Mimi

This is sooo stuuupid..." I can't tell you how many times I mutter that while reading this. It is definitely a product of 2010, that's much for sure. The only story I kind of liked was the first one since that couple didn't seem to disgust or ick me. Other than that you have two incest stories (what the fuck) and 2 stories about manipulative and abusive boyfriends (what the fuck).

Even though it had a strong Junjo Romantica feel to it I really wanted to read more about the first couple who work at the bookstore. Still very pissed that dude cut his hair but they were pretty interesting to read.

The second couple was also interesting and probably had my attention more because of their backstory together. I think this and the chapter with the morphic catboy would have been better if there weren't any sex scenes. Mostly because it felt like it took away from what story we could in a couple of pages and the catboy looked a bit too much like a kid even though he wasn't. I just kina... eh.

And you best believe I skipped that chapter with the spirit who's "kid-like in appearance".

I really liked this art style and I honestly think the main story was really cute when though it the combined 3 chapters the main couple got was too short. Chapter 5 was really nice to see. A little jarring but well written and different from what I'm use to seeing in these BL stories.

Update: My old review talked about how chapter 4 was uncomfortable for me and then went on about two teen having sex. I mean, yeah, I rather not read about teens doing it while I'm an adult but I don't think that's enough for me to bitch about so I just removed that part. Still a 3 star book, though.

Love the art! While I do think the story was fine, it didn't really leave me wanting to read more about this couple. Those bonus chapters felt like they dragged on way too long. Like, the manga ended 4 times already.

Note: I kinda want to read this again because, other than learning this tying technique (that has a name, I just don't remember), nothing about this stood out. I'm surprised I gave it 4 stars at the time to be honest.

Oh MAN do I wanna scream. I really need a stressed facepalm emoji for books like these. First off, the obvious ear fetish isn't my thing but that's whatever. I can live with that. The student/teacher relationship isn't my thing. In fact, it has me on edge because I know anyone at any age can be a student and I was hoping the student(s) would be 20+ in uni... and I was wrong.

The 3rd couple has a student who's a 2nd-year high schooler so he'd be a junior who's at least 17. I instantly skipped the rest of that chapter. Another thing I've noticed is the excuse of rape and abuse that's very similar to Junjo Romantica's romantica storyline and it makes me uncomfortable. "Rape to Lovers" is bullshit. Consistently people overstep the other's boundaries despite the other telling them to stop or expressing their anger. I'm tired of this just being overlooked and ok.

I'm not even gonna touch the incest thing that pissed me off even more after finding out they're a trans character! Like, bless! You have a trans character! But for it to be the first BL story I've read to have a trans character and their story to involved incest killed me inside. I'm too old for this, it just screams Junjo and it makes me sigh so hard. There's so much wrong in these stories that I couldn't finish this fucking book. The only person with any sense in this manga was Ninose.

Also, the use of the word "monopolize" makes me wanna punch a wall.

I'm not really here for threesomes but I wanted to put that aside because the art was cute... I couldn't really get past it.

Update: Ok, so I'm looking at the tags and their is a trans character along with poly rep that I'm guessing happens eventually so that kinda makes me wanna pick this back up... kinda. I hate, and I mean really really really really really hate love triangles with a burning passion. I also hate the gender bent/swap trope because they're always done for comedy or an excuse. BUT if the triangle becomes poly and the gender bent/swap shit is wrong and we’re actually dealing with a trans character…. maybe.

I couldn't really get into this enough to finish it. I never really liked this style of art either and I had to force myself to even finish the first story. Not sure if the other stories in this are better or even if I'll like the other books in this series, but I'm just not interested to check them out.

I really liked the art style but the main couple were probably the least interesting characters out of the 3 stories. It wasn't a bad story to read and the characters weren't unlikable, but I felt the story that had the other two getting engaged was the best out of the 3. I also really wish the two delivery guys got either another chapter or more of a story in their chapter mainly because they were not only likable but their story ended too quickly.

"The fastest way to get rid of your stubborn stiffness is to have sex" Are we... Are we serious right now? I actually kind of liked this story and the art's nice, but, man, does the "naive adult" character and sexual harassment tropes just kills this for me.

I don't have much to say other than it was pretty cute. Not much of a review here, it all just felt very normal and fine.

Note: I read this before chapter 5 and the extra was added, but I don't think I'm going to update this again after this.

Felt 50/50 about this book, but I kept thinking about two of the chapters way too much that I had to own it. I thought that this manga was mainly centered around fetishes but it seems like only ch.1 & the extra is about asphyxiation. The rest of the chapters I would consider extreme but not fetish-y. Personally feel that each story here would've been better as its own thing because it feels like Hidesato wanted to write more. I think ch. 3 and 5 (from what I've skimmed through the raws) don't have enough to be whole books so they fit fine here. However, chapter 1 can stand on its own. Chapters 2 and 4 NEED their own books. In fact, I don't think 2 and 4 belong here at all. They don't fit this book to me.

