Manga Match 83 Liar x Liar

Yesterday I had a whirlwind day of going out of my comfort zone and socializing. It was mentally exhausting and I almost fell asleep on the train home, but it made me feel really great that I was able to overcome this thing that might seem like no big deal for most people. It's times like these that I really curse how bad my anxiety can get. I did a lot that day beforehand to mentally prepare, doing things like meditating, chores, and random things on my to do list, but I still had all of these useless worries. Hopefully in time I can learn to better manage these irrational anxieties.

But you're probably not here for check-ins on my mental health. You're here for manga. 

{Spoilers}

Wowowowow this was a pretty spicy one I'll have to admit. I started this one not thinking very much of it. I thought it was a cheesy title and a stupid concept. And then I ended up staying up until almost 4 AM reading it the first night. I finished all 70 ish chapters in 2 days. It was crazy. And it's honestly because lying and the consequential lies being snowballed towards disaster is just so addicting to read. It's frustrating, but also unbelievably addicting. This was lowkey like when I reviewed that True Love incest manga, except instead of actual incest it's step-siblings so it made me feel better inside for reading it. A little bit. I dunno, you can form your own opinion on step-siblings getting married and whatever, I'm not really sure how that sort of stuff works legally. 

Anyways, the story revolves around two step-siblings and their rocky relationship. Minato, our 20 year old college student, decides to take her friend Maki's old high school uniform out on the town. Tragically she runs into her step-brother Tooru who's the same age as her, and in the heat of the moment and embarrassed to be caught in a high school uniform, lies about her identity. Thus, Mina the second year high schooler is born. Tooru shockingly asks Mina out on the spot and seriously pursues her. This is definitely uncharacteristic of this guy that Minato's only known as a playboy that sleeps around and dates any girl that asks him to. And so, in her attempt to reform him, Minato plays Mina in order to demonstrate the benefits of dating one girl in a wholesome relationship. Unfortunately, along the way, she falls in love with him as herself. 

There's this whole arc of inner turmoil within Minato as she's coming to terms with her feelings for Tooru as her ex-boyfriend who she got along with so well, tries to form a rift between Minato and Tooru by calling their relationship disgusting. Obviously he only does this out of frustration and grief over how his relationship with Minato doesn't go so well, but it's a pretty painful arc. 

However, after the storm is always a rainbow. And so, Minato finally comes to terms with her love for Tooru. At the same time, she discovers that Tooru has loved Minato ever since they were children. In fact, when Minato reveals that she was Mina the whole time, he accepted the lie for what it was and loved Minato anyways. I'm not saying that this is how you should live your life by trusting liars and whatnot, but it was just a really touching scene.

Also shoutout to my girl Mika. Honestly Minato's pretty dumb. I don't know how she's gotten this far in life with how often she digs these tragic holes of lies for herself. Without Mika she surely would've crumbled a lot sooner, but Mika was always there to support her. 

My crappy synopsis was obviously super short and doesn't make a whole lot of sense unless you read the whole thing, but along the way Minato actually becomes really popular. With like 2 other guys. A sudden college debut some might say. And I think each of these separate arcs with the lies getting messier and messier and the whole thing spiraling into an unknown territory made the whole thing really interesting because you didn't have any idea where the story would go next. 

If you can handle a lot of frustration because our main girl is kind of an airhead and the tension that all of the lies and difficult situations she gets into I think this is a fantastic read. There's so much drama and so many layers to unpack. And so many fun memories that if you haven't gone to college yet, that you can look forward to in terms of finding a fun circle of people that enjoy similar interests as you. Or if you're in college or have since graduated from college, I think this is a fun manga that shows the shenanigans that we all get up to with our college friends in one way or another. There's lots of fun scenarios and characters in the manga. And I love how the mangaka chose to close out the last volume with some stories about other characters besides Minato and Tooru to give a more well-rounded feel to the series as a whole. It was good, really good. 

Manga Match 81 Mademoiselle Butterfly

On the MangaRock app, they have these categories about like historical shoujo or about geisha in the red light district or something along those lines. For some reason I'm really attracted to them lately. Not in like a perverse way or anything weird like that, but just the stories they tell and the vibe of them is really interesting to me. I'm sure I'll get over this weird stage soon enough, but they're just really different. You should really try to read one, they're pretty good.

{Spoilers and there's an actual plot this time}

This takes place in the Showa era where it was still common for girls of poor families to be sold off as geishas. Our main character, Butterfly, yes her name is Butterfly, is a young girl who befriends the neighboring tattoo artist Chinatsu. All this time, Butterfly has constantly bothered this guy while he's working and just whenever because he's literally right next door. You can already see where this is going. And you can already tell I like it because it's my favorite childhood friend trope. Anyways, as Butterfly grows up, she begins to realize that her feelings for Chinatsu go beyond just friends. This climaxes when Butterfly gets sold to some random visiting European dude and she solidifies her feelings for Chinatsu. Eventually she gets returned because Chinatsu bought her back or something, I don't really know how this all happened. This transaction and seeing Butterfly's love for him, confirmed Chinatsu's feelings as well that Butterfly was no longer an innocent child. You start to see this transition within him because before, when she was a child, Butterfly would always ask for a tattoo but Chinatsu would only paint with ink on top of her skin. However, when he realizes his feelings for her, he then accepts that she wants to be tattooed and then gives her a beautiful butterfly tattoo. And honestly it's pretty wholesome because he treasures her so much, even though this frustrates her that he treats her as a child under his care rather than as a love interest. But this just makes it cuter somehow? I dunno, it's hard to explain which is why you should just read it for yourself and see!

The main point of this manga, or the climax I guess, was when Chinatsu was drafted to fight in the war. At the time, Butterfly became pregnant and they had to separate for a while, with Butterfly safe in her father-in-law's house. And at one point they believed Chinatsu to be dead. But don't worry! There's a happy ending to the story. Chinatsu comes back from the war, physically unscathed and the family is reunited!

I would definitely recommend the manga. It's pretty wholesome and sweet, with Butterfly not being incredibly annoying, and all of the characters being really sincere and consistent with their character motivations and actions and everything like that. For a 10 chapter work it's incredibly well-done and somehow really endearing.

Manga Match 82 Kuzumi-kun, Can't You Read the Room?

Recently, a lot of the manga I've been reading have been completing which is both satisfying and sad all at the same time. It's satisfying because I'm such a completionist, but also sad because the story's over and we won't ever get to see the canon of what happens in the future.

{Spoilers, except it's slice of life so we're in it for character interaction not plot}

This is definitely more of a comedy than a true shoujo. But in some ways I think it really embodies what it means to be in love when you're young. These characters don't put up a front of being more mature than they really are, and genuinely try to wear their hearts on their sleeves. I would mention all of the side characters, but I'm kind of lazy and bad with names so I don't want to pull up everyone's names. But just know that they're all solid friends and truly deserve the best.

