At the End of the Road
This could have been more than it was, but it wasn’t. Summary: The main character has a very realistic dream that a kid is getting bullied but then wakes up. This boy (main character) is about to pay off his debt to his landlord (his parents ran away/died, and he's poor). The day before he pays off the debt in full, he wakes up...but he's not in his own body. Instead, he wakes up and is in that same kid's body (the same one he's dreamed of) who is in the hospital for a suicide attempt and is being released. This kid has a twin brother, who seems to hate him for some reason. His family is normal. He goes to school and realizes this kid is picked on and treated badly. This boy (who is a very strong character) is also very good at physically fighting. When he enters the body of this host and goes to school, the new character ends up beating up all the kids who bullied the former host, due to the fact that the new owner ignored them. To this kid's surprise (the new owner), a figure from his shadowy past is at this school (which is a richy rich private school). This kid from his past, who was also in the slums, is somehow now a wildly rich, wildly popular, wildly hot magnate heir. Once Shinwoo -- the current owner of the former bullied boy's body -- interacts with him, the hottie knows something's up. Through an obsession and a familiarity with Shinwoo, the rich kid figures it out -- and wants to become friends with this kid. Props for the whole unraveling of the mystery and the comeuppance the characters who bullied this boy (I remember feeling very satisfied when I read it) -- only, the ending was abrupt and the way they ended up playing out the reasons for this former character's demise was both unbelievable and highly improbable. There was so much tension and interest and drama at the beginning of the manga, only for everything to suddenly collapse on itself at the last chapter. This is an example of a plot that could have been good, only to fall apart on itself because of time constraints and the author's lack of knowledge of where to go with the plot next. It could really have been excellent; it ended up, instead, with being 'meh.' -- Mad-dog label gets introduced in chapter 9 because of chapter 8 ~Chapter 57.11
Straight or Not
Not the worst, but certainly not the best...from what I remember from reading it, this manga has awkward (and skeevy) dynamics, with the seme forcing himself on the uke (in terms of their meetings/interactions, thankfully -- at least I don't remember reading -- not sex, though both are crossing the line, in different degrees, the latter being much worse than the former). Or at least using his power (as a president) and abusing it in a malicious manner.
5 Seconds
I couldn’t even get through the first chapter, personally.
My Housemate
No...no, no, no. Chapter 7 onward is a downward spiral. And it had all the right explanations and all the right ingredients to be great.
Just Want to Touch You
That dude is an utter dickhead. Pardon my French. The seme, not the uke.
Chika-chan to!
This premise had the potential of being interesting, but sadly failed due to the insistence on sticking to the rigid script of seme - uke dynamics, once the seme (or the middle ‘seme’) decided to bottom at the beginning of the manga. Boooooo
Hidamari no Orange
Really could have been an interesting dynamic, but turns out to be a dud because the uke, who has complexity, is not really understood by the main character. I think another person could help him out more, but we have this character instead. ~ Chapter 2
Fate Makes No Mistakes