Mimi

Aki exuding misogyny? It is a BL after all.

And he's homophobic? It is a BL after all.

I know my main problem with this story was Aki himself. He’s written in a way where the author knows he’s pretty unlikeable, kind of a dick, and that’s the point. However, they also want you to care about what he was saying, sympathize with his story, and basically redeem his shittyness by the end... Kind of hard for me to do when I wasn’t given a reason to. The guy just sucks. Throughout the whole story, he is just an asshole, an asshole to Umi, an asshole to women in general. I didn’t like how he strung Umi around even though he knew by chapter 4 that he was feeling something, and yet he was still being a little shit even in the last chapter. Him being so stand-off-ish to Umi but also dangling the possibility of a relationship in his face to the point where Umi looks more confused than happy at the end of chapter 7 made me want to scream.

Something about Umi constantly apologizing really pissed me off because he had nothing to apologize for. There was a bit at the end where Aki apologized himself for how he acted towards Umi but it wasn’t enough and it didn’t change how he kept acting for the rest of the chapters. The part where we all just... dodged the fact that Umi was almost sexually assaulted but Aki was still being stubborn despite Umi explaining what was just happening. I’m not looking over that, what the fuck? You want to make a shit character, fine, but don’t think that chapter 7 was enough to make me go “aww, that was so sweet. they kissed! aww” like I haven’t wanted to punch Aki in the face for the last 16 days.

You had 7 chapters. And for 5 of them, I've felt like we've been saying the same thing. The story hardly moved.

This doesn't make me want to read seaside strangers.

Slightly conflicted. Mostly disappointed. I felt this leaned way too far on the comedy side of things, nothing felt grounded in reality so when anything serious did come up it didn’t feel like it was handled well. I think the author wanted this to be a cute story about a scary-looking guy who’s kind and has always liked cute things and a guy who took an interest in him after seeing how misunderstood he was. Which is cute and I was excited about that, but while trying to show how cute they are together along with the comedy of the story, two conflicts got ignored and one conflict got overblown.

The first time Kousaka kissed Kijima it felt rushed and underserved at that part of the story while the second one made me angry because Kijima never really got visibly angry at Kousaka, letting him get away with so much. It was annoying to watch Kijima mostly get angry at himself when he had every right to be angry at Kousaka before chapter four. He was so fixated on this fortune-telling thing that he let Kousaka string him along without talking anything out until later. I’m mad that after the first kiss, they still acted like they were still dancing around each other even though they both knew each other’s feelings by now. Having Kijima finally get legit angry that he fought back at Kousaka because he miss heard him pissed me off. There were two other better reasons to punch this dude and this is what you chose?

It wasn't cute for half this story, it was kind of annoying.

There's absolutely no story. Fucking nothing. And I am feeling so giddy, so happy reading this after a slew of just.... uggggggggggh manga I've read. It's super cute, the art’s adorable, I love everyone so far, and even though I said there's no story there kind of is one but not really, and I kind of wish there was a bigger main story to follow. It is a little too sweet at times and has a bit of this quirky 2015 feeling to it, but then I see the anthro characters be adorable and I start crying over how much I love manga.

I remember seeing on mangaupdates that this was a webcomic, but I didn't think it would be in this format. The flow of these chapters (they're basically just pixiv posts) and how short they are means you can't really have a plot in there. I'm fine with this overall, I grew up reading Hetalia, I've watched Wan Sheng Jie, I'm used to this kind of webcomic format. It's just not what I thought it was going to be at first along with The Past Part 1 & 2 chapters made me want more story for the main two couples so bad.

Story 1: I liked this one even though I was a bit confused at the beginning. I didn't really get why Kou kept rejecting Daisuke even though it was sort of explained. It felt more like a why he said yes now instead of before, but it was still cute to see them try to work with each other. I added an extra star because they tried to “settle it in smash” who topped.. and then they never did and fell asleep.

Man, if only we had more time to send with them. Maybe, like, one more chapter specifically after this one that would show them being more of a couple instead of the last bonus chapter just telling us that they got closer... If only.

