Ok, so let me start by saying I read everything in the wrong order. I read Blind Love 5 years ago. Recently, I came across Love Or Pride. So after finishing it, I read Blind Love again. And now I just finished Bittersweet Cafe. This makes virtually no difference in the story, as opposed to reading Blind Love first. If you read Blind Love before Love Or Pride, it makes a big difference. But reading Love Or Pride before Bittersweet Cafe didn't make a difference in this series or its sequel.
In my opinion, Blind Love was ok and Love Or Pride was really bad. This was...bad too.
The first chapter had me thinking "oh! Maybe it's not as bad after all". It was a normal story. Not very original, but just cute enough to get me going.
However, it quickly escalated from "not-amazing-but-ok" to "full-of-cliches-really-bad".
First of all, it is not a requirement in for yaoi to have someone realize they are gay. The author can either ignore that completely, treat as a non-issue (like, the characters are so modern that it's not a concern) or have the characters already be gay from the start. This was not the case. But if you are even going to lightly mention that aspect, the damage is already done and you have to go further into it. She didn't. While Honda realized he "never felt that way about a man before", he didn't seem to care about something that would make anyone else at least a little bit confused. He accepted right away that he loved Megumi.
Then come Megumi's feelings. Very boring. "How could I not realize that I was feeling this?". Pretty obvious. Again, I'd understand it if there was any kind of real conflict, like him being confused because he'd never liked a boy before - oh, by the way, nowhere does it say Megumi already was gay or realized it afterwards either - or because he was into Yukiya.
As for the story line, like I said before, it starts cute. But it goes from that to a little off, to blatantly absurd. I'd understand the "sempai" being upset because of his coffee shop, but people don't turn into murderers just like that. It was way too quick for him to take brutal actions. So when the climax was reached, with all that action going on and knives and stuff, I was on the verge of laughing, instead of on the verge of tears, which I believe was the opposite of what the mangaka desired.
And then there is that awful part about Megumi's past. It seemed like he was abandoned throughout the entire manga, but that would make no sense because Yukiya was around. Then, when it's finally revealed, it's rushed, without emotion and just as out of the blue as everything else. There is absolutely no conflict for Yukiya - which, big surprise, is no different in Love Or Pride either! - even though he has to take a child in and he himself was apparently very young.
To make it even worse, the story was left with a bunch of loose ends. Megumi wanted to open his own coffee shop because the one he owned was Yukiya's. The manga reaches its end and nothing of the sort happens - not even in Love Or Pride. Megumi wanted the perfect cake to go along with his tea. Well, the tea wasn't even introduced in the coffee shop's menu when this reached its end.
And who the hell is Sakiko? No backstory about her, not even a simple explanation. She is an editor? How is that relevant to the story?
Then comes Yukiya and Taiki. Like I stated before, I read this in reverse, so Love Or Pride was my first idea of them. So I know the author must have thought of them for Bittersweet Cafe first then followed up with Love Or Pride. But they are just too different. It's almost like she used the same characters and backstory, but changed their personalities completely. They are both mean gangsters with cold hearts and snarky remarks. And they don't live together, after so many years of being in a relationship! Which completely messes up Love Or Pride, as they had in fact moved in together, all too soon. In fact, they don't even seem to be together at all, because it looks like Yukiya didn't confess - which he did in Love Or Pride, which, chronologically, comes before this. It seems like Taiki is still pursuing Yukiya.
Last thing to comment is the characters themselves.
Honda is just a normal guy. Nothing special about him. He can be pretty sassy sometimes, and, in fact, one of the best scenes in the entire manga was the last sex scene, when he goes "tell me if you want me". That was one of the sexiest scenes ever.
Megumi, on the other hand...whiny, childish, boring, baby-like...not at all my type. He's the crybaby uke, and I really don't like those.
The cherry on the cake is the stuff they say to each other. "Promise me you will never leave me". What? They basically just met, and nothing major happened for them to be saying stuff like that so seriously. All of the catchphrases were pretty awful like that.
The only redeeming quality about this is the art, which is not even amazing, but nice looking.
(-24)
