Morthos

2.75

I was having an ok-ish time until story 3 happened. Swiftly skipped that.

3.75

While I enjoyed the stories in here, my main problem came from wanting more of the first two stories. From how it sounded, I wasn't expecting multiple stories and I definitely wasn't expecting the third one.

I felt this would've been better if the whole book were about this friend group growing together from middle school into adulthood with these four chapters. I really wanted to see Minami grow into her own and see her and Sano be close friends. As sweet as that last chapter was, it could've been about one of them. I had this same issue with Entangled with You by Aki Aoi where, at least, three other stories didn't need to be included if that meant the main story could've been more.

4.75

Didn't realize this had a possessive lover character until I started reading but I still wanted to give it a chance. At the very least get through chapter 1… I'm already hating Higarashi as a person which I'm sure is the point, but that's not something I want to read.

Cute but it felt like there should've been 2 or 3 more chapters with how short this was. The whole volume read like an extra oneshot you'd get as a booklet in a special edition.

Not a memorable story to me, but it was cute and they're cute together.

3.75

Every story in this manga honestly sucked. I had a feeling it was going to get bad when some high schooler took a photo of some adult on the train because he's interested in him only to find out that this grown ass man also took a picture of this 18/19yd while he was sleeping on the train?? Excuse me? The both of you??? I think this is specifically a 2 for me because the 4th story were better than the rest but definitely had its problems. I remember thinking I'd read story 4 if it was a whole book, but seeing how the other stories have been so far I think I'm good.

It didn't surprise me when I looked it up and saw it released in 2012 in Japan because, yeah, it reeks of that era of BL. I'm honestly sad about that because I have 2 other books from this author on my TBR...

4.25

Really enjoyed the vibe of this story. I feel like I don't read enough non-drama slice of life stories and when I do it's either really sluggish and/or I can't bring myself to care about the characters I'm supposed to be rooting for. This story is slow, yeah, but not in a “what do you mean I'm not at chapter 3 yet" and more of a “sitting in the living room at 4am watching Murder She Wrote as the sun rises" type of slow and I loved that.

I honestly wish this were a little longer, just one chapter that shows them going out together on their day off as lovers now. I really enjoyed Kimura and Kunishima as characters and loved the feeling this story gave me that I just wanted more of all of this. In fact, I was so interested in reading more from this author that I went to see her other works… but her only other book is something I definitely would never read. So I'll just be keeping an eye out for anything else she makes in the future.

Ths me that should've dropped this 2 years ago...

2.75

This volume should've mostly focused on and and expanded the Invisible Friend story. They were far more interesting as both characters and a couple, as well as having a more interesting backstory that I cared about.

I didn't care about Ryou and Ibu which sucked because the plot they were in was interesting enough but those two characters were boring to read from. It didn't really help that the way this whole book was written was very confusing to read, there were times when I wasn't really sure if we were in the past or not, typos and odd sentence structure here and there with the translation...

I lost any interest in reading volume 2 especially if it's just going to be more Ryou and Ibu. I would've loved to have just read a fleshed-out version of the 1st story. Their chapters felt very rushed and confusing at times, but I cared about those two by the end of chapter 2.

I need to take a break from this series before starting Four Seasons and read something I'll actually enjoy.

3.75

This volume, in particular, felt padded out. Looking at the other books, this series seems to like to get up there in pages. I really hope Limit and Four Seasons are a lot tighter in their storytelling because it felt like I just spent 150 hours finishing Assassin's Creed Valhalla! It's like they artificially took way too long to get to the contents of chapter 5 & 6. If we're meant to feel Kohei’s longing and slight frustration see how super obvious he was about his feelings… I kinda get it. It just didn't feel natural to me. It was kinda bloated… Like an Ubisoft game.

I just think there was a little too much back and forth bickering between the two by the time chapter 4 rolls around that it starts to get annoying. I've noticed that Tachi, specifically, has so many opportunities to say more or even take a stand whenever he's cut off by others. He's definitely done so before when the conversation isn't about or is with Kohei. But we're at a point where they're both written to “run away" and it was just really tiring to read that over and over again.

Love them. Love Mizuki. Loved this. Mixed to negative feelings towards Kanda so I will continue pretending that his oneshot does not exist. In the end, this doesn't really need to be on my physical shelf…………. maybe?

*shakes you* Ori???!! *shakes you more* ORI?!?!?!? 😭🥺🥹😭🥹🥺

3.25

Had a very whelming reading experience with this first volume. Like, I don't think I cared enough about the two main characters as I feel I was supposed to nor did their story together do anything for me. It all felt very lukewarm to me. And yet, I wasn't bored enough and didn't completely hate anyone enough to drop it. The last 2 chapters definitely had me glued, but I still felt very whelmed about how it played out.

Actually, if I'm being honest, I kinda want to read about Towada and Junichi. That's probably just me craving more bl manga with only mature men over 25yd in this day and age…

Volume 2 was much more my jam and I'm so happy and relieved that it was. The tension that the first volume left off from cared all throughout volume 2 and that exactly what I wanted. I even left it giving a shit about Suou and Ryou.

Although- and I get the point! Not every romantic relationship works out, not every romantic relationship even gets the chance to start… But Towada and Junichi, though. Every scene about them, even in volume 1, activated so many things in my brain. I just wanted them. Suou and Ryou? Good for them or sorry that happened. My whole attention got completely taken over whenever we learn about these two mature men <3.

3.75

I don't know if this is a 4 or a 3 because, at the end of the day, I'm still wanting. I wanted to see more hurt, I want to see more longing from Akira, I wanted to care more about these two in the present day rather than just their past, I don't even think I felt their love as intense as some people might have because I didn't really care about them that much in the current day as characters… But I still really enjoyed the last couple of chapters (minus the last extra). What was there in chapter 4 onwards I did like and was eating this up after Kaoru started to doubt something.

I think I've just been wanting to dive headfirst into a really depressing hurt/comfort story that'll hurt me as good as Ito-san and A Home Far Away did and this just didn't do that for me. This will not be staying in my head now that I'm done but, at least, it didn't do nothing… So maybe a 3 is too low?

3.25

Was interested and kind of having fun until chapter 4. The way how the friend conflict thing went I thought was really stupid, but the story pacing and watching Miura and Abe get to know each other was nice. Not to mention how pretty this art style and coloring are!

And then chapter 4 happened, it felt like I was reading a rough draft in Medamayaki’s notebook. The quality of the art felt a little unfinished in both 4 and 5 and they felt like the author ran out of time on them. The date and some moments in chapter 5 were cute and all but it felt like we were skipping them actually bonding more or talking because Miura knew what Abe was think so he just responded to his thoughts… that were very rambly. I get it, especially with chapter 7, I get it. I guess I just wanted the author to sell me on them as a couple more before the ending of 5. But, instead, chapter 5 had this very “get to the point" type of storytelling. It made the emotional parts of 6 come off as lacking to me because I felt like I needed to read more bonding between them for me to believe Miura felt safe enough to get drunk in chapter 5.

I really wanted to like this a lot more, though.

This manga felt way too simple while also moving way too fast. I thought it was just a problem with the 1st chapter as it felt like they were trying to get the setup over and done with as soon as possible so the reason can get more of them. But from the conversations to them working together, it felt like when one person is trying to tell a story but the other person who was also there kept butting in to jump ahead for every chapter that followed.

It ended up making me feel like nothing mattered so I never found myself caring about these characters enough to stick with me because of how bland and fast paced this turned out to be.

3.75

God, this sucked.

3.75

4.25

3.75