Recently we had a wonderfully crazy storm blow through. My office is on the 12th floor and we have glass windows so I had a front seat to the elements raging mere feet in front of me. Lightning flashing, howling wind, and buckets of rain ~
The best part of storms like this is the humidity gets sucks right away with the clouds so that makes summer more tolerable here. I was actually slightly cold walking home in my shorts when just that morning, the humidity made me feel like I was covered in damp sponges D:
Me blathering about the weather done, on to the manga haha!
Manga Reads Part I
Ashita mo Kiss Shite Ii desu ka? anthology
A compilation of shorts focusing on the theme of kissing. I’m not sure how it worked out, but for most of the shorts, due to the pacing of the story, the guys come off as trash to me lol. I wanted to be like, communicate you stoic bastards!
Hanamusubi by Minamitani Iku
After reading Golden Apple all those months ago, I finally got around to reading her other works. Starting with Hanamusubi, the plot follows a young man who has given up on flower arranging due to pressure and people calling his older bro – who is also in the business – shit when compared to the younger brother (which further gave the main character anxiety). However, the main character’s dad is like, hell no I’m not letting you give up that easily, and ships his son out to help at an inn ran by a friend of his. Originally set to work as a flower arranger at the inn, the main character manages to wrangle out of that and instead works as a muscle monkey. At his new work place, he works along side a stoic girl (lol I’m using that vocab word a lot haha) who, through her passion for her job, gets him interested again in flower arrangement.
And get his dick hard because this is a shojo.
While I liked the theme of doing what you love, fuck the haters, I didn’t really enjoy the story due to the romance. The female love interest had a fiancée and of course that meant drama. But when the main guy was like, Imma gonna force myself on you so you can see how much I love you and she’s like, you go and do that, not gonna change my mind, and other dramatic back and forths, I just couldn’t get into the story as much as I would like with their weird mating ritual tumbling around :< I mean, honestly, the fiancée turned out to be the real MVP of this story. Like shit, can I marry that guy?
But hey, at least I got to see a cameo of the main characters from Golden Apple!
Kimi Tsunagi Hotaru by Minamitani Iku
Golden Apple’s other work. This one I enjoyed more though the story is def darker. You have the main guy whose dad has a huge place and likes to pick up people to stay at his place (I mean, whose dad doesn’t do that?). The main guy is like a landlord of the place and takes care of it while his dad does whatever he does to afford their huge house. One day, dad comes back with a 10 year old kid and is like, guess who I found to live with us :D
Main guy: IS THAT EVEN LEGAL!?
Due to circumstances, the girl ends up living with the house’s tenants: the main character who is in high school, a graduate student, and a writer. Thankfully none of them are creepy and really, they’re just a bunch of bros haha. Together everyone learns how to be a family which was really sweet.
While not explicit, the manga def hinted at a possible romance between the kid and the high schooler. But the high schooler is dumb as fuck so it’ll be years before he catches on to his feelings lol. Just an aside for some of those who aren’t into the age gap scene. Also, the themes of abandonment and abuse are present.
Aoba-kun ni Kikitai koto #7 by Tooyama Ema
I really enjoyed this volume and I couldn’t figure out why since I was so meh about the others. Then I realized it’s probably because Aoba wasn’t around much haha! Really I’m just here for Mayu and the power of friendship with the basketball team. Supposedly the series will end with volume #8! Let’s see if we can fix Aoba and he stops being a buttflake.
Itsutsuboshi Prince #1-2 (complete) by Sanada Chika
Since I really enjoyed the stupid humor of Anadorenai Ne Kitami-kun, I decided to give this manga-ka’s earlier work a shot. Turns out this series is based off some kind of mobile otome game. You’re a high schooler who ends up working at a five-star hotel. You have several love interests: the bartender, the manager, the concierge, the bell boy (lol), and the chef. While in the beginning, each boy gets their own chapter in this manga adaptation, the romance is focused more on the manager. But I didn’t really like him since he calls the main girl a dog and uses her to help him. But to all their own lol
Kawaii ni mo Hodo ga Aru by Fukawa Miki
Lol I love how stupid funny this was. It’s a teacher x student romance but that’s thrown on the backburner. The story is more about being true to yourself. The main girl acts cool and mature however that’s only on the outside. On the inside, she’s girly and loves cute things. However, she thinks she needs to hide that part of her because the masses like her cool persona. Through the story, she’s given instances to be true to herself and I love that her friends are like, that’s cool – we’re glad you’re being honest with us. We’re friends after all.
