RoseMary's manga / #Straight Seme(156)

First BL by Kaoruhara Yoshie! Adapted to JDrama

️This is like the best kind of story for me, because it has all the elements that I love the most! First of all, because it's an old manga and that art style and general atmosphere never fail to make me so nostalgic. Then, it's a school life / youth story and it even includes BL! So, I totally love it...I wish there were more like this! > Too bad that it leaves us with that bittersweet, kinda suspending ending...it's like it brusquely came to an end soon after Okamoto says "that kind of relationship where feelings won't go further". That sentence sure hit hard, and poor Koizumi secretly shedding a tear...But just like Koizumi muttered to himself, let's hope that such feelings may change in the future! After all, Okamoto is not completely indifferent towards him and also he may need time to think seriously about the possibility of liking a guy and come to terms with that. And they will see together where their relationship of friendship, maybe something more, will lead them. In fact, while the manga ended, their story continued on. That's why I felt this was like a point of beginning, in a way, and it makes me wonder how things went between them then. I wish the author continued it, maybe setting it even after a few years when they were uni students or something...Anyway, while it was bittersweet, I really liked this manga!️

Collection of Stories: • Ch. 1 Magic Mail Chocolate - Shounen Ai / Teenagers / Classmates / Childhood Friends become Lovers / Straight Seme / Glasses-Wearing Seme / Valentine's Day / Chocolate / Unrequited Love Becomes Requited • Ch. 2 If a 29 year-old herbivore master gets locked on by a carnivore - Yaoi / Adult Couple / Gay Seme x Straight Uke / First time with a guy / Shorter Seme / Older Uke • Ch. 3 One-sided love monomania - Shounen Ai / Students / Teenagers / Photography / Unexpressed|Unrequited Love / Inconclusive Ending - This needed a continuation. The two students will probably become a couple soon after, but I actually wanted to see it happening! • Ch. 4 Weekly love at teahouse theatre - Shounen Ai / Novelist / Gay Seme x Straight Uke / Age Gap / Older Seme / Smoking / Uni Student / Height Difference 1 Volume (Complete) - Dropped... // Overall, I kinda liked the stories available, but they were nothing special...

4 Volumes (Complete) - Raw: 77mh.com / colist_167801.html > Note: The story is also shounen ai: the prime minister's secretary has an unrequited love for him and then along the story he'll get involved with another male character. And there's the married bodyguard who also is secretly in love with the prime minister since high school actually. Sequel: Yuigon >> It's dropped, but I saw the raws. Honestly, I don't really know what to think of this story! If this was a regular shoujo romance with only the prime minister and the school girl, I could have liked it, although it was nothing special to begin with. But, as a BL lover, it made me so frustrated and sad for the other characters. Both the secretary, Sai, and the bodyguard, Ryouichi, are in love with the prime minister, Kanata. At least Sai in the end will have his happy ending with Matsumoto, the journalist in charge of the prime minister and who also went to high school together with Kanata and Ryouichi. But the part regarding Ryouichi is so sad. I liked him and Kanata together...it's so sad that he is married and even has a child, when in truth he's in love with Kanata and has always kept his feelings hidden in his heart. SO, I DIDN'T LIKE IT! Then in Yuigon, which I actually had already read back in the days, the author gave us the final blow with all the flashbacks of the time when Ryouichi fell in love with Kanata back in high school, as the title of the chapters "Memories of when we met" already suggests, giving us even more sad feelings about all this story. I honestly don't get the point of making such a story! IN THE END, I CAN SAY THAT I LIKED ONLY THE PART REGARDING SAI AND MATSUMOTO. And in the sequel there's the continuation of their story in ch. 4.5, so that's the only thing I liked both in the main story and in the sequel as well!

