Mimi

I can't believe this isn't the lowest Nagisa original on my list. I kinda found myself bored with this one and it was around this time where I noticed Nagisa likes writing 1 and 1 thing only and that's slow burn high school romance love confessions...

But this one with the weird "is it gay to do gay shit with your bro" thing that they call a "doing a bl" and play it as a joke.......... Huh? This whole story had me cringing so bad. I'm actually afraid to read this again once the official translation comes out but because I know what they're gonna call it and I have to read through that.

Cute story. Don't really remember much of it because going on this marathon made all of Nagisa's stories blended together at this point, they're like all a steak dinner with a side of mashed potatoes and peas but each one is prepared differently and I'm crying. But this story's "gimmick" of having both their nicknames mean 8 is the stupidest link in this plot and I both love it and hate it because when it's time for the story to get serious it's so dumb because it all comes back to their names...

However, as soon as I realized that their ship name and tag on tumblr would be 88 I needed to give it 4 stars. Hope this gets officially translated (update: it got officially translated <3).

Update: ... Who knew that the 1st read was gonna be the HEIGHT of my Nagisa Furuya marathon. Loved this, liked My Summer of You... but it was all downhill from there.

This was probably the best I've seen of Nagisa. It was also the 1st story I've read from her and I kinda felt everything else in this binge I'm putting myself through has gone down from here just a bit. The sad part is, going through her work book after book and not jotting down anything melted my brain and I don't 100% remember all that happened. I do remember liking this more than anything else I've read from her.

It is a book I'm going to reread so I can update this. I would've actually like to've seen two lions get a second book because I feel like this couple was a bit more interesting than the one from my summer of you.

...... hard. disappointing. sigh.

I was gonna add more to this but that's really all my thoughts. I really didn't like how they depicted generalized anxiety and avoidant personality disorder in this. As someone with avpd and gad, it felt like they tried but knew only what they saw on twitter about social anxiety and being an introvert.

... Ok. I've been putting off reading this for a bit because I remember being unsure about it but I don't know why. I remember seeing a good bit of low to negative ratings on this but I didn't read them because I don't want to know anything but what the tags tell me before going into a book... But I feel like I should've dropped this very early on.

The premise isn't bad, the art's fine, and there are even some points that are really sweet and emotional. But that all get's ruined by the fact that there are sex scenes with Yuki in his current mental state. Yes, I know that Tomohisa and Yuki are an established couple. Yes, I know this is a case of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Where this gets weird and uncomfortable for me is that Yuuta, Yuki's personality, is a child and the author thought "Yeah, let's have Tomohisa & Yuuta have sex. It's still a grown man's body so it's alright, right?" and I'm honestly fucking livid about that. Not only is it weird but it's fucking disrespectful to people who deal with this personality disorder because it showed how author doesn't see this as a serious mental health issue. It could've been handled with so much care and display how much Tomohisa really loves and misses Yuki while also really treasuring Yuuta and wanting to keep them both safe. When you take out the sex from the present-day timeline it actually becomes a better story because that's the biggest problem.

The saving throw for this not being a 1 star or dropped mid-chapter 2 were the flashbacks. The flashbacks were the best parts about this book. It was interesting enough that I wanted to know the why's and more about Yuki and his dad as well as wanting more of Tomohisa and Yuki's relationship. And even present-day wouldn't've been so bad as there were genuine heartwarming moments of Tomohisa caring for Yuki by treating Yuuta like his own child. Him really wanting Yuki back but also being afraid for his return and what would come next set fine with me. I think the reason for him worrying so much is a bit dumb since it comes down to defending himself and Yuki, but I understand from where he's standing in that situation. It just really does fall so flat for me at the end when Yuki wakes up and everything that follows because it tried to turn something uncomfortable to something wholesome by making it a family dynamic thing... with the looming knowledge that Tomohisa and Yuuta regularly had sex and, from what it sounds like in the extra chapter, still do...

I'm sure this is a super cute story about two people growing old together. I'm sure this has really heartwarming scenes that would make me cry. But I did not know the age gap was so significant when they met. I don't really read descriptions, I like to go into these books mostly blind with only mangaupdate's tags to guide me and, honestly, I wouldn't've touched it if I had known that was when they met. I'm already someone who doesn't like age gaps anyway, but I thought they were both mature adults at the time of meeting.