Me: aww!
I also enjoyed the one-shot included. The chick just pulling her abacus out of no where all the time and everyone looking like, where did that come from, was hilarious. xD
I’m definitely looking forward to more of her stuff when it comes out :J
Hunky Dory 1-3 (complete) by Watanabe Kana
You have 3 friends: two twin boys and a girl. Everything was sugar and candy with them until they get to high school. The boys get placed in one classroom and the girl in another. However, the girl is super anxious when it comes to interacting with people so she’s like, I’m just going to quit my life as a human and become scum. However, the boys are all, we got you. You can do this. So with her friends’ encouragement, she goes out and makes a new friend. But then the new friend meets the two boys and is like, holy shit mama likes what she sees. GOTTA CHECK, DO YOU LIKE THE BLONDE ONE BECAUSE I THINK I MIGHT LIKE A TASTE OF THAT.
All this time the main girl never thought about liking anyone but now that her new friend has an interest in her male friend (that she may or may not like herself), the main girl feels conflicted.
My summary actually sucks because it’s not as serious as what I wrote. I mean, in anyone else’s hands, they could have gone super intense with the story but thankfully the pacing was calm. If anything, it was kinda slow paced like Hibi Chouchou. So you have time to absorb everything.
While not my favorite story from this manga-ka, I did enjoy the ride :J Her art is just lovely <3
Saenai Riman to Yankee Joshi Kousei #1 by Tamaki Nao
Something random and not my usual read. I bought this because the preview I read made me chuckle enough to purchase the first volume. You have this dude who lives on his own so he can live the nerd life without family judgement and you have this highschooler who lives next to him, also on her own, due to family stuff. While our male lead surrounds himself in figurines and anime, he’s still a productive citizen of Japan and hides his other half when out in the real world. And pretty much this is a story of her falling for him and him being like, I got Love Live gatcha to win haha
Wasn’t a bad read. The two leads were interesting. Honestly, this was pretty much a shojo xD I liked the guy was a real world dude. He works yet he has his hobbies, and as a working adult who lives this life, I hear you on having your own place to immerse in the sin that is your hobbies xD
Curious how the next volume will play out ~
Ojisan wa Kawaii Mono ga o Suki. #1 by Tsumomu
Straight up I bought this because of the pug on the cover haha. Similar to Saenai Riman to Yankee Joshi Kousei, Kawaii Ojisan deals with a cool middle aged man who secretly loves a franchise on level with Hello Kitty. However, he keeps that side of him underwraps because society isn’t ready for his level of pug love. He hid his secret even from his wife who divorced him because she thought he was cheating on her, not that he loved pugs. Now free of her (lol), he can turn his apartment into the sinful pug filled haven he’s always wanted. The struggle becomes real tho when his nephew comes to stay with him. Now our old man has to hide his love once again but how long can he keep the charade up?
Ahhhhhhhh, I loved this tank. 100% understand the struggle bro. It’s so sad we can’t just scream our love for fear of judgment. I really like how this manga depicts real life with comedy. So many times I’ve been with people, saw things, and was like AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I WANT TO LOOK AT THAT *realizes the company I’m with* WHEN I’M ALONE *marks in phone name of place or item in question*
I appreciate there was a chapter where the main guy had put on some weight and used the equivalent of Pokemon Go to get back into shape xD I wish there were more games out there that encourage movement/steps to progress in something. The future is still new so who knows what’ll pop up in the App store.
Spoils 