lilithespark's manga / #Family Issues(3)

Part-time Lovers

Ongoing | HAIBARA Sentaku, AZUNA Yuzuki | 2000 released

Wait—this is ongoing? Um . . . Chile, anyways so—

Cut

Complete | Kawai Touko | 2003 released

OK so the reason why I give this manga the rating that it has is not what you think. In any other situation, I would have called this trauma porn. After reading it the whole way through, though, I realized that this was different from the others. The two leads are broken, both mentally and physically, and they just so happen to meet and attempt to salvage the remains of themselves in each other. They both have their tragic pasts that make the reader feel sympathy for them. I had to get past my initial prejudice as I'm not the fondest of "drowning your worries in sex," but it came to me that it was just another form of escapism. The thing that made this manga stand out to me was the healing process. There's no open ending, it's a happy one. They both grow and start to appreciate the sky's vibrant color.