vignette00's manga / #chef(5)

High schools friends reconnect as employees/owners of a bar. It's sort of like a grade B version of an Antique Bakery doujinshi. The main couple are thinly characterized around tropes (a refuse-nothing-chase-nothing flirt and a no-nonsense definitely-no-i-swear-i'm-straight foil), there are some interesting but confusing and brief side characters. I lost interest midway through, but felt like I had to finish for completeness' sake.

A hodgepodge of bl tropes (fell in love when they were children, rape after a misunderstanding, jealous possessive seme, the "third man" who is just an old friend) that are straightforwardly trotted out. The second couple is barely more interesting if only because one of the characters is a trickster who bullies the people he loves and literally says out loud "did you know that during sex, no means yes?" which cracked me up but not for the reasons I think the mangaka intended. Passable art with too many close-ups of people's enormous sparkling or troubled faces. It reminds me a bit of the infinitely superior "How to Capture a Martini," (http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/martini_kouryakuhou/) but at least Tateno Makoto knows how to write a good hot-and-then-cold object of desire.

I was hoping this would turn into a Hannibal knock-off but instead it was just very much "Sex Therapist" (http://www.mangago.me/read-manga/sex_therapist/). Not complaining, but all that food porn gone to waste!