Morthos

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.

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'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've already yelled about thoughts on the age gap so I went into volume 2 just trying to enjoy the story… Honestly, though, I started to not care about Gene and Trevor's story at the beginning. It wasn't really until the moment with Ryan and then everything after that had me so much more invested in everyone. I found myself more interested in the present day. Mostly in nephew Gene. I did like the way chapter 2 ended, though. This and volume one did get laughs out of me, I will say that. I also almost cried seeing present day Gene and Trevor literally repeat their encounter.

I would actually love a spin-off for them. I was so excited to see my baby boy (gn) Gene meet my other baby boy Gene and for them to just talk. And then there's also Jean (Danny's daughter) and I wanted them to meet her too! I want so much for nephew Gene, I'm pretty sure he's my favorite character overall.

I forgot that this was a spin-off from another manga and that Oz is from that spin-off that's NOT an age gap so I'm gonna try reading it. I thought it was a little weird that he got screen time that amounted to nothing in volume 1 and then showed up at the end of volume 2 like I was supposed to know him. Now I know it was just a bone to throw to the people who read that.

cw: the f slur is said twice.

This age gap is ruining the story for me.

99.9% of the notes I took are about the age gap and how I felt that Gene didn't need to be 19. As I read on, him being 19 is the point of his background. However, Trevor, on the other hand, could have been 23 at the very most. Still would've given me an ick but not as bad as him being 34. His Lawyer career is likely why he's so much older and it only really mattered twice for his backstory. There are and were layers a lot younger than that, he didn't need to be 34. As if this age gap didn't make me feel any more uncomfortable, bro had to go and compare himself to fucking Gustav von Aschenbach. Who I had to look up and I should be giving this 2 stars for making me do that.

On a lighter note, I did love these characters individually. I wanted to know more about Gene and Trevor separately and their respective families, I wanted to know more about Karen, about Ms. White and her son Ryan, more about the nephew Gene! It wasn't as emotional as I hoped going into this but I really did want to know more.

3.75

Short, adorable, feel-good story to knock out in one sitting. Watching them grow closer and Ryusuke helpfully easing Haru to be more comfortable with how he felt while not pushing boundaries was really cute. Even him panicking to think of an answer to someone's response and then sticking his neck out for Haru by the end of it was really cute, I loved that.

I appreciate that there wasn't anything stupidly out of pocket or some dumb misunderstanding that would've made me go “well, they're teenagers so it makes sense why they would act this way" as I roll my eyes. But instead, I went “well, they're teenagers so it makes sense why they would act this way" in a very believable way because their actions were pretty grounded in how a young teen would act.

My only disappointment I had was the “you're either gay or you're not" thing. It's something bl manga constantly does that bothers me. Ryusuke could be bi, pan, demi, he could've been questioning but that's never talked about. Haru's just like “you're not gay, you're just dating me bc I was jealous" and Ryusuke didn't really say anything. It's a bl thing that has been making me sigh for years.

4.75

I'll come back and gush about this volume at some point. I'm just in love with this series so fucking much.

3.25

It's been a long while since I've read the first volume but I am so disappointed in this volume. It felt like we didn't move the story along at all, we didn't really see any advancement in Nakamura and Hirose's friendship, it feels like we're going in circles, and Nakamura was a little more boundary-crossing than I was comfortable with.

Speaking of boundaries being crossed that made me really uncomfortable- Otogiri. The student/adult bit in the first volume wasn't funny but it was a small bit that didn't last long (I think. It's been a while) that was blown out of proportion by Nakamura. This time it seems like Syundei doubled down on the bit where Hirose is obviously admiring his teacher more and this teacher giving off groomer vibes worse than before. All this as a joke. Am I supposed to be reading chapter 8 and going "lol Nakamura, don't worry. It's totally not like that lmao" ?????? No??? On top of exchanging numbers with your 16yd student and saying shit like "If you were a girl, what you just did now woulda been super cute"... I'm failing the see the haha in this joke, Syundei.

If there is a volume 3 (which I think there might be seeing how this ended), hopefully that joke is dead and we actually get to see Nakamura and Hirose be friends more. At this point, I don't even care if they don't go out, I just want to see them hang out more.