[Edit: 2022-03-31] So, I actually had read this back in the days and I re-read it now because I came across "Seikimatsu Prime Minister" that is the prequel of Yuigon. Honestly, after reading both, I don't get why the author would go and make this kind of sequel. The part regarding Sai and Matsumoto is good and in fact it's the only thing that I liked! I'm so glad that in the end they ended up together. At least they got their happy ending! But I didn't like the main part regarding Kanata and Ryouichi (ch. 1-4). First of all, it's actually not really a sequel, but more like an expansion of the part where the prime minister's bodyguard, who is secretly in love with him, is shot protecting him and is unconscious at the hospital as we see in the prequel. In Yuigon, the author showed us that while he was there unconscious he dreams about the past and so we see when they met back in high school and how Ryouichi fell in love with Kanata. We see about their friendship and how they found solace in each other after finding out that they both shared the similar circumstance of being raped by a man. > If one read only this, it may seem like a sad but realistic and maybe even touching BL about repressed|unexpressed unrequited love and the serious issues of (child) rape and trauma (even though towards the end it was rushed and quickly came to an end). However, after reading the main story, going back then to this sequel, I think this simply adds more frustration to the one the main story already gives! And I don't know why the author had to make both of their circumstances so dark with both of them actually being rape victims. She really gave us the final blow with all the flashbacks of the time when Ryouichi fell in love with Kanata back in high school, as the title of the chapters "Memories of when we met" already suggests, giving us even more sad feelings about all this story. It made me even more frustrated and disappointed! So yeah i don't really get the point of making Yuigon (except for the extra which provides an epilogue to the Sai x Matsumoto part)! Prequel: Seikimatsu Prime Minister

In general terms, I liked it. I mean, I liked the general idea and how it began, how the two met, but, I don't know, it didn't impress me particularly. I must say that, while I like this type of couple in terms of appearance and age, I didn't like much the characters themselves in terms of personality and attitude. They looked good together but something was missing on the emotional level. I didn't feel any chemistry between them. Also because I didn't like much the development of the story and their relationship...for example, I'm not much into this dynamic where one keeps running away from committing themselves, the uke here, and the other, the seme here, persistently does everything on his own to get together with the love interest...that's boring to me, especially if I don't even like the characters. Of course, that's just my personal taste, but that's how I felt about this story...

"He chased away the feelings of dread I used to have. Just like a clear blue sky". *ღ¸¸.•⊱╮Aomoto Sari's best work! - There were some beautiful panels capturing some truly precious heartfelt moments. And the slow emerging and building up of emotions that slowly brought forward the development of their relationship was just perfect! Really a beautiful impressively written story with meaningful words, right pace and great substance! And the whole theme of garden planning|design and flowers, which by the way was something refreshing, made the setting even more beautiful! Totally recommended! # 32 y.o. Uke x 22 y.o. Seme, Secretly Gay Uke > By the way, I'd have loved it, if the author wrote the story of the two dads, the uncle Natsume, who adopted Yuu when this one's parents died in an accident, and his partner Seiji. She said in the afterword that they were classmates in high school. I think it would have been interesting to read their story!

// Complete // Can't help it, this is one of those coming of age gems I love to read, so I loved it so much! The dynamics and interaction between the characters were also my type. And I love this author's art style: somehow this type of trait made me feel like I was really reading a story between two guys. I really loved the vibe of this story! I liked how the author portrayed the confused, new sensations of two innocent boys in puberty. I also liked the thing about communicating through letters. Nowadays it may seem so outdated, but, even if it's a fictional story, I was glad to see that there was someone like Natsume who appreciated this kind of thing, as I am into vintage stuff myself. Anyway, I liked everything from beginning to end and the pace and development, so I'm really satisfied. By the way, I really like the title "Growing Pains". And I was somehow touched when I read the afterword because the author said she wrote this story with all of her preferences in mind and I liked all the things she said! Those are exactly the ones I love too. No wonder then that I loved this! It was really the story for me! And I have this fulfilling feeling, you know, that you have when you finally come across your kind of story. I'm so glad I found this! ^^ > It reminded me a bit of the story "Shiro No Koro".