I think I liked the manga so much just because it wasn't like a lot of shoujo I've been seeing nowadays where it's all about kissing and going on dates and love triangles and drama. Instead this is a very contained love story between a popular tsundere and a guy that doesn't talk that much. Think kind of Takagi-san vibes, but with more tsundere and less flirting?

For the most part, I think the most entertaining part is seeing Erika struggle with her feelings. Not in a sadistic way or anything, but seeing her initial denial of her feelings and how she comes to terms with how deeply in love she is with Kuzumi and how she awkwardly deals with and expresses her feelings is great. At times the manga can be frustrating, especially since Kuzumi rarely says anything. However, despite the lack of verbal communication the two have, it's still a wonderful romance to watch unfold.

If you're getting tired of love triangles and a lot of drama, and want a more lowkey and peaceful shoujo manga, this is it. I think that characters develop so well and it's such a happy and wholesome ending that really fills your heart to the brim. Please go ahead and read it!

Manga Match 79 Mune ga Naru no wa Kimi no Sei // & a short aside about the importance of shoujo manga

I really should've reviewed this manga before I forgot all about it. I wasn't forgetful necessarily because I was busy, in fact I could do with some more busywork. But because I had some time to fill I just kept adding to my list of manga until I could no longer keep a lot of them straight. Such is the life of a manga glutton :')

{No spoilers because I forgot a lot of it}

I guess if I were to sum up the whole manga I'd say it's just a compilation or rather the model for your stereotypical shoujo manga. It's got the hard-working and sweet protagonist Tsukasa and the tall, dark, and handsome love interest that comes to her rescue, Arima. And then you've got kind of my least favorite additions to the love triangle, or in this case a love square (is it a love square because both of them have someone that's crushing on them? or two separate love triangle?). I see least favorite because I hate seeing the manipulative ex's like Arima's ex that totally uses her accident as an excuse to get back together with Arima. And then the playboy time which is the epitome of the guy pursuing Tsukasa...I guess sometimes the playboy trope is...ok? Actually I'm not even sure if it is, but if you ever meet someone like him in real life please run away. I'm worried for your safety. 

Would I recommend this manga? Maybe if you've never read a shoujo manga before and you want the most vanilla one out there just to test it out. But otherwise, I would say that even if you're starting out with shoujo, you won't really know what you want or what you like unless you experiment. Do you like forbidden love? Do you like love triangles? Do you want it to be a high school setting for some slice of life/school life? Do you like a more jokester love interest? Do you want it to be more wholesome? Do you like perhaps a tragedy? A comedy? 

Oftentimes I think shoujo is something written off as childish and full of like unrealistic moments that make your heart race, and yeah sure maybe shoujo is a little like that. But I also feel like it allows you to have a lot of different experiences you wouldn't have otherwise been able to have. And it's just fun to read! To live vicariously through some pages and dream some unrealistic dreams sometimes. 

Manga Match 78 The Lion and the Bride

You know, there was a point in my life that I really enjoyed in a twisted sort of way when things took kind of a weird turn in manga like this. It's hard to explain, but I mean in like Daytime Shooting Star when she ended up going out with the classmate instead of the hot teacher. Those kinds of twists. And I think I still might be in that phase of my life. Because I was up until 3 AM reading this. Aiya.

{Spoilers because there's a strange plot here and it didn't make much sense I think it's because I was up late reading it}

So, there's this girl named Yua and her parents died. She's been living with her grandmother who also falls ill. And she's been dating her teacher for a while now. Then her grandmother dies and her teacher asks her to marry him and because she's young and naive she says yes and is in for a huge surprise when she gets home. It turns out that her classmate Subaru is Sensei's son. And that means that she's kind of his mom?

And then all sorts of ridiculous stuff happens. It's like in a regular shoujo with the whole love triangle except it's between father and son which is YIKES as you can imagine. And then Sensei's ex-wife comes back and it turns out his love for her honestly has never faded which deeply hurts Yua. And so they decide to divorce. Except, plot twist, Sensei never submitted the papers so she's all clear. And then along the way she realizes that she really loves Subaru. Which is the major plot twist to me.

The whole thing was honestly a wild ride. I definitely wasn't expecting this when I picked it up, but there we go. That was the whole manga.

Something that I thought was really interesting was how Yua talked. Sometimes she would refer to herself as "beautiful and perfect" and I wonder if that has to do with her trying to reassure herself of her worth because she's gone through so many dark times. I could be reading too much into it because it could just be the translator's interpretation. Who knows?

Overall, if you like really dramatic plot twists this would be a good manga to read. Or if you can't decide if you like childish guys (Subaru) or older and mature men (Sensei) more then you don't have to choose. You can have both in this manga. I can't say that I've ever seen this premise in any other manga, so if nothing else it's an interesting read.

Manga Match 75 Shishunki Bitter Change

I started this manga back when I was still pretty deep into my gender-bender genre manga. Honestly, I didn't follow too closely along with the manga. But it was an interesting concept!

{Spoilers, I suppose}

The basic rundown of this manga: There are two childhood friends Yuuta and Yui. They fall down from a tree when they're young and switch bodies as elementary schoolers. Now they have to grow up in each other's body and go through all of those life changes that the other would've gone through (i.e. periods, growing taller, boy/girl romance problems etc.). As you can imagine, that was pretty awkward. But it's sweet that they never get tired of one another and support one another through these hard times along with their third childhood friend. You get to see the kind of bildungsroman that happens among them as we see them grow up from elementary school all the way through high school and all of the mishaps that occur along the way. It's actually really touching to see them go through all of these changes together.

Eventually, the two of them develop feelings for each other which is pretty cute. And there's a plot twist of an ending when Yuuta's body gets hit by a car and then the two of them switch back. But that's not all. It's kind of an ambiguous ending, but it might've turned out that they wished to switch back bodies again and actually did. What matters is that they all lived happily ever after.

Honestly, I probably didn't sell that very well. I don't remember a whole lot from the manga. But I will say it was a super interesting read to think about. That whole scenario is pretty wild if you think about it. And the way that the mangaka created such an interesting scenario and made it extremely realistic is a feat in and of itself. So I would recommend reading it! It was a unique read that I haven't seen before. A fresh take if you will.

Manga Match 74 True Love

If you're looking for one of the most wack and morally questionable manga with lowkey the weakest female protagonist and most contradictory male protagonist with actually morally questionable real parents...well you've come to the right place.

{Spoilers. Come back to this once you've read it and revel in how terrible you feel?}

Honestly I'm not sure why I finished reading this manga all the way through. I felt both uncomfortable because of the themes that were explored in the manga and also annoyed at how spineless Ai was. And kind of grossed out by the whole incest thing. But by the end I was kind of numbed to how morally wrong incest was that I just don't know what ended up happening and I think I'm just still stuck in a state of disbelief that this was allowed to be published in the first place. Sure I think I've read some stuff on people that were cousins twice removed or something. But never a brother-sister relationship. Before I get further off track, here's my wack synopsis.

