Mimi
Added to listOwnedwith 111 books.
… I hate that there isn't a physical English copy of this that I can have on my shelf.
Let me get my biggest gripe out the way, it's the same damn problem I had with Dear Gene- the age gap. I read Dear Gene first and while I knew there was an age gap, I didn't know how big of a gap it was. But I knew it was there. On any site you can read/log this, there is not a god damn thing saying that this is also an age gap (at the time of writing, anyway). That actually pissed me off because I thought Oz would be the same age as Theo but from chapter 1 I was so worried because of how Oz was seeing him. Oz being 27 and Theo being 20 did give me a slight uncomfortable feeling. Not as bad as 19 and 34, but it was there.
That being said… My stomach hurts (positive). Just like with Dear Gene, I can't say if the way Kaya wrote about Amish culture was well researched. I don't know much about their culture but it did feel a little surface level to me and there were things I felt the author let slide for BL manga's sake. I was more here for the characters, their current story, their backgrounds, and knowing more about Danny, which…. Holy. I got.
Honestly, trying to put my thoughts together about why I loved this story and characters is difficult for some reason. I cried in this, the end had a very A Home Far Away feeling to me, I felt for Oz and Theo, I felt for Danny, Chloe, and Gene. There were a lot of emotions going on putting all 3 volumes together that it gave me a small stomachache. And yet, I don't have detailed words for anything that just happened.
Even though I had a better time with this than its sequel and I am absolutely in love with their art style, I don't think I'm going to continue reading Kaya Azuma's books. A lot of the stuff I thought about reading turned out to have dubious consent, incest, age gaps, stepfamily romance, and/or student/teacher romance. I also get the feeling she really likes writing about age gaps. I think I need to stop here.
… I hate that there isn't a physical English copy of this that I can have on my shelf.
Let me get my biggest gripe out the way, it's the same damn problem I had with Dear Gene- the age gap. I read Dear Gene first and while I knew there was an age gap, I didn't know how big of a gap it was. But I knew it was there. On any site you can read/log this, there is not a god damn thing saying that this is also an age gap (at the time of writing, anyway). That actually pissed me off because I thought Oz would be the same age as Theo but from chapter 1 I was so worried because of how Oz was seeing him. Oz being 27 and Theo being 20 did give me a slight uncomfortable feeling. Not as bad as 19 and 34, but it was there.
That being said… My stomach hurts (positive). Just like with Dear Gene, I can't say if the way Kaya wrote about Amish culture was well researched. I don't know much about their culture but it did feel a little surface level to me and there were things I felt the author let slide for BL manga's sake. I was more here for the characters, their current story, their backgrounds, and knowing more about Danny, which…. Holy. I got.
Honestly, trying to put my thoughts together about why I loved this story and characters is difficult for some reason. I cried in this, the end had a very A Home Far Away feeling to me, I felt for Oz and Theo, I felt for Danny, Chloe, and Gene. There were a lot of emotions going on putting all 3 volumes together that it gave me a small stomachache. And yet, I don't have detailed words for anything that just happened.
Even though I had a better time with this than its sequel and I am absolutely in love with their art style, I don't think I'm going to continue reading Kaya Azuma's books. A lot of the stuff I thought about reading turned out to have dubious consent, incest, age gaps, stepfamily romance, and/or student/teacher romance. I also get the feeling she really likes writing about age gaps. I think I need to stop here.
This is on me because I don't read descriptions unless I absolutely have to (I just go by tags) but I wasn't ready to be reading some innuendos and dealing with this certain philia. Still, I'm having fun so far! I don't hate any of the characters yet so that's a plus for me, I'm loving that we actually don't see any sex scenes despite how sexually motivated Shizuki and Yano are, a lot of conversations felt very straightforward and normal for a BL (which I loved). I'm just having a fun little time so far.
The only thing that actually got to me a little was Junko's little bit. They pointed out she's a minor multiple times and I liked that her crush on Yano wasn't entertained, just joked on. But it kinda overstayed its welcome for me. I like her but some of the stuff she said had me going “??? girl you're 16 or 17, calm down". Maybe because I was never liked that as a teen and neither were my friends so I was never exposed to teenagers fawning over an adult the way Junko did. It does seem like this is a volume 1 thing so HOPEFULLY I don't have to worry about this joke later on.
Actually, I know I said Junko's crush bit was the only thing that annoyed me but… the internet slang stuff was killing me. I hate reading modern and internet slang in anything and seeing words like “fap" and “cringe" and “vibe" makes me sleep forever. Vibe is whatever, to be honest, but one of the worst things the internet's done is using the word cringe to mean lame. I swear to God, if I ever read the word “goon" or “gooner" in any of these manga I'm gonna cry. I'm just gonna break down and cry. I don't know if it's the translator or what because one of the other Zeniko books had this problem and I know this is a different translator than the other 3 I've read.
This is on me because I don't read descriptions unless I absolutely have to (I just go by tags) but I wasn't ready to be reading some innuendos and dealing with this certain philia. Still, I'm having fun so far! I don't hate any of the characters yet so that's a plus for me, I'm loving that we actually don't see any sex scenes despite how sexually motivated Shizuki and Yano are, a lot of conversations felt very straightforward and normal for a BL (which I loved). I'm just having a fun little time so far.