That aside, though, I think the way dialogue is written where they wouldn't shut up about being old got old really quick. I completely understand that some people start to think about a lot of these things like the passage of time, the world around you changing, dying, figuring out what to do with that time since you're not working anymore, and so on. I get it but how they kept talking about it at the drop of a hat was a bit overdone. I wanted to keep truckin' but then I remembered the age gap thing that weirded me out so I'm good.

Maybe it was because the last 5 books pissed me off to various degrees with the most recent one being ok at best... But oh my god, what happened to the storytelling chapter 2 onwards?! Chapter 1 was fine. I was fine with it doing the recap thing and it really got me interested in this couple and seeing how a very shy person who's gone years isolating themself to now dealing with being in a relationship and living with said person. And while I got that, chapter 2 gave me the worst idea of that tone this story was gonna have... and I was right.

I've read a lot of BL with some of the stupidest plot points to use as a conflict in my lifetime, but I've nearly dropped this when they tried to make coming out to their boyfriend a problem AFTER the BOYFRIEND confessed FIRST?????? Why did they think that worrying about telling the guy who asked you out first that you're gay would be a valid or even funny bit to sit through? It only lasted that one chapter but it stuck with me, it was SO stupid that it set the tone for everything else after and immediately made this a low 3-star story. Chapters 3 and 4's "problems" were just as bad. I hate miscommunication but no communication is worst. I'm disappointed because I saw that the author wanted to write something cute and I can see that! But all of the "conflicts" felt like poor writing and it wasn't even the translation's fault this time. The only reason I didn't drop it was because I thought it would get better and then I realized I was on chapter 4 so I just said: fuck it let's get this over with.

I'm finding I have a love/hate relationship with this author. The story is fine, the pacing felt fast, but within that fast pace we did get a story. You get enough information that you don't feel like you're missing half the story and you're already on chapter 5. But with this story in particular the only 2 bits that actually bothered me were how it felt like the author tried to make you sympathize with the ex as well as the conflict that follows after that. I'm so/so about using the place where Haru and his ex met as Mitsuharu misunderstanding of their situation and trying to be a hero, but I think the way how it was done bothered me more. I wanted the conflict to be on the level of that scene at the end of chapter 1. I felt like the ex wasn't as much of a force as I thought he would be. Everything happened too easily for the emotional tone I kept feeling throughout the story that died because nothing came out of it.

I did like this more than Hana Tokidoki Kuma for the most part as well as loving "moments" they draw when a character is genuinely smiling. I've talked about it in Hana Tokidoki Kuma, but it's like you can see the light rays through the page and it's my favorite thing about their art.

For the most part, very cute, very sweet, but I left this with a low 4 star feeling. 3.5 to be honest. I thought the pairing and the story was cute, I did find "thinking the handwriting belonged to a girl" a bit annoying. I wished Sumito's friends got to understand and accept Kokuma throw out the story. There could've been more emotional scenes of them together instead of 4-5 sex scenes that felt like it was more important than fleshing out a damn character. And then there's the ending(?). That ending could've been everything. It could've made up for the stupid amount of sex scenes that only felt like were in here to keep your attention. But to have it cut the way it did just to give us an extra with more sex pissed me off. I didn't even know if that was actually the ending because of how messed up the uploads are on here. I had to do a lot of googling to see if that really was the ending.

But the art. Oh my god the art! It's pretty normal most of the time, but whenever there's a genuine heartfelt moment and/or someone smiles... I am blinded by the non-existing beams of light that I can see so vividly. The soft moments that you get from this author's art is the main and maybe the only reason I want to read more of their stuff. I've read 2 books so far and I feel that their lack of character development and plot are gonna annoying me and have me asking questions. But I also know that their art in general and the imagery of when someone is genuinely happy will stab me multiple times in the heart and I will thank them.

So, yeah, I think This Wonderful Season With You did this story better..