So, there's a brother and sister named Yuzuru and Ai respectively. They're only a year apart and inseparable. He always picks her up from preschool and she clings to him as an loving and sweet younger sister does to their responsible brother. Their family is pretty perfect, except their parents fight a lot. So they divorced and each took a child. Yuzuru grew up in America with his journalist(?) dad. Ai grew up in Nagano with her mom. And this was pretty fine with Ai burying how much she missed her brother deep inside and Yuzuru yearning for his younger sister up until he moved back to Japan. They reunited and...all this time Yuzuru has been harboring convoluted feelings of love for Ai. Ai has also never been in love with anyone else. And so they develop romantic feelings for one another. Despite their close friends finding out and thinking "Hey, maybe I can be the love interest instead and we can stop this morally incorrect thing from continuing." But they don't stop. And they just continue to commit incest.

What's super questionable is just how Yuzuru and Ai act. They know it's wrong, but Yuzuru's mindset is just "I want to make her happy" but he's also selfish and doing this for himself when he says "I'll die with this love kept a secret" when he tries to date Ai's friend, but quickly crumbles when Ai confesses to him. Once he sees her tears he just melts. Absolutely no resolve. Even though it's morally incorrect. And Ai is absolutely ridiculous as well. She just tears up a little and everyone softens towards her. And whenever something mildly inconvenient happens she just freezes and either lets the other person hit, yell at, or accuse her without saying or doing anything in her own defense. Absolutely ridiculous. Please don't let her be your role model. She's so incredibly frustrating. You'd have to read to understand, but honestly I don't want you to have to read this.

And then when their father dies while on a trip to America that's really sad. Because their mom's already found out and has to separate them herself. And Ai's response is just "I've been forsaken by God, this is the price of my sin. Give me back my dad and I'll stop" if I'm recalling correctly. But before she said "Let me be forsaken by God." So, which is it? Hard to tell.

The ending was a definite plot twist. It came so suddenly that I would almost call it a cop-out. Yuzuru turns out to not be blood related to Ai. So it's not morally incorrect to be together anymore. Which I guess is a sigh of relief. It definitely was to me. But even just mentally thinking that you're siblings is still a little bit of a grey area to me. Also, his parents were actual blood related siblings who actually committed incest to create Yuzuru.

And I suppose we can go into the whole argument of why incest is illegal in the first place and heck it might even be a human construct. However, as a law-abiding citizen, it just doesn't seem right.

Would I recommend this? Not really. Even if it wasn't about incestuous siblings, I would still say that Ai is frustration enough not to read. There are definitely better stories to read out there. Go read some others because this is just too long and too unfortunate and slightly cliche and contradictory for me to recommend.

Manga Match 72 Koisuru nante Kiite Nai

This was a surprisingly good manga. It really caught me off guard. It's honestly expected for it to not be a super great experience when the manga is only 3 chapters. You can't expect a whole lot of development within three short chapters. However, this manga was really successful.

{Spoilers, but it's only 3 chapters so}

It follows this office woman who's realized that she's no longer in her prime. She asks to be temporarily moved to another department in her company to become more competent at her job (which is super admirable wow) and she's being trained by this very straight-laced man. He teaches her the ropes, but also allows her to grow on her own in terms of how she thinks the job should be done. A really good and nurturing teacher, you know? And it's a strictly professional relationship. Until it isn't. And I think it's just really sweet how they naturally fall in love after working together and seeing each other's strong points. It's not like in shoujo where they fall in love at first sight. I think it's more realistic to desire for this kind of love where you fall in love with their personality and their admirable points rather than their visual. But maybe this is just some musings from an old lady, who really knows?

And the ending where she's uncertain if he likes her and then he hands her a report of all different aspects about himself so that she can get to know more about him. It was dorky, but also really sweet.

I'd recommend you read it. It's super short, the story is compelling, and it displays a more quiet romance that we don't often see. It's definitely kira-kira at some points, but I think overall it's worth checking out because of the plot line and execution.

Manga Match 71 Love in Focus

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. As we all know, I have a knack for rooting for the person in the love triangle that doesn't end up with the main guy/girl. It's my secret special talent apparently. Because apparently in shoujo, if the girl falls in love with the guy who has loved her all along instead of the mysterious broody guy, the world would end.

{Spoilers except it's shoujo and a love triangle so you already know how it's going down}

So, this manga revolves around this girl named Mako who loves taking pictures. She's like a secret protege. And she moves to a different city after her grandfather passes so she can join the photography club there and have a change in scenery. She lives in a boarding house with her longtime childhood friend Kei, this broody guy who hates having his picture taken Amemura, and a few other people.

And you know Kei is such a sweetheart. He went to go pick Mako up from the train station because he knows she gets lost easily. He invited her to the photography club. He's always been looking out for her. But S M H Mako really just sidelines this boi for Amemura. I mean Amemura is also a pretty sweet guy. But Kei is just ???? Anyways, the whole thing lowkey ends up being about Amemura getting over his photography trauma and then he and Mako fall in love. That's the end. Poor Kei :(((

Would I recommend the manga? I mean sure if you're looking for a kira-kira shoujo manga, this is a pretty good one as far as that goes. And it's pretty short as well. And full of ikemen. So, yeah if you're not looking for a lot of substance and just want a relaxing read, go ahead and read it.

Manga Match 64 Konyakusei

I think what happened here was that I went through MangaRock and a series was completed in the recommended category to me I just read it. That's why recently I've had so many like ~20 or so chapter manga that I've been reviewing. I was really wondering why I had so many that were around the same length and the same theme-ish of shoujo hehe. I've cracked the case. I've secured the bag, as the kids nowadays say.

{Spoilers, except it's shoujo so}

Recently I've been ending a lot of my sentences with a "so" which could be seen as kind of sloppy as I'm not completing my thought and letting whoever I'm conversing with to figure out what I meant by themselves, but I also think it's quite funny too. Also as a side note just for myself, I should lay off the caffeine because I keep getting really bad anxiety. Which is bad.

So, this manga focuses on a high school girl that suffers a terrible tragedy and loses both of her parents. Apparently they didn't leave her much/any inheritance with which to live and so she's worried about what she's going to do in terms of housing and living costs. Honestly this seems a little far-fetched considering that later on, the story elaborates on her backstory and says that she's good at cooking and housework because she's always left alone. If her parents are always working, how could there not be any inheritance left over for her? I am confused. But anyways, her landlord conveniently is looking for a wife to marry him and take over the housework. Don't worry though, he's a high schooler. Is it legal to let your high school kid be a landowner while going to school? Are any of the premises of the story actually accurate? I'll leave that up to you to decide I guess, but it seems prettyyyyy sketch if you ask me. 

