Morthos

This was alright but I'm disappointed it was sad enough for me. By the end I kept thinking there should've been more to them as a couple or we've could've gone into their family situations a little bit more. That would've made this a better of a read for me. I also think that last chapter should've been about his mother visiting instead. This whole story has been about rekindling relationships and, by the end, him and his mother have made some progress on talking to each other again.

I don't know, I didn't hate it but there was a lot of repetition in the conflict and they had very little time for rest at the end.

Akiyo and Jessica 😳❤️😳

Ok, ANYWAY! Another book I finished, forgot about, and yet I still very much loved this. Basically, while a lot of how I felt in Hige to Suzu to Shabondama kinda carries over, I ended up liking this a lot more than the previous book. I think it's because, while I didn't like Kiyoshi himself and was able to stomach Rintarou more, Rintarou was much more annoying than Kiyoshi but in a different annoying way. I rank him under Rintarou but I respect him more than Rintarou. But rest assured, I hate them both.

Most importantly though, his and Touya's relationship just hit me different than prev's and that might be because Santa's and Rintarou's story wasn't realized as hard as theirs was. It's hard to put into words but I think what I'm trying to say is: Touya's and Kiyoshi's story as a couple felt more fleshed out but I was left wanting more of them as individuals whereas Santa's and Rintarou's story left me wanting more of them as a couple and individuals.

Update: .... I just realized something. Kiyoshi is just Romano from Hetalia. Like, his whole ass character is 100% Romano and idk how I feel about this.

Honestly, though, I didn't think I would like this by the end. The start didn't hook me, I didn't care much for Santa and Rintarou, and I couldn't help but feel a bit bored at first. I don't know what happened but, like... I love them. I love them together, I love Rintarou's family, I love the normality of life thay this story gives compared to most bl manga, the dialogue felt like things people actually would say and wasn't filled with all those repeated phrases I keep seeing and grown tired of, and I love Touya. Santa and Touya are definitely my favorites in both stories, I feel for them having to deal with Rintarou and Kiyoshi but I also love how much they love them because... Even though I said I like Rintarou, it's more of a 50/50 thing and Kiyoshi is worst but I still kinda like him. Just less than Rintarou.

I am sad that ymz didn't give us the wedding or a little more revolving around Santa's family. I was very interested in his relationship with his family but we didn't get much on that. Only enough to know the basics but I was really hoping that they would add more to that. At least a wedding photo at the end would've made me cry.

I didn't hate it but I got board with this one and had to force myself to finish reading it. Didn't really like any of the characters, not in a way where they pissed me off but in a way where they're all forgettable.

Ok, maybe Kippei got on my nerve a bit with the way he acted sometimes. Kinda forceful when the guy straight up didn't want to get into a relationship but who cares I guess. He was just pushy but the pushy got a bit disrespectful sometimes.

What in the God damn did I just read? I had a feeling that S&N would be at the bottom of my list but I didn't know that it would piss me off this much. I trusted you, Nagisa.

Nagisa??? Are we ok, Nagisa??? Did you loose the fucking plot and finally remembered what you were writing by the end of chapter 4, Nagisa??????

This was probably my 3nd least favorite Nagisa original so far (I'm reading s&n right now and....), but it's fine. I think it had some cute moments and though the slow burn felt really slow it didn't bother me too much. By the end I was feeling a bit mid on this one but I will be rereading it when it finally come out in English. That being said, I got problems:

1). The story and characters felt a bit Junjo Romantica-y to me and I have mixed feelings about that because I've grown to have mix to negative feeling about Junjo Romantica <3.

2). I know I didn't mind the slower burn in this one, but it was mainly the run-around Sora and Kengo were giving each other that just felt pointless to me.

3). The topic of color blindness felt really half-assed. I feel like we only got 1 hint about it when they were talking about space in chapter 2 (I think) and then Nagisa just completely forgot that it was a topic of discussion until chapter 6 where it felt like it was so forced and rushed because she just remembered that was the point. So that bit actually pissed me off... a lot.

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.

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.

I can't believe this isn't the lowest Nagisa original on my list. I kinda found myself bored with this one and it was around this time where I noticed Nagisa likes writing 1 and 1 thing only and that's slow burn high school romance love confessions...

But this one with the weird "is it gay to do gay shit with your bro" thing that they call a "doing a bl" and play it as a joke.......... Huh? This whole story had me cringing so bad. I'm actually afraid to read this again once the official translation comes out but because I know what they're gonna call it and I have to read through that.

Cute story. Don't really remember much of it because going on this marathon made all of Nagisa's stories blended together at this point, they're like all a steak dinner with a side of mashed potatoes and peas but each one is prepared differently and I'm crying. But this story's "gimmick" of having both their nicknames mean 8 is the stupidest link in this plot and I both love it and hate it because when it's time for the story to get serious it's so dumb because it all comes back to their names...

However, as soon as I realized that their ship name and tag on tumblr would be 88 I needed to give it 4 stars. Hope this gets officially translated (update: it got officially translated <3).

