Morthos

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.