Anyways, they end up living together and this guy's life is actually wack. He never sleeps because he's doing work, he never eats because he's doing work, and he's the student council president etc etc etc. You know, the perfect shoujo boy that's too OP to be an actually human being. And yes, you guessed it, he has no time for inefficiency. But, his heart is slowly softened by this wife that he acquired just out of convenience. And they live happily ever after, after some minor inconveniences. The end.

I mean, it was a pretty cute story. I guess my only qualm is "is this realistic?" Probably not. Was it entertaining? Yeah it was pretty good. Would I recommend it? I think there are better manga out there, but it was an interesting premise to be sure. 

Manga Match 62 Nineteen, Twenty-One

I think I just went on a kick where I started reading some older and shorter manga that've been completed. This is just because I'm reading over 50 ongoing manga and it's getting really out of hand if I'm being honest. I lowkey need an intervention.

{Spoilers, except it's just kinda fluffy so there's nothing world-smashing going on here}

This manga was powerful in a quiet sort of way. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting. From the summary, it seemed like it was going to be the story of a girl that lost her memory in a car crash, and then meets this guy that she knew before she lost those 2 years worth of memory of her life and they rekindle their love or something.

Instead, this was the story of a girl that has to reprepare for college admissions, and a guy who doesn't want to grow up just yet. So physically, this girl is 21, but mentally she's 19. This guy is 19 both physically and mentally. And when they come together it's kind of a sweet thing. They bond over their mutual love of taking care of stray cats. They meet every day and because they both see how mutually kind they are, they slowly fall into a mutual love. I think because there's lack of dialogue at some parts, it seems kind of silent as you can just watch and fill in the silence between them with understanding. I think that's one of the most beautiful kinds of love actually, when there can be love between two people without really having to put it into words, or at least it looks nice in dramas and manga hehe I wouldn't really know.

They even make friends with one of the neighborhood ladies who originally hates the cats because they mess up her nicely tended yard. However, they're able to come to an understanding and coexist in beautiful harmony (omg that phrase is so cringe, but I'll leave it in).

It's pretty cute too how the guy kind of fills in the gap of 2 years left within the girl with his youthful charm. And cute how he still sees her as more mature and as if there's a gap in between the two that he's constantly trying to bridge. And obviously it's cute when they finally get together, duh.

Overall, it's a quiet and more nuanced sort of manga. And it's got a carefree and whimsical quality to it. I'd recommend reading it if you're looking for something a bit more relaxing and you really like cats and just soft things. It was really just soft.

Manga Match 61 Koi ni Naranai Wake ga Nai

Recently I've come to the realization that a lot of people are unhappy because they compare themselves to others and can't be happy for their accomplishments alone. And that's really sad. Because I was talking to my friends, and the reality of the situation was was they could say soooo many nice things about the people around them and point out all of their good attributes, but couldn't do the same for themselves. Somehow I feel like that's a problem that's really hard to fix, but if we could fix it there would be a lot happier people in this world. No idea how to do it though haha sorry.

{Spoilers, but it's shoujo so you know they end up together}

Hehe I'm gonna be honest and say that I was hoping this series would be like Daytime Shooting Star with some spicy romance with the older guy that really wrenches at your heartstrings. Uh, I'd say don't go into this with that mentality...because it definitely wasn't like that. Instead it was more like "what if we took someone's fantasy and made it an easy reality." And that's basically shoujo in a nutshell right? I'm not really sure how to put this, bu this one just seemed a lot more idealistic than something actually feasible. I dunno, maybe I'm just going through a phase where I reallyyyyy admire this professor...yeah no I won't go down that rabbit hole but if you know me you know I kinda have a problem >////<

So, anyways, this manga follows this high school girl and this random college guy she has an encounter with and falls in love from there. Oh yeah, and they're neighbors. Plus he's a practicing teacher(?) at her school. Pretty simple and straightforward right? Honestly it was a little too straightforward and not enough character development for me. It kind of seemed like she was one-sidedly obsessed with him and he just liked being fawned over and justified him pursuing her by saying "oh yeah, I guess she's cute." I think you could also read it another way and say that by him saying that he'll wait until after his time at her school as an assistant teacher is over before going out with her is pretty considerate and nice. You could also say that by both of them refraining from going public for their relationship was also considerate so that the guy could still have a chance at being a teacher, even though he ended up being a news reporter.

I really can't place why exactly the whole thing felt a little bit unnatural, but maybe that's just because it was really cheesy. Like really. And aiya when they became physically intimate to the point that they couldn't study together and she was like "what if I just don't follow my dream and become a housewife?" Thank frickin god she didn't. Heck, if she did you ALREADY KNOW my review would've been scathing. Haha I think reviews are supposed to be pretty neutral in terms of not involving your morals (unless it's like incest or bestiality or some wack stuff), but it's jut not possible here.

Anyways, I think if you're looking for a cute and lowkey forbidden teacherxstudent shoujo series, there are definitely better out there. If you want a role model, maybe not her. Like she's definitely got relatable human characteristics, but it just wasn't the best thing I ever read, you know? I don't think I've completed a manga recently that's really ticked all the boxes for me, but if I do you know I'll be really happy. It's been a while :')

Manga Match 57 Two manga that are about kinda immoral things and make me kind angry ngl

Hi, so as you can see from the title...the contents of these manga are sketchy at best in terms of morality. Sure they justify this stuff with like happy endings and all of these nuances that make it seem like "hey maybe this is okay" but in actually it's all just very sus. Now I'm not here to be your moral compass and tell you that the following contents are pretty wrong and messed up but...they're pretty wrong and messed up. So sorry if you think adultery and cheating is right because...these just make me feel kinda sad, pretty uncomfortable, and downright pissed at some point. hAh!

{Spoilers, except I told you that we were in for some tea so you know issa boutta go down (sorry idk who I was imitating)}

So let's start off with the one I read first: Gozen 3-ji no Muhouchitai. So I thought this was actually pretty funny. It's about this girl that moves to the big city and wants to make art. But then she gets roped into basically being a graphic design slave for a pachinko company and even though she says that she's going to quit, she gets sucked into the rapid pace of life there and the people that she works with. Because her job is so fast-paced, she doesn't have time to hang out with her boyfriend that's still in uni, using his place to sleep rather than hang out with him. Which is honestly justified by how hard they work her. But he takes this as neglect and blatantly cheats on her with some younger girl. I think it's kind of interesting thinking about this social trend where men often cheat on their significant other with a woman that's younger than them. At the core it's all about evolution and creating offspring so obviously a younger woman would be physically more ready to have kids I guess, but there's just something really wrong about the whole thing. Now I'm no professional sociologist so I can't really say for sure, but there's something to be said about this trend that we see so often and just accept.