Update: ... Who knew that the 1st read was gonna be the HEIGHT of my Nagisa Furuya marathon. Loved this, liked My Summer of You... but it was all downhill from there.

This was probably the best I've seen of Nagisa. It was also the 1st story I've read from her and I kinda felt everything else in this binge I'm putting myself through has gone down from here just a bit. The sad part is, going through her work book after book and not jotting down anything melted my brain and I don't 100% remember all that happened. I do remember liking this more than anything else I've read from her.

It is a book I'm going to reread so I can update this. I would've actually like to've seen two lions get a second book because I feel like this couple was a bit more interesting than the one from my summer of you.

...... hard. disappointing. sigh.

I was gonna add more to this but that's really all my thoughts. I really didn't like how they depicted generalized anxiety and avoidant personality disorder in this. As someone with avpd and gad, it felt like they tried but knew only what they saw on twitter about social anxiety and being an introvert.

... Ok. I've been putting off reading this for a bit because I remember being unsure about it but I don't know why. I remember seeing a good bit of low to negative ratings on this but I didn't read them because I don't want to know anything but what the tags tell me before going into a book... But I feel like I should've dropped this very early on.

The premise isn't bad, the art's fine, and there are even some points that are really sweet and emotional. But that all get's ruined by the fact that there are sex scenes with Yuki in his current mental state. Yes, I know that Tomohisa and Yuki are an established couple. Yes, I know this is a case of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Where this gets weird and uncomfortable for me is that Yuuta, Yuki's personality, is a child and the author thought "Yeah, let's have Tomohisa & Yuuta have sex. It's still a grown man's body so it's alright, right?" and I'm honestly fucking livid about that. Not only is it weird but it's fucking disrespectful to people who deal with this personality disorder because it showed how author doesn't see this as a serious mental health issue. It could've been handled with so much care and display how much Tomohisa really loves and misses Yuki while also really treasuring Yuuta and wanting to keep them both safe. When you take out the sex from the present-day timeline it actually becomes a better story because that's the biggest problem.

The saving throw for this not being a 1 star or dropped mid-chapter 2 were the flashbacks. The flashbacks were the best parts about this book. It was interesting enough that I wanted to know the why's and more about Yuki and his dad as well as wanting more of Tomohisa and Yuki's relationship. And even present-day wouldn't've been so bad as there were genuine heartwarming moments of Tomohisa caring for Yuki by treating Yuuta like his own child. Him really wanting Yuki back but also being afraid for his return and what would come next set fine with me. I think the reason for him worrying so much is a bit dumb since it comes down to defending himself and Yuki, but I understand from where he's standing in that situation. It just really does fall so flat for me at the end when Yuki wakes up and everything that follows because it tried to turn something uncomfortable to something wholesome by making it a family dynamic thing... with the looming knowledge that Tomohisa and Yuuta regularly had sex and, from what it sounds like in the extra chapter, still do...

I'm sure this is a super cute story about two people growing old together. I'm sure this has really heartwarming scenes that would make me cry. But I did not know the age gap was so significant when they met. I don't really read descriptions, I like to go into these books mostly blind with only mangaupdate's tags to guide me and, honestly, I wouldn't've touched it if I had known that was when they met. I'm already someone who doesn't like age gaps anyway, but I thought they were both mature adults at the time of meeting.

That aside, though, I think the way dialogue is written where they wouldn't shut up about being old got old really quick. I completely understand that some people start to think about a lot of these things like the passage of time, the world around you changing, dying, figuring out what to do with that time since you're not working anymore, and so on. I get it but how they kept talking about it at the drop of a hat was a bit overdone. I wanted to keep truckin' but then I remembered the age gap thing that weirded me out so I'm good.

I'm sure this is a super cute story about two people growing old together. I'm sure this has really heartwarming scenes that would make me cry. But I did not know the age gap was so significant when they met. I don't really read descriptions, I like to go into these books mostly blind with only mangaupdate's tags to guide me and, honestly, I wouldn't've touched it if I had known that was when they met. I'm already someone who doesn't like age gaps anyway, but I thought they were both mature adults at the time of meeting.

That aside, though, I think the way dialogue is written where they wouldn't shut up about being old got old really quick. I completely understand that some people start to think about a lot of these things like the passage of time, the world around you changing, dying, figuring out what to do with that time since you're not working anymore, and so on. I get it but how they kept talking about it at the drop of a hat was a bit overdone. I wanted to keep truckin' but then I remembered the age gap thing that weirded me out so I'm good.

Maybe it was because the last 5 books pissed me off to various degrees with the most recent one being ok at best... But oh my god, what happened to the storytelling chapter 2 onwards?! Chapter 1 was fine. I was fine with it doing the recap thing and it really got me interested in this couple and seeing how a very shy person who's gone years isolating themself to now dealing with being in a relationship and living with said person. And while I got that, chapter 2 gave me the worst idea of that tone this story was gonna have... and I was right.