My thoughts on each chapter:

Ch.1 - Could've been a more interesting story. The asphyxiation thing isn't my thing so it was... interesting to read, but it being a short story wasn't a good move.

Ch.2 - I talk about this further down in my 1st update.

Ch.3 - Didn't really have a story and was kind of weird. This one negatively felt messy and all over the place.

Ch.4 - Was not prepared to read that and it's never going to lead my mind.

Update 1: Looking back on it, I honestly feel that chapter 2 might not need to change anything other than its homophobic dialogue since it doesn't add to the story. It just points out how horrible of a person the main character's girlfriend is... and that's it. I love studying psychology and mental disorders are a HUGE interest of mine and why I was drawn to chapters 2 and 4 the most. When I used to be in group therapy back in my teens I met someone with MPD/DID and their stories on living together in one body gave me a lot of context into what some people go through with MPD. While not the exact same experience as it was written in this story, it was very interesting to hear. Chapter 2 embodies a lot of similar feelings and experiences that they told me as well as another book I love called Many Minds One Brain by Christopher Badger where his experience was pretty close to what I just read in this manga. Whether or not the author meant for chapter 2 to read so disjointed that the reader is just as confused as someone with this disorder may be, I'm not sure. But seeing how well done and traumatic chapter 4 was written... I think so.

I honestly want to see chapters 2 and 4 get full stories. Mainly chapter 4 where it takes place either during their high school or adult years and it's about the friend who you see in the story helping the mc deal with and heal from what happened and his Maladaptive Daydreaming. Even if it's just helping by being there and comforting him. You guys, I think about this chapter and its continuation potential way too much.

Right off the bat there was a use of the f-slur and I'm really not ok with that. Bad translation or not. The art style wasn't really to my liking, but I can deal with that. Using the f-slur was a HUGE no for me.

Right, I'm gonna make sure I stay away from anything tagged "Omegaverse" from now on. Not only was the characters and story completely unlikable to me, this "Omegaverse" bullshit just rubs me the wrong way. It's kinda fucking disgusting and hard for me to read.

Oooooh my god, I've finally finished this damn book after 7 thousand years. I am so in between about this story. On one hand, it has its moments, stuff like the hurt/comfort bits between Ryou and Yuuichi, Ayumu and Yuuichi learning how to be more open and honest with each other after their family's death, and Ryou seeing himself in Ayumu and wanting to help make sure he doesn't grow up like him.

BUT the same dumb, annoying ass tropes rear their heads and I think it's the reason why I kept putting off this manga. Misunderstandings everywhere between Ryou & Yuuicihi and Yuuichi and Ayumu. No communication until the end. Possessive lover trope? Hate that. People aren't allowed to have friends? Hate that. People aren't allowed to talk to other people? Hate that. There was nothing about Yuuichi's and the other lady's (I forgot her name) body language when they were talking that gave off any fucking impression of anything. But I guess we need conflict, am I right boys?

There's was also Ayumu and Ryou "fighting" over Yuuichi which I also headed. I guess with Ayumu you could say he's a kid and Yuuichi's his uncle and father figure now. He doesn't want to lose that attention since he'd feel like that would be yet another person in his family he's lost. I can see that. But why the fuck is Ryou not leveling with Ayumu about how Yuuichi's love for him won't ever change, but instead stared some fucking rivalry shit with a KID? It's harmless but still annoying by the end of the manga.

I was really hoping to like this more than I ended up liking it because of these tropes that I wish would die.

…. Listen… Overall, Kaji and Yura are my favorite couple over Maki and Hagiwara mainly because I think Maki is an asshole. I understand that he super loves his son and Hagiwara but his over-possessiveness and the way that he treated Yura and Kana pissed me off. I like how Kaji and Yura were written a lot more and it seems like the author does too seeing how much care they gave these characters. There were bits and pieces that I thought were dumb. Stuff like Kaji putting up that “I’m not interested in men” wall, and not speaking up every time Yura cuts him off. That’s also a bs move on Yura for jumping the gun too quickly…

But it’s also understandable why he does this. I just wish that was something they worked on in the 2 books they're in rather than letting him keep doing that. But fuck all that because the only thing that REALLY matters is Kana and Ritsu! AGAIN! They are the power couple, the fucking MVP out of all 3 of these mangas, and deserves a super cute, completely fluff one-shot manga about them trying to be together in high school and everyone else just fucking accepting it! No sex, just a super cute teen romance is all I need.

Update 5/26:

Just found out there's a vol 3... I'll move this review over to the 3rd vol when I get around to reading it.