Okay back to this messed up story. So the girl finally confronts him about cheating on her after a super long time and she ends up meeting this older man that works in the same building as him. They often get lunch together and it seems like a pretty pure relationship. Except for the fact that he's freaking married. Like hello that's when you say sayonara to any feelings and skedaddle the heck out of there! But no, even though this is obviously illegal she says "it's true love, no matter what I do I can't live without him" or whatever. And this older guy confesses that his wife left him and their marriage was super unhappy and then finally divorced her. Like does this happen in real life? This was such a wack story???

Would I recommend that you read this? I mean it's pretty short and I think it's pretty inspiring in terms of the work ethic that she displays and sends a really good message about how even thought the first job you get right out of college isn't your dream job, that doesn't mean that you can't get anything valuable out of it or that you're wasting your time. No matter what you do, you can learn from your current circumstances and keep pushing forward. Yeah, but about the adultery...yikes fam I'm no lawyer but you really should try to avoid that circumstance in the first place.

Ah, the second manga. Haha I told my mom about this one and she was thoroughly angered by it as well. It's called Cappuccino and there's a pretty nice little ongoing analogy to the cappuccino and a little bit of a cafe theme going on here. But let's get down to it shall we? We've got this couple that just moved in together. They're sweet, they're in love, the guy Sousuke's promised Ari's parents that he'll marry her once they're financially stable. But he screws up. He's so dumb. And my mom got so angry by this. So this boy is a prep school teacher okay and his student one day is like "omg sensei i love you" and that's all it took for this guy's heart to be swayed. Okay I've seen posts online that're like "if a guy isn't attracted to any other girl that means he can't appreciate his significant other" but I think Sousuke's crossed the line. I think once you fall into the temptation and animalistic desire of needing that kind of chase or excitement that's just plain wrong. And he had the gall to still be in love with her two years after they broke up. Thank god that she moved on and was able to find someone that she was able to trust after being so brutally injured like that. Ugh just thinking about it honestly pisses me off. Like who gave you the right to feel privileged like that and to lie and cheat on your loving girlfriend just because some pretty young thing bats her eyes at you and tells you to kiss her??? Like I don't see her risking anything to be in this relationship. It was just stupid Sousuke.

As you can see I was thoroughly pissed off by this manga. Sure it was nice in the end when Ari ended up alright you know. That was nice. But Sousuke was a piece of work. And even though it was seven chapters...was it worth it? Ehhhhhh no not really it just got me really angry.

So there you have it, two manga that I read recently that made me feel kinda eh about the whole thing and a little bit bitter towards adulthood and that vague morality that they have. It's pretty scary thinking about it honestly. Like looking at these stories and reflecting on them, they do have a seed of truth to them. Stay vigilant y'all and make sure to look out for yourselves in this dangerous world!

Manga Match 56 Balancing Toy

Ufufufu, well, funny story is that I've actually been reading a lot of shorter series that are like 6 or so chapters long. But I wasn't feeling very inspired to review them, and maybe I'll regret it later when I accidentally reread them because I didn't document reading them the first time. However, life gets in the way of things that you really want to do like binge-watching anime. I've got finals looming in the coming week and fear hasn't been stricken in my heart yet, but I know that it's coming. With all the studying I've been doing in this sedentary lifestyle my back has been hurting quite a bit. Only the Lord knows how broken my body will be at age 75 *cries*.

{Spoilers, but it's slice of life so}

Ah, I can't really say how much of this manga I really understood. I think with these shorter series they can go various ways with how they narrate and this one was definitely a thinker. It was about this girl whose mom passed away and was left with a man that wasn't her biological father, but still really loves her and about their happy life together. But it also tied in the girl's childhood friend that she somehow still stayed in contact with and his rather strange turn of events? And it also tied in the father's relationship with his family? It was definitely very nuanced in that it was very much so "how much can you read in between the lines?" or at least that's what I got from it. And because of this I spent quite a bit of time contemplating and trying to puzzle out exactly what I was supposed to get from this. Honestly speaking, I'm still not sure what I'm supposed to get from this.

Is this a bildungsroman? Or would classifying it as such be taking the easy way out? I think it's an introspective coming of age narrative to be sure, and perhaps it's so crazily put together in order to prove the point of the tumultuous life she's led? You can see from the number of question marks in this post that I'm still trying to piece it together. But really I might not come back to this to think more because ~finals are looming~.

Even though I was nothing short of confused about this series I think it was a pretty cool read :')

Manga Match 52 Kareshi Kanojo no Jijou

Today I went on a shopping trip with some of my friends. It was full of a lot of walking and just general meandering as these things tend to be, more of a taste of what winter break was like more than anything, but it was pretty nice catching up again and just kind of sinking back into the rhythm of college life. Sometimes it seems as thought I'm living two lives, one for when I'm back at home and one for when I'm away at college. I wonder if this dissonance is caused because I'm growing, or perhaps because I've just had to adapt to the changes that life has thrown my way.

{Spoilers}

Speaking of dissonance, there was definitely a lot of dissonance and plot twists and foreshadowing in this manga that I didn't quite expect. I think when I got into it I thought to myself, "I wonder how this cutesy little slice of life rom-com situation could be 102 chapters long? Will I get bored of it?" But to my surprise, it was full of a lot of different things that I hadn't expected, nor experienced before. Perhaps because it was written throughout such an extensive period of time and really given the chance to blossom that it became a full-bodied and rather unique experience that I haven't seen very much of before. Sometimes when manga or anime plots go into the deep dark past of characters, it seems kind of one-noted or like there's something missing, at least that's what I find. However, this manga gives off such a different complexity that I can't compare to anything else, mostly because I'm not sure if I've ever seen anything quite like this.

But without going off into my meandering thoughts which are formatted as informal reviews, I should give my usual plot summary. So this story starts off focusing on this girl named Yukino who likes to act like the model student because she likes the feeling of people admiring her. The operative word here being "act" because in reality she's pretty twisted in that her actual personality isn't as sweet and pure as she leads others to believe. Her life isn't exactly as perfect as she portrays it. And the only one that can see through that facade is Soichiro. The reason being is that he's also hiding behind his golden boy persona, but for a reason far deeper and darker than just wanting to be admired. The story explores themes such as young love that develops as two people discover themselves throughout their time growing during adolescence, family dynamics in all respects, battling with inner demons, and the multidimensionality of life as many different characters' points of views and their mentalities are exposed through short side stories that outline their place in the story as add another realistic layer. Oftentimes the story will focus on the main couple of characters and kind of leave everything else to your imagination in terms of what some of the side characters think or what their lives are like. Obviously in life, everyone has their own story, and in this manga, that's explored a little bit more than others.

