Mimi

Very cute but also very average in terms of story. As much as I loved this family of Yuu, Kei, and Ren I felt like it wasn't as emotional as I really hoped it was going to be. My most invested parts were Yuu and his conflict with being a child who has no time to BE a child because of his job as an actor as well as not being able to spend time with his mother, the only parent he has right now, who is a CEO. Kei being his parental guardian and adding Ren fulfilling a similar role, when it came down to them doing the mundane it was very cute and made me sad. I do wish there was more emotion put in the scene where Yuu got to talk to his mom about how he felt, it was still nice... I wanted her to cry but it was still nice.

The only time I felt bored was when we took time away from Yuu, away from the 3 of them learning about each other more was when cut to Kei and Ren's acting job conflicts. It was boring to me and some explanations were a bit dumb because it just felt like rich people problems and, Lord, did I not care. It wasn't even about anything interesting either. One had a fear of and felt jealous over being surpassed by other child actors while the other was dealing with only being seen as one type of character he played. It's fine but also I'm board. Also, there were parts where they would talk about growing as people or talking about Yuu's conflicts only to cut away to their acting conflicts and I just roll my eyes.

Another small thing that got to me was the progression of the confession. A part of me felt like it was rushed, just a little bit forced and that's probably because we're at the last chapter. It was fine but I do wish we got that confession earlier so we got that time to see them also grow as a couple. Lastly, there was so much apologizing. Like, everyone was overly apologetic about everything.

"I don't remember allowing another person to get close to you" .............. head in hands.

Besides the possessive lover thing, it's was cute. It was alright. I didn't think it would be that short, I thought it would be something more than, like a 30 page oneshot because it feels like I'm missing a previous story or another chapter?

Literally getting through chapters 1 and 2 felt like when it's mid-summer down at your grandparents' place in the country and people are doing stuff inside, time is moving, you hear people talking... But you're sitting on the sofa, in your room watching tv, or on the porch just chilling. Time is moving so slow for you, but you know things are happening around you, you're aware of these things but the time it's taken to get from 1pm to 2pm has felt like 5 hours in-between.

I don't usually read other's reviews unless I'm super unsure about what the tags are leading me into. But I saw 2 people saying how average this was and I kinda agree. I love slow paced stories but there's something about this that felt like nothing's happening despite a good bit of stuff happening between chapters 1 and 3.

There were some text that did annoy me but it's the usual bullshit you'll find in a bl. I didn't start feeling so annoyed by the plot until around chapter 4/4.5 where I already knew how the next bit of story was gonna go and contemplated dropping it. I'm more mad rather than annoyed that Takayuki was never held accountable for manipulating Aki for so long and I'm mad that the author basically wrote him getting a slap on the wrist with how he continued to manipulate Aki and be a shitty person after chapter 4. What I'm saying is, I want Takayuki dead.

I'm still pushing throw because I've put too many books on hold for similar annoying reasons and just need to finish something. But, yeah, as a whole, I can already feel that this isn't going to be something I'm going to remember once I'm done reading it.

Also, Takayuki's kinda creepy and not in a way the author meant him to be. He's creepy in a "adult who's been interested in a kid since they were 15 and waited til they're 18 to date them" kinda way. Hmmmm I wonder why...

An age gap? That's 5 years a part?? At the time of their ages right now??? I honestly don't know how I feel about that since a 20yd Yoshito would've held feelings for a 15yd Tomoe and I'm a little ?!???!!?? about it.

Which kinda sucks because I really like how quiet this story is. Between Yoshito's and Tomoe's backstory along with Tomoe's fear of abandonment, this has a "grey rain clouds around 4pm on a Thursday but it doesn't rain" feeling to it and I love that.

Just really wish the age gap wasn't so prominent. I also really wish chapter 7 didn't start the way it did and instead had this very heavy, still air as they talked. Appreciated the flashbacks bits but chapter 7 ruined that built up tension chapter 6 left us with and I'm sad about that...

Where is the looooooore?!?!? I wanted more Kotofuji loooooooooore!!!! This had me on a frustrating rollercoaster because I really wanted to be a reincarnation story in a way, but instead we got ghost fucking. Fine. Whatever. But then they show me interesting backstory for Kotofuji and now I'm invested but they're not spending time talking. I want talking. I need talking. I want to know more about Kotofuji and Tsuguyasu and more about why he was in pain in the shrine.

It just feels like things aren't being said, it's just being swept under the rug so they don't have to deal with the conversation of it. Or there was a conversation but it happened off screen and I want to throw my ereader.

Not to be ace on main but if these bitches don't start conversating in my romances I'm gonna start chainsawing tables.

Update: So, I wrote all that around ch 3 or 4 and while a conversation did finally happen, everything I said still stands so I'm not removing all that. I'm actually both confused and angry about how this went. Yes, we got more backstory for Kotofuji. Yes, we got a "let's talk about this" moment. The conversation and explanation was so surface level that I felt tired reading them not wanting to be a "burden" to each other on top of being a tiny bit confused Kotofuji and Tsuguyasu's timeline together.

Not even a marriage proposal, my favorite thing in a manga, saved this for me.