... Almost. I almost got through without crying. But I'm saying this in a mid to negative way because I don't think this story deserved my tears. I was excited coming into this because of Bokura wa Nando mo Koi o suru and how I cried so hard at the end of that story that I thought this would have me laid out on the floor in the same way. To start, I think it was a little confusing in the beginning who was saying what, how Nagisa felt about Kaito separate from Minato, how Kaito felt about Nagisa separate from Minato, and I'm not a fan of hate sex. Even though early on I had a feeling that Nagisa felt more than jealousy and envy towards Kaito, it was a confusing road getting there even after the festival.

I wanted them to really talk more about them. Whenever there was "talking about them" it felt more like they were talking about them related to Minato rather than them related to each other. And while I can understand the conversation of them + Minato, because this is a love triangle plot, I think when they finally started to focus on them as a couple it was a little too late to get to know them as a couple.

There were points toward the end that I thought was very sweet, really cute. Backstory stuff was more my favorite to read because you got to know the characters and how they felt about each other that you didn't get from the present day with the only thing missing was how Minato felt. There was one part of the flashback stuff where I did almost cried but not for the character, more so for the context around sharing a part of yourself only to be put down felt. But what actually broke me was the end with Minato's mom and his journal because as the flashbacks happened you had a feeling. You always knew. But to actually know his wish really messed me up even though I knew what it was!

I am so disappointed. I don't think this was bad, I just felt like it was rushed in its storytelling. By the time I got to the extra chapter about taking a summer vacation, it dawned on me that I was at the end of the book. Nothing really happened and it felt like I should've still been on chapter 3. Like, I jumped into this thinking I was gonna read something adorable, sad, and a bit bittersweet with some kind of slow burn showing these two friends trying to get to know each other and be friends again after not seeing each other for so long while also trying to be a couple.

There were some stuff like how Outa expressed to Tomoaki that he wanted to open up about what he's feeling more so that they can get on the same page. This is brought up twice and in both instances where I thought we were going to get more character development, nothing happened. Both of these characters didn't really mean anything to me by the end of it, I found myself getting angry at even the smallest of dumb BL tropes.

Man, I really wanted to like this because this is my time of story but the rushed storytelling really got to me.

Update 2: Old review that might not read well or make since. I will be updating my thoughts on a reread but the star rating stays the same.

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Update: So I completely forgot that I read this and now I'm planning on reading the official English version. The 2nd story I might still feel the same way about, but let's see if the official translation makes this a better read for me.

The first story is really cute, honestly. Kinda reminded me of Our Dining Table a bit in a way. I actually really liked the small little rivalry Mori had with Takamura. Personally, I wish the story expanded on them as a family more, but since there's another story here, it feels a little short.

As for the second story, I don't know. It gave me second-hand awkwardness and I'm not too keen on Kuma's character. I'm also not liking how close he got the college student, close enough to go all the way with him, since he himself was a highschooler who's around 17-16... No.

Last story, it was alright. I feel like the 1st and 3rd one had interesting stories but not interesting characters to back it up enough for me to care. Maybe if the 2nd one wasn't there and both of these stories got some more character development then I probably would've liked it more. They both just seem a little too short for me to feel anything for these characters.

I thought that was pretty cute. Was a little unsure because I saw that "misunderstanding" tag and I really hate dumb stuff like that where the conflict is caused by just not talking and jumping to things. But I guess this was fine, if not very predictable. I wasn't really attached to the characters themselves but they didn't completely make me mad. The only thing I kinda was like "ugh" about was Hifumi's possessive lover personality. Thank God it wasn't as bad as I've seen almost every BL do, but the way he acted about Mike's hair bring up and how friendly he was with his FRIEND... Please stop this.

Eh, it's ok. It's a little too simple and slow for me on top of how big the age gap was (one dude was at the tail end of 19 while the other was 33 I think) was kind of weird to me. There was nothing too creepy or straight up fetish-y about it like some other age gap stories I've unfortunately read. It's just kind of slow and sweet and absolutely nothing at the same time. That being said, I'll still buy this. At the end of the day, it was a cute 3 star read and that's enough to take myself over to cdjapan.

From the tags to the cover art I was really hoping for something much, much more sad. Instead, it's just above average with a dash of frustration which is exactly how I like my manga, apparently...