Before I get to talking about the first book, I said below that I didn’t like how Hagiwara’s friend was written to start drama. I didn’t read the other book he was in until now so now I know that Yura does like Hagiwara. However, that is not shown in the first manga, so for him to be acting like an ass and for Maki to be jealous before you find out from reading the next book just makes them both look really petty and frustrating to read. Either way, I still hate that "trope" so much. It really dose not matter to me why he was an asshole.

Overall, I thought this was cute. There were some sweet moments and I loved the family dynamic of it all. But there were a couple of things that pissed me off. Firstly, I never liked how people can’t have friends in BL manga without the lover being jealous of the friend. Hagiwara’s friend never acted like he was coming on to him or anything, they were just friends and Maki was jealous because he was hanging out with his friend. There’s also a point later where the friend got villainized for no reason other than to start “pointless drama”. The way he was later written and how Maki acted didn’t sit well with me either. I think the author was trying to go for something emotional and sad to make you go “awww I feel for them” when it just had me like “uhhh everyone’s being a bit problematic”. There are better, more emotional ways to have the mother be a point of conversation to touch on without the need to start pointless drama.

Another minor thing that is just a pet peeve really, is the thought that Hagiwara had about not having a family because they’re both men. I would love for adoption or “found family” to be a big part of bl/gl manga so we can stop seeing this dumb thought be something to worry about. Lastly, the extra story. It was kind of dumb and not needed. It felt shallow like the only reason to write this short story was for the sex alone. Which, that ending sex scene I was not ok with at all. I do want to buy this as I need more family-oriented lgbtqa+ manga but I did wish I didn’t have to give it 3 stars. In the end, the only people that matter in this book are Ritsu and Kana. God bless these sweet baby boys!

I don't think I have anything I really hated about this manga, but I didn't really love it all that much either.

I didn't care about any of the characters that much. Shino's pretty normal, Mio was a bit secretive, and while I lived that, there's literally nothing else interesting about him other than a pretty face. There were some adorable moments with the couple but the only two points of "drama" that came up felt really flat. Like they were trying to find something for them to fight about. Him slowly realizing he loves his friend: fine. There is a possessive person in the way and the drama around that: whatever. But nothing interesting really happens. I did have a problem with the change in translation. Something about the translation really took me out of the story in the later chapters.

This was such a 3 or a 3.5 star for me overall but vols 1 & 2 are straight 4 stars. Mainly because I don't think I liked any of the characters except the main two and even then Mashita was riding a fine line for me. Yoshinori was definitely the only character ever, everyone else was either ok or "please stop talking". I've also noticed that this took forever for me to get through even after all the vols came out because of vol 3. The story itself was just ok, nothing gripped me but I also didn't want to drop this either. But when Yoshinori's friend was a part of the story and the vacation stuff stared kicking off, I just didn't feel like reading it. Probably the worst part of all 4 vols for me. Afterward, it just became fine again.

Overall this was just fine.

Lord, I need to find more B/GL like this. The way it's written you can tell that they focused on character building first rather than sex and the characters themselves are very enjoyable to read. That beginning where I literally had about 2 heart attacks I was in for a ride. This story is all about one person trying to get the other to fall back in love with him after an accident that left him with a moderate case of amnesia and it's both one of the cutest and saddest manga I've read. I cried a couple of times towards and at the end because of how bittersweet this story was. I'm also just a sucker for any B/GL story where they have a child, a pet, and/or get married. That 100% fucks me up.

I need this to officially be licensed so bad.

This story really minds me of Kowagaranai de, Soba ni Ite in the way the couple in this story had to deal with keeping their love alive after a tragedy that centers around one of the characters. It's a very bittersweet story that made me cry more than once just like Kowagaranai de, Soba ni Ite. My only problem is that it had the chance to be even sadder with some and it kind of missed the ball on that. I wanted that "really sad" ending and those "I gotta sit my book down for a fucking moment because, fuck dude..." that I did not get. There are a couple of moments where you feel they either tried or just didn't want to push that far into anything too traumatic so they end up picking the least emotional outcome that felt flat to me. The build-ups are amazingly emotional while the outcomes are fanfic-y at best. But that doesn't change my mind on how much I love this manga. It's a great hurt/comfort book.

I honestly really enjoyed this. I thought some of the translation was weird but the overall story was nice. It focused more on one's past and characters' development rather than something like sex and I welcome that in BL manga.

Now that I read this prologue, I definitely recommend reading the first book first even though this comes before it in the story. Having read the first book put in so much context that having all that backstory and foreshadowing made me feel even more for everything that happened in this backstory.