Actually wish this got a physical release because after the other manga I read, this was just so much nicer to chill to. It wasn't perfect but I really like how forward Masato was with everything. Even though I love slow burns I might be reading too much of them lately or the ones I'm reading are frustrating me with how they're written that I've become so tired of reading 4 chapters of people beating around the bush and 2 chapters of them being a couple. Absolutely am here for this straight forwardness and I just thought the overall main story was really cute.

What was not cute was the amount of jealousy they both showed, however. Will always and forever hate whenever I find myself saying "people are allowed to have friends! let people have friends". Again, so tiring to see this level of jealousy.

Btw, the extra story: Sexual harassment? Rape to lovers? Skipped.

Update 2: lol um I forgot I actually did have a log of my thoughts for this, it was in my obsidian and I forgot. Anyway, will still update this again when the English version comes out.

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I went into this fully knowing this was tagged with lack of communication and misunderstanding, yet I still wanted to give it a chance because I've read better with those tags. I feel like what pissed me off the most was the level of "dodging" Kaname was so adamant in doing that he literally feels he's not in the wrong????? My guy, what do you mean "what happened" this is all literally your fucking fault!

This could've been a completely separate story about how Kaname felt their relationship was just built on sex, after realizing that this break from having sex demonstrated in the push back he showed that Shima started to feel like he didn't love him anymore. Kaname could've said something in chapter 3 leaving the rest of the chapters room for them to be on that break and learn about each other more. Ending it with a hard fucking after the Christmas tree kiss. Instead, we got a scene where Shima was frustrated enough to force himself on Kaname until he cries that it hurt because rape was more important to the author. I feel like the author really wanted me to see that Christmas tree scene and be sad, go "awww", and think it's cute. That they're so cute together when in reality there are flames... Flames, on the side of my face. I am fluming with how all this went down.

But you know what, I am sad. Sad for Shima that he had to deal with that shit and sad for me that I have to buy this because it's getting officially translated. And don't get me started on this scanlation

Feel kind of bad giving this a 3½ because it wasn't bad, per se, just kind of emotionless. I had four problems with this story that 3 of them can be summed up as: I couldn't feel what the author wanted me to feel from how it was being shown to me.

This might be because of the scan, but there's only so much we can blame on translation here. There were moments that you know you're supposed to feel sad or distressed or excited for them because you're seeing them go through that. I felt like I was supposed to feel something during Suguru’s dream, during the conversation about Yuuma, the kiss, and how Kengo handled it afterwards because the art showed me these moments were impactful but the dialogue didn't help me feel anything.

It felt more like a the lack of communication and low emotional weight created a disconnect for me. Like this one part, I really wanted Kengo to say more after kissing Suguru. A "sorry" is fine and all but I wanted something like how he understood what he did probably wasn't the best move knowing that Suguru still holds very strong feelings for someone else. I just wanted more talking that felt like something. Suguru bringing up the other person was probably the best “emotional weight" this story had but because the dialogue was lacking, it didn't match the strengths of the art leaving me feeling nothing.

Update: Not that old of a review but it got picked up for an English translation so I guess I'll be rereading this one too. Probably won't read the spin off in until Seven Seas state that they're doing that one as well.

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This is the most disappointed I've been about a book that I want to buy, am going to buy, and will read the spin-off of.

It started out really cute, I love both Sanjou and Shouya and how caring Shouya was towards Sanjou. The blog thing was incredibly adorable to me, not sure why. Something about reading Sanjou’s entries was just cute in a way where if I came across someone tumblr or line blog written like that I would absolutely follow.

However, I think around chapter 2 or 3 where we got our first sex scene, it just kind of went downhill? I don't think this story really needed any sex scenes in general but if you just *had* to write one it would've been nice to had held out until chapter 4 or 4.5. Despite how caring Shouya was, neither of them brought up the option of just waiting. Even if it was just for the 1st scene, having Sanjou back out from being scared and Shouya recognizing and respecting that would've been so good! I kinda understand why, though, Sanjou would keep pushing himself to do it because of how his personality is but we really didn't need 4 sex scenes.

I did find out that there's a spin-off that's I'm less interested because I didn't really like Ryuu or Ayumu from the time we had with him. I have a feeling that the author just wrote them together just because. Just because their friends are dating each other so now they have to date each other. I don't think there's a rhyme or reason for them to be dating and while I'm not down for that, I'm gonna read it. Might drop it but I will read it.

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.

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.

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: This is just for the 1st vol, not my complete thoughts for the whole series. I plan on rereading it once I give a damn about reading vol 3 because I am Nagisa'd-out.

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Honestly, I really did expect a bit more from this one. I've been on a Nagisa Furuya binge right now and I've noticed they really like slow burn high school romance love confessions (help! we get it! ohmygod!). I also feel like the story in this vol felt empty? Maybe because I kept see this get hyped to hell and back about an emotional slow burn romance that I thought I would get... emotional. Although, because we have 3 vols, having love confession be quick and out of the way so we can get more time with slowly grouping together I'm much more in favor of.

Most of Nagisa's other stuff ended right when they started dating so we don't often get enough time to see them be together. I like that we're getting more time with these two as a couple with this one. I'm interested in continuing this.