An example of this would be Tsubasa and Kazuma. Their love was definitely one of conflict and with scattered growing pains. With Tsubasa it was with her inability to love because she was scared of people leaving. For Kazuma it was the rifting in his heart due to his love for Tsubasa, but also his intense desire for music. Through their mutual love and communication of these concerns, as well as them battling their inner demons by themselves, the two of them are able to come together. I mean, that's a very simplified summary of what actually happened, omitting the whole "is this incest because they're step-siblings" thing, but it's also a pretty fleshed out side story of what's happening in these characters lives beyond the main couple. It definitely showcases a different type of love, perhaps one you would understand if you or your significant other were chasing after a dream that seemed to tear the two of you apart. This might encourage you that you could eventually work it out, ya know if that's what you're looking to do in your relationship. A lot of romance stories I read will be like "if you love it then let it go," and that's good and all, but sometimes I think a story like this is also a good reminder of a story that shows that you can do both. This story is also a spotlight on Tsubasa's inability or fear of loving another person/not accepting that you love them and feigning ignorance as a foil for Soichiro.

Because such a large part of this manga is focused on Soichiro and his dark past, it makes sense for a lot of the characters to be foils for the different aspects of him and give a greater depth and build an understanding for where this poor guy is coming from. When it comes to him, the story gets really wild. It uncovers, through many volumes of the manga, the deep and twisted history of the Arima family and how one father's abuse would lead to the son's hurt and a continued cycle of abuse that would wreak havoc on the successive generations of the family. Specifically in Soichiro's case, the emotional abuse his grandfather wreaked upon his uncle and adoptive son as well as his illegitimate son, Soichiro's biological dad, meant that the two of them were broken which led to Soichiro's early childhood being full of hurt. It was just layers upon layers of hurt and mistakes that compounded upon one another and led to this bigger picture of Soichiro's inner demon. This was his alter-ego, his dark side that he tried to suppress and not show anyone. He was the golden boy, but this was only to suppress the dark side of himself that he tried so hard to shut away. All of the hurt and the anger, instead of letting it out and trying to sort through those feelings to find a resolution and closure, he instead shut out. Partly for not wanting to worry his parents, but also to keep Yukino from finding out about this horrible side of him. And I think these kinds of expectations would crush anyone.

To be honest, to explain all of the nuances I felt throughout this wild ride of a manga would take way too long and end up not making a whole lot of sense, even to me. So I think a way to sum it up would be that compounding the abuse of generations and starting to enter this endless cycle of hurt and abuse and hurting more, led to Soichiro's madness, but this madness was cleared away partly because Yukino was willing to accept him as he was. And even that cannot fully encompass everything that happened, from Reiji, Soichiro's real father, wanting to do something twisted to protect his son and regretting that he wasn't able to fix his own life, as Soji, Soichiro's adoptive father, who couldn't help but be jealous of how much of a prodigy Reiji was and not being able to cope with the comparisons people made, but still having the heart to love him. And the guilt that plagued both for hurting the other. The way the characters are fleshed out in such a way that you could justify inn a certain way the actions of every character for why they acted the way they did with such clear motives was really astounding. Like you don't necessarily agree with them per say, but it was just a wild ride.

Definitely some parts of the manga I didn't particularly like, like the kind of unavoidable cheesiness at some points. It's honestly probably just me, but I'm glad that in the end that everything worked out and everyone in their group of friends was able to have a happily ever after. It was definitely a wild ride full of epiphanies and an overwhelming amount of character development and self-analysis and growth, but it was kind of like life in how unexpected and messy and intertwined everything was. I entered into this manga enjoying the peace and the seemingly quietness of the manga. Haha, I guess that's how they really hook you in.

But even from here I guess deep inside I knew this was just the calm before the storm. How could they have known all of the obstacles life was about to throw their way?

Overall, I think this is a manga you should consider reading if you like a longer and more thought-provocative read. I'm not saying it'll spark any philosophical thoughts or anything, but it definitely made me more conscientious of people's thoughts and perhaps their motivations behind their actions. I really resonated with Soji in that I often feel like others who are similar to me often shine brighter than I do and feel jealous and then feel bad for feeling jealous of them. And I think in this manga you could find a lot of instances where you resonate with a certain character, a certain feeling, a certain mood, a certain situation, in which you can relate to this manga which is in itself a treat. There's so much to unpack within the manga and finishing the read is definitely fulfilling. It's kind of got that older feel to it since it's set before now, so there's not a whole lot of cell phone usage and whatnot, and it's kind of a nice feeling. There's this certain tone that I think the mangaka has nailed down, and it's a real treat to read. 

Haha I just really wanted to include Pero-Pero's (Yukino's family dog) glow up

I think this was a really astute description put into words of what family life is like when you're young. Because I grew up in such a nurturing and loving environment especially I think this is something I take for granted, but it's really true that your whole world is your family and they're so influential in your early days and what shape you. You could go on to debate the whole "nature versus nurture" thing, but I would say that this manga is more so about the power of nurture over the perhaps inherent nature within people?

And of course when Yukino is able to begin the wind that clears the clouds away that cover Soichiro's heart that's a heart-warming moment if I've ever seen one.

This is cute. Look at little Sakura, so mature telling her mom to go back to school :')

And here we have the happy ending that's really satisfying at the end of such a tumultuous manga.

Manga Match 50 Venus Capriccio

I thought I'd just start this off with a little reminder to myself what the title of the series that I'm doing "Manga Match" really means. I mean first of all I really like when a title is comprised of words that all start with the same letter. Really satisfies me, you know. But also I wanted it to be like a catalog that you can look through for your manga after you finish the one you're currently reading. It's kind of like blind dating I guess for manga, or just like having a smaller sieve to sift through rather than just searching shoujo on the Manga Rock app.

{Spoilers}

I think a running theme with a lot of musicians is abusive/traumatizing childhoods. This is no exception. Think "Your Lie in April" but toned down. And not the main premise of the manga either.

So this manga focuses around the dichotomy between two piano players. One is Takami who is more of a tomboyish girl and the other is Akira, a boy who is more doll-like and traditionally pretty. With this as the beginning premise, Akira is definitely the prodigy between the two, with the hard-driving mother as the motivation to the beginning of his career as a piano player. (That's why I brought up the traumatizing upbringing of musicians.) And Takami is just in love with the piano. Honestly I'm not too clear on the main motivation behind the creation of this manga. It was definitely upon the idea of a boyish girl and a girlish boy, but beyond that it's just a fun little rom-com drama manga about a boy trying to prove to the girl that he's a man now and should be taken seriously and all of the drama that ensues because of it. Throw in a splash of the guy's dark family past and you've got yourself a pretty well-rounded manga.