... You ever just want to scream because you feel so emotionally attached to some fucking fictional characters? A part of me feels like I should have read this first before getting into Itou-san because it would have made it easier to read through kid!Itou and kid!Kyosuke's abuse. BUT the 1st book feels like an easier read compared to this that I think reading this in order of release gets you more invested in these characters. Like, by now, I found myself really emotional about the both of them... I wanted to die. What got me the most was reading through Kyosuke as a baby-baby, 5 YEARS OLD, having to go through what happened. It really reminded me of chapter 4 of Ore, Higaisha and, um... Yeah. I really just want to scream right now.

Sorry, this one was a lot shorter than my feelings on the 1st book. Everything I felt there I still felt here.

If I could scream to convey how much I loved this "main" story, I fucking would... But I don't think that would get my point across very well in text. Firstly, I love the main story. I cared a lot about both Itou and Kyousuke to the point where I could feel myself almost about to cry at some points. I have yet to read the prologue story (as of writing this) but, from what I read from one comment, both Itou and Kyousuke had hellish upbringings that (at least for Kyousuke) made me really want to see them be together. I was also ready to drop this title because I thought the problems I have with most bl manga were gonna be in this, but they wrote Ito to love Kyousuke so GOD DAMN MUCH and it made me really love him as a character. It made me love their relationship and how they showed that they needed each other. I was afraid that the rape and murder would be glorified like 90% of this landscape, but it is shown in a horrible light, being a story about how two people are trying to get out of these situations together. Fucking thank you! I also want to talk about the last 2 chapters a little. I think they were very important to the main story and I did actually cry during both of them with how they both completed and complimented the story to show you how they were living during them being "on the run" and after all the bullshit was over. God bless.

Personally, I did not like the parallel story chapter. It is the reason I put pedophilia-ish as a tag. I am not here for older people "waiting" on an underage person to be of age because it means that they have feelings for this child even though they know they shouldn't. I don't care if you're 13 or 19, you are still a child until 20. And even then it doesn't really feel like you hit "adult" until 25+, but at least you're not a fucking teen. After falling in love with these characters, showing that Ito had feelings for the underage teenager but waiting until he was 18 is still really disgusting to me. There was even a comment he made about Kyousuke in freshman year that just fucked me up in the most disgusting of ways. Even though he waited till the bare minimum it still didn't feel ok to me and it was horrible no matter how sweet Ito was. Still horrible.

Chap 7's review in 5 seconds or less: What the fuck? No.

HOLY FUCK DO I LOVE THIS COUPLE. Ok, right off the bat, I got tired of the number of sex scenes that were in every chapter. I could really do without that. There was also some dialogue that I saw as borderline homophobia but can also be interpreted as someone who didn't see being gay as normal because of where he grew up. It definitely isn't as bad as some homophobic lines I would see in BL.

Other than that, the characters, the art style, their story and them being just an adorable ass couple made me cry. I wish there was more to type about, though. It's really just a cute story about two people getting to know each other more... while also having a lot of sex. I really hope sublime or someone publishes this in English because I will buy this in both languages. Also, thank you for that page at the end of chapter 6 where Kurokawa talks about how cute his boyfriend is. I legit cried. God bless.

Update: I’M SORRY BUT 2019 ME MUST HAVE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE WEIRD RECORDING THING GLASSES DUDE WANTED TO DO???? So, like, the guy with the glasses wanted to film them having sex but the other guy really wasn’t comfortable with that. And instead of just going “ok, I respect that” he just kept??? bringing it up??? It was kinda the one thing that really annoyed me.

More importantly the bit at the end! Glasses dude finally got to record them doing it but it was still him pushing the other guy to agree to it. I would’ve loved it if the other guy came up to him after thinking it over, something like “our relationship is in a good spot right now and now that we’re living together I want to do something nice for him” kind of thing. It would’ve ended up being something he wanted to do because he knew it would make glasses dude happy. The whole story is really sweet and I think the both of them as a couple is really sweet, which is why the way we got the recording scene pissed me off so much because even during the recording it scene itself was really fucking sweet!

I actually want to fucking scream. I've never... Related... To a character so hard like I did with Soushi when reading this. I'm not into metal or any of its variants, but reading him talking about how the metal music and intimidating look prevented people from talking to him hit me like a train. Seeing him dealing, growing, and how his generalized anxiety, his social anxiety, and his possible AVPD kept him from conveying important shit or even living a goddamn life felt like I'd been thrown off a fucking plane. Seeing him trying to speak up made me cry more than once because I know... I know how that feels when you're on the verge of passing out because there's so much weight on you to speak. Coming from someone with AVPD and BPD and struggling with that constant tug-of-war of wanting to speak, wanting to make friends, and wanting to keep the friends you somehow made while so much of you is scared to do so at the same time fucking sucks. I've been that person starting from 5th grade that had a permeate depressing look, a permeate intimidating look just so people wouldn't come up to me. Hell, I still do! The moment I had with this book...

Anyway, the story was great, I had an existential crisis, and I'm looking to buy this physically.