axelmania's manga / #bl(371)

incredible. absolutely incredible lol

hilariously i only added this because it had the names of wrestlers i ship as the main pairing. the themes of comphet and struggle to define what they want out of their relationship really hurt. really subtle and well-written. warning though that the love interest is quite toxic and forces himself on the protagonist during a fight in one scene. i only read volume one so far and im worried for what problems will come up between them in volume two. also, the art is seriously fantastic, a lot of thought was put into the character designs not just in the writing but in giving them unique looks

uwaaaa this art is so beautiful i might die! just very cute and sweet, and pure fluff rarely works for me. their respective personalities and jobs mesh very nicely. im glad that the metalheads speech disability didnt get magically solved by love too, he just felt slightly more confident trying around him.

when i seriously review this, i need to go into how amazingly the characters are written. its simultaneous embrace of homophobia and "everyone is gay" logic and the trashiness and tropeiness in everything the protagonist does mixing with his deep emotional issues shouldnt work but. it absolutely works, i love this. despite being deeply about sex, it doesnt even linger on it, its like the background setting or motif of the manga rather than the actual focus.

this had a lot of barriers to being cute-- "love at first sight", the kind of persistence after rejections thats just creepy irl, even if what hes requesting is more reasonable than in most bl... but it was written really well, and the side characters were so endearing. you want to unlock the tsundere love interest as much as the protagonist does, and seeing him interact with work and how others almost fall for him in the same way the love interest does... its cute. and jealousy not just being tolerated, but being worked through? you have to appreciate that, even if it wasnt communication-heavy and very realistic like it would be in a different type of story. the portrayal of the repeated culture clash between the protagonist who was raised in the us and the japanese-raised characters in the story is also very interesting. beware that the art starts out a bit stale, you have to get into it before it starts to improve.

shallow plot and abrupt ending, im sorry lol. also the severity of what the love interest went through is kind of disturbingly glossed over