Mimi

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.

ugly sobbing x2

I'll gush about this later. Just know that this manga made me extremely happy.

2.75

Story 1: Not as cute as I hoped. Maybe it's because I understand what having a form of generalized anxiety feels like, but I really hated seeing Kajiyama be so impatient with Aizawa. Seeing him go “doesn't he care at all" pissed me off so much because the author didn't even have to show me, I KNOW what overthinking and over-worrying looks like in someone with anxiety. I KNOW that working up the courage to text somebody, let alone while in the middle of a fight, has set him spiraling on his he should approach his text that he shouldn't be apologizing for anyway. So now so much time has passed that he feels you've gotten even angrier at him and he's even more anxious…

The way he yelled and pushed him out of his comfort zone instead of easing Aizawa out of the mascot helmet didn't make me care for them as a couple whenever there were cute moments.

Besides that, it also felt like 3 chapters weren't enough to have this story flow smoothly. Everything that happened at the amusement park felt like things were moving too fast. They didn't even take a moment to talk about what he said when they were alone. From there to the confession, it just felt rushed.

I love and support Aizawa. Kajiyama can eat rocks.

Story 2: Cuter. Pretty simple and I didn't hate either of the characters. I would've liked another chapter of them, honestly. Using the terms depressed and trauma like this was far-reaching.

Story 3: This was kind of ok. I was interested in the “does he actually like me" drama until what I thought would be dubious consent, turned into something too immature for me personally (like, guys… lube. Research, I beg you!). It made it so hard to read. On top of them not properly talking things out, it just kind of went back downhill for me.