makes in the relationship (read Candy’s journey through the extras). At first I didn’t agree with it; but upon further reflection, I think that although Candy truly wasn’t in the wrong, things could have been fixed had he communicated his feelings explicitly and verbally. Not the feelings of love, which he did; but every frustration that he let go of was just building up inside of him and didn’t really do any service for either of them. If he had communicated those feelings, Jinwoo would have realized what was happening to them and likely changed (as he did when he realized what he had “thrown away”) as a result.

Theater and opera, good lord I am not ready for this. Edit: Chapter 85 - He confesses!!!! ~Chapter 133

Omegaverse but boy is it so much better than that. The story is much more complicated than that, and has a very egalitarian tone -- something that I truly do appreciate in yaoi, and in omegaverses in particular. I think this one is particularly interesting because the way that it talks about omega-verse sexism (that's what it is at its core) is very appealing. I think looking at things from the different characters' points of view was interesting. It is the story of a cop and an informant, and within this arc they get involved in a particular case with a beta who is drug-dealing a "solution" to the problem of being chained to an alpha. ~Chapter 4

The development of their relationship was fantastic! College student Isumi, who looks like a middle-schooler, gets intercepted by policeman Amasawa, who asks for his ID after seeing a "middle-schooler" drunk and on his way home in the middle of night. They end up having more to do with each other after Mr. Policeman comes to Isumi's place of work, a convenience store, and asks him for recommendations. This kid happens to be a good cook and they mutually decide to have Isumi cook at Amasawa's house. Isumi's place ends up having a water main breakdown, and Amasawa, after hearing the call, asks him to stay at his house. Isumi already feels the pull of attraction towards Amasawa -- and the bond of their friendship strengthens after that. It was so nice to see that the uke was understanding of his attraction towards the seme, that the seme was confused (but also reflective) about his feelings when he was confessed to, and that the development of their relationship wasn't forced. It felt seamless and natural, organic in the way many yaoi relationships often are not. They both communicated with each other, and when there was a point that most yaois would have the characters jump straight into bed (sexually -- read chapter 3), I thought they would too, only for me to be pleasantly surprised that it was platonic. Also, the extras in the other chapters are cute.

I'm just floored by how good this was. The trauma, the relationships they had to their past were dealt with skillfully, and even the love interest's reaction towards the main character based on the love interest's past actions (where he said something extremely rude but hated himself for saying it) was spot on. The one thing was the romance -- it did feel a little rushed at first, considering the love interest kind of suddenly made a move on the mc -- but the pace of the development was fantastic afterwards. How the mc was managing the loss of his loved ones and the sudden removal of a position with the responsibilities of a different one; the little nephew's feelings towards that loss as well as his sense of abandonment; and the love-interest's interest in the pair because of how he saw the nephew as a version of his past self; all of those elements were done with so much depth. I'm really glad I read this manga. Summary: Mc lost his mom, dad, and sister in a car accident. His sister had a son; he took him in and they moved to a different town. In that town they met a cook at a restaurant, whose story had some mirrors to the story of the nephew. The cook inserts himself into their lives, wanting to almost heal and protect a part of his past. The cook makes a move on the mc, and he and the mc fall in love. There are many beautiful metaphors and deep philosophical points conveyed within the manga.