Story 2: When they showed that Michihiko was 23 I went “the other guy better not be 19 or I'm skipping"... 23 and 19 is a big age gap for me but at least they wouldn't’ve been fucking family! Or at least I hope they would’ve been fucking family. I didn’t stay, I skipped it immediately.

Story 3: I am so tired of this book. This story has an age gap that’s kind of uncomfortable at the start but only if you’re paying attention because age gaps are a sensitive subject for you. Koshika is most likely 19 when meeting Sousuke who’s an older man, at least 25+. He clearly has a crush on Sousuke, but what ew’d me out was Sousuke flirting with him. Yes, he could’ve been 20 but maybe you shouldn’t be vague about ages when one of them is in high school. The sad part is they meet years later and the rest of their story is so cute. They are so cute. But then they brought up how Sousuke knew and Koshika’s feelings and still flirted made me want to throw up. Can we get back to the first story, please?

Story 4: This book should've been about story 1 for 3 chapters and story 4 for 2 chapters. Forget chapters 2 and 3. Skip them. Story 4 is super cute and I wish it had more to its story because it ended way too soon. It made me remember that the art style in this is so good. I loved the way Miyamoto looked in general and thought Daisuke’s eyes were cool.

Story 1: I liked this one even though it got a little bit confusing at places. I didn't really get why Kou kept rejecting Daisuke even though it was sort of explained. It felt more like a why he said yes now instead of before, but it was still cute to see them try to work with each other. I added an extra star because they tried to “settle it in smash” who topped.. and then they never did and fell asleep.

Man, if only we had more time to send with them. Maybe like one more chapter specifically after this one that would show them being more of a couple instead of the last bonus chapter just telling us that they got closer... If only.

Story 2: When they showed that Michihiko was 23 I went “the other guy better not be 19 or I'm skipping"... 23 and 19 is a big age gap for me but at least they wouldn't’ve been fucking family! Or at least I hope they would’ve been fucking family. I didn’t stay, I skipped it immediately.

Story 3: I am so tired of this book. This story has an age gap that’s kind of uncomfortable at the start but only if you’re paying attention because age gaps are a sensitive subject for you. Koshika is most likely 19 when meeting Sousuke who’s an older man, at least 25+. He clearly has a crush on Sousuke, but what ew’d me out was Sousuke flirting with him. Yes, he could’ve been 20 but maybe you shouldn’t be vague about ages when one of them is in high school. The sad part is they meet years later and the rest of their story is so cute. They are so cute. But then they brought up how Sousuke knew and Koshika’s feelings and still flirted made me want to throw up. Can we get back to the first story, please?

Story 4: This book should've been about story 1 for 3 chapters and story 4 for 2 chapters. Forget chapters 2 and 3. Skip them. Story 4 is super cute and I wish it had more to its story because it ended way too soon. It made me remember that the art style in this is so good. I loved the way Miyamoto looked in general and thought Daisuke’s eyes were cool.

... Ok, but why didn't your dad just teach you the damn recipe?

Anyway, this was fine. Just fine. But just fine in a more positive way than a low 3 “just fine". I thought Roy and Kotaro were cute together, I almost cried seeing them try to do a high five but Kotaro didn't have his glasses on so they missed and I loved everything about that bit. My only problem was how the dialogue flowed. Something about the dialogue felt off, making me feel like I was missing context. The number of times I've said “why bring that up out of nowhere" or “who asked" was a lot.

The way they brought up certain topics felt forced like they were being told their next line off-screen while also being told to stay on track. There was a part where Masuda came by to pick up the order list and, without being promoted, brought up Kotaro was down at the cafe, kicking off the conflict. That's just one of three parts that stood out to me like that, It didn't make sense for him to bring that up the way he did because it didn't feel natural to the conversation. It came off as gossip to start something for no reason, so many conversations played out that way in this story. When people talked it either felt like a tonal whiplash or or “who asked" moment.