ArtemisFowl's manga / #interesting characters(54)

I wish it had been a little longer and fleshed out their relationship more, rather than just putting an epilogue at the end. About the manga: it was so good! Both characters grew because of their interactions with each other. I especially loved how philosophical and self-aware the main character (the one hiding under a mask of happiness) was. He understood the flaws in his own personality and was receptive to the growth that he experienced due to his interaction with the love interest. Also, the love interest was a very kind person, and his bluntness was pretty great. Fujino and Mad-dog Tsukada seem like total opposites. One is a clean-cut smol bean, and the other is a large, scary fighter whose rumors are second to none with regards to his looks. One day, Fujino, who is fake towards other people because he is scared of being hurt again (by people in general), goes up to the rooftop only to find Tsukada, who says his smile is "shady." And it is shady -- he is fake because he doesn't want to offend people, but is shocked at getting called out by Tsukada. He ends up revealing more of himself to this person, who is unexpectedly kind, gentle, and polite despite all the rumors surrounding him. Then he started to blush after Tsukada said something to him, but freaks out after he guesses what it means. This is the story about a smol bean who wants love and kindness, but is too scared to get it through vulnerability, and a misunderstood and gentle 'delinquent.'

Truly a compilation of stories concerning characters who are generous and kind and nonjudgmental, traits society rarely spotlights but are worth more than their weight in gold.

Didn’t like the dynamic of their relationship at first, despite liking the characters. However, as the relationship progressed and the older character’s personality is revealed more, it becomes much easier to like them as a couple. Update: Nagata Shingo, all around hottie and investigator extraordinaire decides to worm his way into the life of scary, side-burn Harry Potter scar wearing Ao for information about his scar. What could go wrong? Ao is like ice but Shingo is persistent, and eventually he forms a deep bond with a person he was trying to get the 411 on. Eventually, drama ensues from the fact that Shingo was trying to get information about the scar for the girls who watch their seniors play basketball during lunch, but their love and relationship survive thanks to how strong their bond is.

So much depth and nuance in all of the characters, and manages to balance lighthearted elements of the plot with more serious and complex ones. My favorite chapter is probably the switch-around, where the author reimagines Snow as a dragon and Tungsten as a human that becomes King. It is such an accurate and well-thought out version of what would happen in that scenario. It just speaks to the level of depth the writer brought to this concept, how pain can sometimes intermix with love. Props to the author for this masterwork. I hope s/he continues to write. 5/5 stars ~ Chapter (I'm not sure) 53-58

Princess Alicia is a modern woman from Tokyo, reborn as Alicia in a novel her sister wrote. Alicia was born in a small smithing town, with her mother and her half-brother by her side...until they discover that, at her mother's untimely death, her half-brother is the last heir of the noble crown to Lianne. He and his half-sister go to Lianne's capital, where the mc is trying to avoid all the 'doom flags/endings' and get the heck out of dodge with some guy named Lancelot, whose face she's never seen. Little does she know that she ends up sleeping with the novel's hero, Ares Crenoix, who takes a little more than a liking to her...and ends up entangled in her problems within the castle and the petty politics the main establishment is up to. She ends up at the castle, trying to increase her power and protect her little brother by ending up as Ares' weapons' advisor (all while telling herself that Ares is not her type). Edit: He proposes at the end of chapter 73 (despite them technically being engaged, or pretending to in order to introduce the idea of 'she's potentially going to see someone romantically' to her brother); also, the end of the season Edit: on the verge of answering his proposal in chapter 80 Edit 9/9/23: She proposes to him. - Chapter 85 Edit:1/9/24: They basically admits that they like each other - Chapter 109 ~Chapter 102

The seme’s ex was literally such an interesting character! I understood why they both ended up in the place they did, and neither disrespected the other. I also appreciated the fact that there was a level of realism going on in the uke’s acceptance of his own feelings. He seemed to acknowledge the fact that he felt strongly about this person, but couldn’t reconcile those feelings with what it would be like to be in a same-sex relationship (which is fair, since he had likely never felt that way towards a guy, and being in a relationship with someone generally includes sex). Finally, he ended up acting on those feelings and deciding to choose the unknown for this other person.

Yaaaasss this is so good!!! Chapter 26 so far. The characters are all so defined and likable. Summary: There exists, in this world, muses, a type of human that must be wound by a key in his/her neck (where a keyhole sits) in order to function and prevent rusting. These humans, who are rare but not wholly uncommon, can give their keys to people called conductors, who they are supposed to trust and have the position of winding the key for the muse. In exchange, the conductor can hear the music of the muse who entrusted their key to them. The mc is a human that can hear the sound of any muse, whether or not s/he has handed his/her key to the mc. He can't turn their sound off, and many muses in one classroom means a cacophony of noises in his head, and has always hated muses as a result. The main character, after one trauma at his last school with a particular muse, has come to another school where he knows (somehow?) that this school doesn't have many muses. He then encounters one (whose music sounds beautiful to him), and the rest is history. ~Chapter 50

~ Chapter 13 currently Truly a laugh out loud situation. What a weird setting to be part of...with such odd people ha ha ha. I never knew that you could communicate with some chinchillas by holding its pellets.

Two men who seem to be the complete opposite of each other -- one adrift and sleeping with anyone in order to have a place to live, the other completely and wholly focused on his fashion business -- meet and end up in a platonic relationship with each other. The former ends up using his latent talents to build up the empire of the latter, who is on the edge of success. It is a story of friendship, a story of later romance, and the depth of two complex characters, their relationship with each other, their contributions to the fashion business, and their histories. There's also a subplot of kidnapping and attempted rape (which at first seems so left field but is done with enough grace for me -- and ends up fitting into the larger plot of the fashion industry -- to go along with it). 5 stars for plot, depth and complex characters. ~Chapter 91