I won't say that this is awe-inspiring and that you have to read it. But if you're looking for that kind of shoujo with a princely kind of guy then there you go? If my younger self were to read this I think I would be a lot more impressed and moved, but because of the saturation in the genre of shoujo as well as the moving feeling I felt with "Your Lie in April" which rocked my boat a little more in terms of illustrating the pressure a parent puts on their child to succeed, it just wasn't up there in comparison with other series I've read. But if you're looking for more of this dichotomy between some polar opposites or you want some musically inspired manga then this is a pretty good one to read through. It's only around 30 ish chapters too so it's a pretty quick read if you're just perusing the selection.

Manga Match 49 Tonari no Atashi

So yesterday I felt like I was on my death bed because I was sick in bed with the flu. That's probably a gross over exaggeration of the reality of the situation, but nevertheless it made me thankful that I was at home for the holidays for my family to take care of me. Honestly every time I come home I feel absolutely spoiled. And it's not like they're doing anything super duper extravagant, but they don't have to. The life I live at home is one of absolute luxury where I can eat all the good food and drink water without fear of diarrhea within the next couple of hours. :) yeah this actually happened once. Maybe the pipes just had stale water inside over the summer? Whatever the case, it wasn't a fun experience.

{Spoilers}

So, as we all know, I'm always on the hunt for my next spicy as heck shoujo manga. And I think we might have a serious contender here folks. Here we have the "love triangle where the guy I usually root for actually ends up with the girl because she actually recognizes the value of the nice guy, but I still feel torn because the other guy ended up pretty nice too because he's from my favorite childhood friend trope oh no I'm so torn and in distress" scenario. We probably all know that feels. But this puts a little twist on the whole love triangle scenario and who she was "meant" to end up with versus who she actually did. Lowkey I got Scum's Wish vibes form the thing with the side girl trying to get with Kyousuke and stuff. But I don't really want to get into that because Scum's Wish really just scarred me to the ends of this earth. Ewh I don't even want to think about it.

Anyways, so the story revolves kind of around the main girl Nina and her discovery of what romance and love really is. There are a few nuances and foreshadowing stuff that happens in the beginning that really didn't make sense until I had finished it all the way through which made it all the more satisfying to read and complete...while I was in bed sick with the flu. (Perhaps because I was in such a delicate state and was slightly nauseated while reading it, this was a really nice read to get my mind off of how badly my body hurt. What can I say? I'm weak when sick.) So she has her childhood friend and neighbor Kyousuke who she's had this fantasy romance with in her head for the longest time. She really thinks she loves him, the operative word here is thinks by the way. And her dream is to get into the same high school he goes to. She kind of gets a taste for what love with Kyousuke would be like when she confesses to him and he almost kisses her, but stops because although her mind seems like she wants it, something deep down inside of her is rejecting it. And so this boy here, instead of waiting patiently for her or whatever or doing anything other than starting more drama, ends up with Asou (the girl who gives me Scum's Wish protag vibes) who furthers the drama to the nth degree. While Nina is busy dealing with her jealousy and abandonment issues and while Kyousuke is trying to convince himself he actually isn't in love with Nina, Nina ends up going out with the sweetest boy on the planet, Miyake. This boy has been watching his classmate Nina fawn over Kyousuke throughout middle school. Literally such a sweet boy and just wanting her to be happy. And he was happy just seeing her be happy until he actually got to hang out with her some more (shoutout to his bomb af wingman friend group) during the fireworks festival and promptly confessed his pure boy feelings to her. And then comes the drama of Nina and Kyousuke both being in different relationships with different people, but still being drawn together like two sides of a pair of magnets. And it's a mess. And you can't help but wonder who Nina's going to end up with and who's going to be hurt.

But then it's revealed that Kyousuke's actually loved Nina all this time. He's loved her for so long, but in loving her he's realized that her love for him, while she thinks it's romantic, is actually more of a siblings love. And that's a big ooof. And it's a really hard pill to swallow. That all this time he's really loved her, and to see her end up with Miyake must've really hurt. And the author does such a good job of weaving all of these interlocking pieces together, especially with all of the nuances that each character brings to the table, that make it not just another cheesy love triangle that you've seen over and over again in shoujo manga that's just there for the sake of being there. Instead you get this intense, albeit maybe improbable, love triangle in which there's tangible misunderstandings and feelings and the transience of feelings with love and what you think is love and what might be jealousy for the loss of a loved one or actually just growing pains as we all grow older. And it's hard seeing how the reality of these situations seen to be at odds with our favorite ships, but all through it, you just can't help but root for your favorites.

This definitely was not a comprehensive review. They turn more into summaries than anything. But it was just really shocking to me to see Nina actually end up with Miyake instead of Kyousuke. Sure Kyousuke was a jerk. Like he didn't need to go out with Asou, though it was likely to move on from Nina, nice try. But he did. And that allowed all of them to grow as individuals. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel even a smidgen of physical pain when I saw this panel, but I really did. It hit me in just the right way to bring me to the brink of tears, though I did not really cry.

Because Kyousuke let go of his long-time love. He even confessed to her. "I love you" he says. And she replies "I loved you." It hit too hard.

And then here's some Miyake screenshots. Because he's a sweet sweet boy and I'm happy that they ended up together. It was definitely a bittersweet ending, but a great one anyways. 

I think if you're like me and you're looking for a shoujo that isn't super clear=cut as your traditional shoujo where the girl goes through some bullying and ends up with the main love interest, no shade if you do because sometimes yeah those hit the spot, but you're looking for something that's a bit more twisted and has some different kinds of plotlines and relationships portrayed I think that this would be a good one to read. It's not the best one that I've read out there, but it's definitely up there. I really appreciate the mangaka for all of their hard work and for giving us a story that I don't think I've seen before. It was definitely a wild ride. 

Manga Match 44 Migawari Hakushaku no Bouken

23 Sept 2018

Well, I've officially moved into my dorm for the year and the good part is that I'm not really homesick to the point of tears this time. The bad part is that there is no kitchen in this building. I took all of the luxuries from last year for granted and now I miss it :((((

{Spoilers}

Well this is another gender swap kind of manga that's set in this fantastical ~medieval(?)~ era (LOL it's hard to describe because I know little to nothing about what kind of era it's supposed to be set in). There's this girl Mireille who has to stand in as her twin brother inside the royal court and while she's there she encounters many interesting people. She takes part in many of the mysteries that unfold such as the secret plot to kill one of the princesses of a nearby kingdom and all of the plot twists that came along with it.

I was reminded a bit of Clannad with the fact that Mireille and her family own a bakery and yet she's such a terrible breadmaker similar to Nagisa's mom.

It's kind of hard to summarize something that had such a complex plot for only being 32 chapters, so if this summary ish thing doesn't make any sense please just don't mind it. In fact it was so complex that I don't even think I got some of the more nuanced mystery points. It's definitely a manga that you could reread and probably gain more insight on into everyone's hidden motives and such, especially the king's.