The only thing that actually got to me a little was Junko's little bit. They pointed out she's a minor multiple times and I liked that her crush on Yano wasn't entertained, just joked on. But it kinda overstayed its welcome for me. I like her but some of the stuff she said had me going “??? girl you're 16 or 17, calm down". Maybe because I was never liked that as a teen and neither were my friends so I was never exposed to teenagers fawning over an adult the way Junko did. It does seem like this is a volume 1 thing so HOPEFULLY I don't have to worry about this joke later on.
Actually, I know I said Junko's crush bit was the only thing that annoyed me but… the internet slang stuff was killing me. I hate reading modern and internet slang in anything and seeing words like “fap" and “cringe" and “vibe" makes me sleep forever. Vibe is whatever, to be honest, but one of the worst things the internet's done is using the word cringe to mean lame. I swear to God, if I ever read the word “goon" or “gooner" in any of these manga I'm gonna cry. I'm just gonna break down and cry. I don't know if it's the translator or what because one of the other Zeniko books had this problem and I know this is a different translator than the other 3 I've read.
4 books into this Zeniko marathon and I'm realizing something about this author's stories and writing-feel that was very similar feeling to the last author I just read. These stories have been feeling like appetizers you'll order at a sit-down family restaurant and I've been here for that so far. The story and the characters, to me, didn't feel like a whole task and a half to get around to enjoying. It did feel a little bit “in and out" but sometimes I'm not hungry for a full steak, peas, and potatoes meal. Will I be hungry again 3-4 hours later? Yeah. But sometimes I'm just in the mood for 2 orders of garlic bread and I'm chill for now.
So far, this has been fun reading Zeniko's stuff back to back and this series in particular has been funny goofy adorable to me. Volume 2 is something I wish I could put on my shelf, she got me wanting to read the Virgo series just for Virgo herself, and I started to love Saotome and Sasasori by the end of volume 2 that I wish we got more of them together. This was an appetizer that may have me asking for a 3rd order.
But the most important thing in this series… Iijima. I need him. I want him. I want to hug him, he is so huggable. I need a oneshot for him specifically.
4 books into this Zeniko marathon and I'm realizing something about this author's stories and writing-feel that was very similar feeling to the last author I just read. These stories have been feeling like appetizers you'll order at a sit-down family restaurant and I've been here for that so far. The story and the characters, to me, didn't feel like a whole task and a half to get around to enjoying. It did feel a little bit “in and out" but sometimes I'm not hungry for a full steak, peas, and potatoes meal. Will I be hungry again 3-4 hours later? Yeah. But sometimes I'm just in the mood for 2 orders of garlic bread and I'm chill for now.
So far, this has been fun reading Zeniko's stuff back to back and this series in particular has been funny goofy adorable to me. Volume 2 is something I wish I could put on my shelf, she got me wanting to read the Virgo series just for Virgo herself, and I started to love Saotome and Sasasori by the end of volume 2 that I wish we got more of them together. This was an appetizer that may have me asking for a 3rd order.
But the most important thing in this series… Iijima. I need him. I want him. I want to hug him, he is so huggable. I need a oneshot for him specifically.
Skipped the 2nd story. I don't like harem stories anyway but her being a highschooler didn't sit well for me and then we find out she's 17… Anyway, the main story was cute.
Skipped the 2nd story. I don't like harem stories anyway but her being a highschooler didn't sit well for me and then we find out she's 17… Anyway, the main story was cute.
I Don't Know How to Love
I'm sorry but cool and collected Aimi who has an open relationship policy for dating is the one falling hard for the cute puppy dog guy enough to be exclusive with him??? Eating this. Ate this. Am interested in the chef.
I just read We're On Our Own From Here and I realized how similar in tone and theme these two are. Both of the couples felt very similar to me in slight ways that I didn't mind. I loved and was interested in all 4 of them. There's this important in both stories about communication even when there were times they were hesitant to communicate. I love it when the characters recognize it's time for us to talk and they TALK. They took the time to see eye to eye and didn't string you along for 4 chapters. But also, they were very cut and dry. One and done. In and Out.
I was interested in seeing Aimi loose his shit about his feelings and why Kaede was so chill about everything. It was cute. I could've done without him being jealous when Kaede was talking to his friends, but it wasn't as annoying as it could've been. But other than watching Aimi be stupid, it's a very “appetizer" kind of story but very cute with characters that work to understand each other. I'm interested in more of this storytelling from this author.
I'm sorry but cool and collected Aimi who has an open relationship policy for dating is the one falling hard for the cute puppy dog guy enough to be exclusive with him??? Eating this. Ate this. Am interested in the chef.
I just read We're On Our Own From Here and I realized how similar in tone and theme these two are. Both of the couples felt very similar to me in slight ways that I didn't mind. I loved and was interested in all 4 of them. There's this important in both stories about communication even when there were times they were hesitant to communicate. I love it when the characters recognize it's time for us to talk and they TALK. They took the time to see eye to eye and didn't string you along for 4 chapters. But also, they were very cut and dry. One and done. In and Out.
I was interested in seeing Aimi loose his shit about his feelings and why Kaede was so chill about everything. It was cute. I could've done without him being jealous when Kaede was talking to his friends, but it wasn't as annoying as it could've been. But other than watching Aimi be stupid, it's a very “appetizer" kind of story but very cute with characters that work to understand each other. I'm interested in more of this storytelling from this author.