I've read a lot of BL with some of the stupidest plot points to use as a conflict in my lifetime, but I've nearly dropped this when they tried to make coming out to their boyfriend a problem AFTER the BOYFRIEND confessed FIRST?????? Why did they think that worrying about telling the guy who asked you out first that you're gay would be a valid or even funny bit to sit through? It only lasted that one chapter but it stuck with me, it was SO stupid that it set the tone for everything else after and immediately made this a low 3-star story. Chapters 3 and 4's "problems" were just as bad. I hate miscommunication but no communication is worst. I'm disappointed because I saw that the author wanted to write something cute and I can see that! But all of the "conflicts" felt like poor writing and it wasn't even the translation's fault this time. The only reason I didn't drop it was because I thought it would get better and then I realized I was on chapter 4 so I just said: fuck it let's get this over with.

I'm finding I have a love/hate relationship with this author. The story is fine, the pacing felt fast, but within that fast pace we did get a story. You get enough information that you don't feel like you're missing half the story and you're already on chapter 5. But with this story in particular the only 2 bits that actually bothered me were how it felt like the author tried to make you sympathize with the ex as well as the conflict that follows after that. I'm so/so about using the place where Haru and his ex met as Mitsuharu misunderstanding of their situation and trying to be a hero, but I think the way how it was done bothered me more. I wanted the conflict to be on the level of that scene at the end of chapter 1. I felt like the ex wasn't as much of a force as I thought he would be. Everything happened too easily for the emotional tone I kept feeling throughout the story that died because nothing came out of it.

I did like this more than Hana Tokidoki Kuma for the most part as well as loving "moments" they draw when a character is genuinely smiling. I've talked about it in Hana Tokidoki Kuma, but it's like you can see the light rays through the page and it's my favorite thing about their art.

For the most part, very cute, very sweet, but I left this with a low 4 star feeling. 3.5 to be honest. I thought the pairing and the story was cute, I did find "thinking the handwriting belonged to a girl" a bit annoying. I wished Sumito's friends got to understand and accept Kokuma throw out the story. There could've been more emotional scenes of them together instead of 4-5 sex scenes that felt like it was more important than fleshing out a damn character. And then there's the ending(?). That ending could've been everything. It could've made up for the stupid amount of sex scenes that only felt like were in here to keep your attention. But to have it cut the way it did just to give us an extra with more sex pissed me off. I didn't even know if that was actually the ending because of how messed up the uploads are on here. I had to do a lot of googling to see if that really was the ending.

But the art. Oh my god the art! It's pretty normal most of the time, but whenever there's a genuine heartfelt moment and/or someone smiles... I am blinded by the non-existing beams of light that I can see so vividly. The soft moments that you get from this author's art is the main and maybe the only reason I want to read more of their stuff. I've read 2 books so far and I feel that their lack of character development and plot are gonna annoying me and have me asking questions. But I also know that their art in general and the imagery of when someone is genuinely happy will stab me multiple times in the heart and I will thank them.

So, yeah, I think This Wonderful Season With You did this story better..

... Almost. I almost got through without crying. But I'm saying this in a mid to negative way because I don't think this story deserved my tears. I was excited coming into this because of Bokura wa Nando mo Koi o suru and how I cried so hard at the end of that story that I thought this would have me laid out on the floor in the same way. To start, I think it was a little confusing in the beginning who was saying what, how Nagisa felt about Kaito separate from Minato, how Kaito felt about Nagisa separate from Minato, and I'm not a fan of hate sex. Even though early on I had a feeling that Nagisa felt more than jealousy and envy towards Kaito, it was a confusing road getting there even after the festival.

I wanted them to really talk more about them. Whenever there was "talking about them" it felt more like they were talking about them related to Minato rather than them related to each other. And while I can understand the conversation of them + Minato, because this is a love triangle plot, I think when they finally started to focus on them as a couple it was a little too late to get to know them as a couple.

There were points toward the end that I thought was very sweet, really cute. Backstory stuff was more my favorite to read because you got to know the characters and how they felt about each other that you didn't get from the present day with the only thing missing was how Minato felt. There was one part of the flashback stuff where I did almost cried but not for the character, more so for the context around sharing a part of yourself only to be put down felt. But what actually broke me was the end with Minato's mom and his journal because as the flashbacks happened you had a feeling. You always knew. But to actually know his wish really messed me up even though I knew what it was!

I am so disappointed. I don't think this was bad, I just felt like it was rushed in its storytelling. By the time I got to the extra chapter about taking a summer vacation, it dawned on me that I was at the end of the book. Nothing really happened and it felt like I should've still been on chapter 3. Like, I jumped into this thinking I was gonna read something adorable, sad, and a bit bittersweet with some kind of slow burn showing these two friends trying to get to know each other and be friends again after not seeing each other for so long while also trying to be a couple.

There were some stuff like how Outa expressed to Tomoaki that he wanted to open up about what he's feeling more so that they can get on the same page. This is brought up twice and in both instances where I thought we were going to get more character development, nothing happened. Both of these characters didn't really mean anything to me by the end of it, I found myself getting angry at even the smallest of dumb BL tropes.

Man, I really wanted to like this because this is my time of story but the rushed storytelling really got to me.