{Ahah I just woke up, maybe I should've picked a better time to write this}

Overall though it was a pretty interesting read. There was just enough mystery, and the normal amount of romantic misunderstandings for it to be shoujo, and a bit of comedy as well which made it enjoyable to read. If you're looking for something a bit more dimensional than your straight up shoujo, you should consider reading this one.

I just had to add this one because Fred is actually gold. It's hard to read him since he is always scheming and plotting things from multiple angles, so it's hard to tell if he was really scared of having to do a test of courage in the haunted house or if that was just an excuse for him to go on vacation or investigate other threats to the royal family.

When Richard is not only the main interest, but also the castle's hero.

Manga Mayhem 42 Wizard's Soul ~Holy War of Love~, Seishun Rikon, Anata ni Hana wo Sasagemashou, Bambi no Tegami

Yikes, so I've just quit my first ever real job kinda dealio and so I've had a bit of time on my hands with which to of course indulge in more manga before school starts. I've read these and I don't particularly feel like they've got quite enough substance to them to write separate posts about them so I thought I'd just mash them all into one just because I can.

{Spoilers}

First on the list going chronologically would be Wizard's Soul ~Holy War of Love~. This is a card game manga meant to have a moe moe kind of atmosphere with not a lot going on besides cute girls playing card games. And that's kind of all that goes on. It's got this Chihayafuru vibe to it, only because it has cards tbh, but nonetheless I had to include that thought. They're playing this card game that's apparently based on one that really exists, but as someone not really knowledgable about card games, I'm not sure which one it's based on to be honest. It's set in this alternate world where how good you are at cards determines your place in society. This girl enters one of these card game competitions in order to win money to pay back her father's debt and through playing the game comes to realize that she doesn't actually hate playing the game as much as she thought she did. She originally tried her best at the game with the mindset that if she were to beat her dying mother at one card game she would be able to save her mom from death itself. Ultimately she wasn't able to save her mom which drove her to hating the game. Facing all of these different opponents in the competition, she finally realizes that she likes the game as well. The manga has a good balance of drama, tension, actual card play, and clear narration of what's going on in the game so the reader isn't confused. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was an amazing manga, but it was pretty cute and a bit different from the stuff I usually pick up.

I realized as I was reading that her sister's names together would be ion canon lol which is kinda cute because they're so cute but their names put together would be a weapon

And of course there's a v cute ship

The second manga would be Seishun Rikon. This one was pretty short with 9 chapters and based on the premise of a girl and boy student with the same last name. Their whole class calls them a married couple and the two just accept this, not being too bothered by this. The boy is working on coding a calendar smartphone app to be used by the students at school and involves the girl by enlisting her help to draw a cute mascot for the app. It's a pretty pure manga all around with kind of an open ending hinting that they end up together. Hngh so pure

The third manga was a more supernatural manga with this guy that had nobility but no money and this girl with a lot of money but no status. The two of them are roped into marriage by their families, but really what brings the two together is the curse that the guy is under. There's been a curse on all the male heads of the family for all of them to die young. It's basically the guy and girl and they fall in love and then defeat the curse. It wasn't super special or anything and the characters weren't all that outstanding. I dunno, maybe it was too rushed for 20 chapters or maybe because halfway through it was just about them being in this rushed infatuation stage together. Eh.

The fourth manga was if you just took a manga where the main love interest is that cool edgy bad boy type and the girl has lowkey abandonment issues over a deer and lots of bad luck and put them together and they fall in love. That's all I can say, it was pretty short. LOL I just really like the mangaka and their work in general tbh that's why I read this.

Wow looking at this I'm glad I didn't try to make separate posts on these. Yikes. I guess not every manga can be a gem like Daytime Shooting Star or Blue Spring Ride heh.

Manga Match 35 We Broke Up

So yesterday I watched Thor: Ragnarok on Netflix with my dad and he fell asleep in the middle of the movie. LOL I love movie nights with my family. This was super random but ya know sometimes I just have really random thoughts.

{Spoilers except it's so heart-wrenching but at the same time like La La Land heart-wrenching so you lowkey already know what's gonna happen but it still hurts ya know?}

So it starts off with this couple named Woori and Wonyoung and how they were forced to live together due to financial difficulty after they broke up. However, the reason they broke up is the reason why many couples find it difficult to stay together: they got too used to each other. It's the sad truth that after you spend too much time together it can be hard to see what you first liked about the person and keep finding new things to love about them. So in a way you can't really fault either party for the breakup; it was mutual. And so this is the story of how they navigate this weird limbo in which they live with one another but aren't together. Woori eventually finds a new romantic interest in Hyunwoo, and while it seems to go well at first, when they begin to form a more intimate relationship, something's holding Woori back from fully committing to this perfectly nice guy. And at the same time Wonyoung is getting a jumpstart on his music career after so long. And though there are girls interested in him, when he sees Woori so happy with another guy it stirs up those nostalgic feelings of long ago when Woori and he were happily in love. And it's sad really to see your past play out and seeing someone who you were once so close with being happy with someone else. So you can't really help but feel for Wonyoung, or at least that was me. And at the same time Woori was also having a hard time letting go of Wonyoung because he kept giving all the signs of wanting her back. This led to a difficult and very adult situation where the two of them really had to evaluate their relationship where it stood. And that meant that even though the relationship between the two of them could be rekindling, it didn't mean they had to stoke the fire. So instead of getting back together, Woori had to be the adult and tell Wonyoung that whatever bond they had shared in the past was a wonderful thing, but it was still in the past. Even if they got back together, the past would repeat itself and they would run into the same problems. And so the two of them parted ways and were able to grow in their careers and just grow in general into two very successful adults. But it was sad. It was like in La La Land where they could've had a life together if they had just stayed, but they sacrificed that for a successful career. And it leaves a lot of "what if" questions too, which are some of the worst questions. Like what if they had moved out of that shared apartment from the start? What if she had said yes to getting back together? What if Wonyoung didn't have a girlfriend when they met years later at that wedding? What if Woori had stayed with Hyunwoo? What if Woori never dated Hyunwoo in the first place? There's just so many what if's that could've happened that would've resulted in a different outcome. Sure it's a realistic interpretation of what probably would've happened in that situation, but it still makes me sad knowing that their love wasn't meant to last.

Yeah, so if you're looking for a heart-wrenching, La La Land-esque manhwa I think this would be a good one. It's got a pretty engaging storyline and it's just really sad in a way that I don't think I'll ever get sick of. It's a glamorized reality for sure, but I think the aspect of reality it does cover is one that always hits too close to home. It was a good read.

Hngggh Hyunwoo was such a nice guy

LOOK IT'S AN ORANGE MARMALADE REF

Yeah, it just really hit me in the feels this song. This kind of feeling just hits me right in the heart without fail.