Funny enough, I didn’t really like how Naruse would explain to the reader why he broke up with Toui only because he would contradict himself one second and then become fully aware as to why he felt the way he did. His reasons for leaving are understandable to the point where even Toui knew himself, but they never really sat down and talked it through so when there came times when Naruse was in the wrong, Toui was the one to apologize for everything because he already knew his work ethic and lifestyle was a strain on their relationship and it pissed me off! They both are really good friends but not the best boyfriends to each other. On Toui's end, he's taking advantage of Naruse's kindness and depends on him too much, though not on purpose. Naruse felt underappreciated and taken advantage of so it's understandable why he'll want to break up. However, he also didn't try to communicate to Toui that this was how he felt so it's just been three fucking chapters of running around in circles leading to a chapter that just peeved me off just a little bit.

Update: The above was written before chapter four and while I still stand by everything... Everything I yelled about got touched on in chapter four word for word but in a very 5/10 way. It could've been much more impactful leading up to the sex scene, but at least they did finally talked...

At least we got a really beautiful wedding shot, the only thing that made me feel any emotion: two beautiful unnamed women getting married in chapter three page 26 🙏🏾.

In general, it's a cute story with characters that are fine but no one I cared to get too invested into except for Riku. I do like that this book only talked about 1 story instead of 3+ like most bl manga, it gives you more room to flesh out the characters and story... Room the author clearly didn't take, I feel. While I liked it to the point of wanting to buy it and seeing this be turned into a two-part OVA, I feel we moved too fast to let Iori and Goura characters develop. They just felt flat as people with the only thing moving them being Riku. Maybe I just didn't really care for Iori and the way he thought about Beast Folk. A thought he clearly got from his grandmother that I don't completely agree with. There were some nice moments especially at the end I would've love to see more of through out the story.

However, can I just yell about a part of the story I didn't understand and I'm not even sure if this was the author's or translator's fault? There's a part where Iori begins to think about adopting Riku for a second but then says something like "I'm gay, I can't do that". The story up until now has not talked about queer people adopting nor did it ever come back up. What came up instead, some 3 or 4 pages later, was Iori talking to Goura about how humans can't adopt Beast Folk because they were abused or treated as pets by some humans in the past so they don't allow that anymore. While that's a good bit of backstory that would be interesting to know more about, WHY was that not his first thought as to why he couldn't adopt Riku instead of him being gay? It should've been "I'm human, I can't" and not "I'm gay, I can't" if you're never going to bring up why queer people can't adopt in your modern fantasy/slice of life story. That moment was just left there hanging and because it never came back up again it felt even more out of place and weird. Maybe there's something in Japan that makes is difficult or impossible for queer people to adopt at the time of writing the story but we wouldn't that and there's no in-book segment explaining it..... ?????

I'm realizing now that this story has a problem with explaining things. It can't even hide behind having more sex scenes over plot since there were only 2½ total sex scenes. It just felt like they went in circles talking about the same thing that they could've moved on from or worked off of by explaining some other things, but they never did. They would just bring up the same topics as if they're bringing it up first the first time while also stopping at the same pots, never explaining it further. Again, while I like this story, my main problem with it was the lack of story explanation and that adoption dilemma really got to me.

This has some cute moments. Nothing super important other than one of the main dudes getting sick, but it was handled more comedic than anything. It is one of the books from Junko that I hope gets a physical release in English. While I did like the main couple and their struggle to say how they felt, I was way more interested in the other two who got that small bit of story at the end. I would love to see them get a whole book because they seem like they're carrying baggage and I wanted some angst in this book.

It was alright. Really adorable if a little boring. I wish there was a bit more involving the yo-kai and the fact that they kept recapping the beginning of chapter 1 for the next 3 chapters was really annoying. I would have loved to have seen them go to see his parents, introducing Rin, and trying to rekindle a relationship with his family. Even his brother was on board with helping to make the family whole again. Maybe even a newer family photo with Rin in it? That would have been cute.

Speaking of cute, that chapter 5 oneshot was not. Guilt tripping, manipulation, and rape? In a chill story like this, that oneshot was out of pocket and disgusting.

Update: Old review that might not read well or make since. I will be updating my thoughts on a reread but the star rating stays the same.

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I really hope this gets an official translation (update: it got an official english translation) because this was such a cute story to read, I'm definitely buying the physical Japanese soon.

I did have a problem with how the apology went down with one of them (don't remember who, this is an old review) trying to force the other to do something sexual that the other person wasn't fully comfortable with. I mean, I'm glad they showed how pissed off the other was about being forced, but the way the apology was written felt so dead as if the author wanted to get straight to a sex scene. They could have spent more time making that apology much more emotional and believable especially when he got what he wanted in the end. That sort of bothered me.

I had so much interest in the beginning but by the middle of chapter 3 I kinda just lost any interest. Maybe it was because of the bullshit vampire stuff or maybe I couldn't keep going after I found myself hating the writing of both chapters 1 and 2.

Chapter 1 was, like fine but a lower grade kind of fine. But ch.2 literally took me more than 2 days to even want to finish. Not sure if the stories are any good. I was promised something "sad" but the only thing sad was how long it took me to drop this manga.

… Bruh. I’m so happy about this getting a physical release really soon because this just became one of my favorite manga. I’m gonna start with the only problem I had about this story and that’s the amount of affection Yutaka had towards Tane. You can kind of understand why Yutaka was at peace around Tane because of his backstory but the author didn’t give Tane much of a similar connection to kid!Yutaka to justify why he’s happy to see Tane happy and it comes off as a little creepy.

I know the author wasn’t trying to write him that way, but without Yutaka talking about how he wished he was as happy as Tane is as a kid and/or showing that Yutaka is really good with kids in general to make a good father figure is a missed opportunity to me. Yutaka’s childhood was a lot for him, so much that even eating in front of people was uncomfortable. But after meeting Tane and Minoru and having that “found family” moment was he really able to be happy and feel like he was part of a family. In that sense, I can also see why he cared for Tane like a son/little brother. It just wasn’t written well enough to 100% convey that affection.

Other than that, I loved this story. I love the characters and how it focused on their development. I also love Tane’s crush on Yutaka as it’s very clear from the start to see it and made me laugh. The time skip was very adorable and I thank them for writing that bit in.

Update: Old review that might not read well or make since. I will be updating my thoughts on a reread but the star rating stays the same.

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Eh... I don't think these stories were all that great but they weren't boring or a pain to read through. I personally did not like Wataru (the idol that was dating his manager) as his character was the "possessive" or "manipulative" boyfriend. I'm not here for that. Also, chapter 10 meant nothing and didn't need to be there.

Update: Old review that might not read well or make since. I will be updating my thoughts on a reread but the star rating stays the same.

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I had very small high hopes for this manga. It has to be because of the weird translation but at the same time I'm sure some of the writing in Japanese would have been questionable still. All the stories, other than the one about the two who work in the game industry, were boring or weird (ch 2) and while I was able to understand the homophobic nature in chapter 4 having a queer character call himself the f slur, everything in chapter 5 was just as uncomfortable.

Going back to ch 4, I want more stories that touch on the harassment queer people face and then overcoming that. I can do without the slurs, thanks, but I did feel for that couple and the struggling relationship that was getting abusive to a point that they were in. I wish they had their own book.

I was so put off in the beginning because of the art style. I didn't really like it that much and it kind of disinterest from continuing, but, honestly the first couple/story ended up being my most liked? I was worried about the tragic and bullying tags this had and thought it as gonna be one of those "character bullies the one they love" kind of thing. It wasn't that completely but I still was kinda 50/50 about the characters and stories.

By the end I did end up liking one person. The only one that mattered, the reason I'm going to go down this hellhole of a spiderwebbed series-Natsuo. He is so innocent... I love him... so much.

The second story was still "eh" but ok. I enjoyed it a lot more but I think that was because I was confused. I didn't know this was the third book in a series yet, btw. It wasn't as sad as I wished it was compared to the previous story, though. Speaking of sad! I did cry at the end of chapter 5. Thank you for giving me that, that's all I wanted from that couple.

The main couple wasn't really that interesting to me since their only personality trait was this "I'm rich/I'm poor" one-dimension dynamic that got old quick. The couple in chapter 5 was just as boring. It started out with promise but ended too soon and dull. The only characters I loved and wanted to actually read more about was the owner of the restaurant and the butler. I'd love for them to have had a better ending and get a whole spin off manga.