Oh boy. Where to start? Fair warning: this won’t be good.
I came across this manga because a reviewer for Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru said this was the better version of it. I disagree completely. I think "Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru" is a MUCH better version of "Rin!". After finishing this series, I know that that reviewer only picked this one over it for one simple sentence "[if I didn't stop when you asked me to], it would be rape!". Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru has quite a bit of dubcon, and I guess it wasn't their thing. But I'd take dubcon a hundred times (I actually really enjoy dubcon) over characters easily getting together with no thrill whatsoever. Plus, if you're not used to dubcon, or even noncon, I really don't think you should be reading BL.
In any case, it was hard to tell that I wouldn’t like this much, because “Sono Yubi Dake ga Shitte Iru” has been on my top 5 BL for basically all my life, but I haven’t read much by KANNAGI-sensei, while Takanaga-sensei is one of my favorite mangaka. Both these series are quite similar in some aspects, but this is much less to my taste, for starters, since I’m not into fluffly manga and saying “I love you” all the time, with barely any hardships. But to make it worse, the overall quality isn’t the same between these two by a long-shot. This kept getting progressively worse by the volume.
Up until chapter 3, there was a bit of angst building up and I loved it! If “Rin” had ended there, it would’ve been a cute, short, concise manga. Unfortunately, it was like the end of Game Of Thrones (sorry, it's 2019, that was recent, it annoys me), a lot of built up and then settling for a less than desirable solution. They could've made the characters suffer much more, but, instead, all it takes for Sou to realize he likes Katsura is to see him being kissed by someone else, and Katsura quickly realizes he likes him back. Booooring, which culminated in a first kiss that was simply awfully plain, not exciting at all.
Volume 2 didn't really have a plot and it was quite boring to see the archery camp. Maybe it works for someone who's interested in archery, but I'm here for the BL. Not necessarily about the sex (though I would've liked some more of it, this is almost shounen-ai), but for their relationship. Sou barely showed up in that whole section of the series.
Then the last volume was even worse for an entirely different reason. It's already a stretch to think TWO people would be interested in someone as annoying as Katsura, but THREE? And Takato’s presence there had no meaning whatsoever other than to stir Sou and Katsura's relationship, which was finally getting to an okay place. He's also like, 23/24 years old, and Katsura is what, 16? A bit gross. I know it's not the first BL to have an uke still in high school and an older seme, but Katsura’s immaturity aligned with the art makes the age gap seem really obvious, which is NOT a good thing. To top it off, Katsura does absolutely nothing about Takato’s passes at him, up until the very last one (which is a kiss, so he obviously could‘ve stopped it well before then). He acted the same way with Kouichi, also allowing himself to be kissed twice, and then has the nerve to complain that Sou is "possessive". I felt terrible for Sou, having to justify his feelings at the end when he did nothing wrong. Even the least jealous person in the world would be bothered by Katsura’s passivity! He was oblivious to the point it had me rolling my eyes almost the entire thing.
But that's not even why I hated that third part! I hated seeing Kouichi suffer like that. He really didn't deserve it and it made me feel for him. He was already my favorite character before then, but now I'm wondering why he never got his happy ending. That was truly terrible, I wish volume 3 had never existed.
A couple of other plot points that didn’t perform well are the idea of the anxiety attacks. It was interesting at first, but then didn’t get explored as much as it could’ve been and, again, was resolved far too easily, which didn't feel slightly realistic. The hugging situation being the trigger for the relationship was refreshingly original, but the development of the relationship itself didn't entice me. Which is sad, because so much more could've been done with what they had... Going a bit back to Sou revealing his feelings on the very last pages, I feel like there were many filler plot points in place of things that should've been worked through. It’s not okay to end the series with the seme being scared of losing the uke because he feels like he’s too possessive when he’s not, or without showing them parting and how that would affect their life. Once again, instead of a full volume of training camp or some other guy that just showed up for two chapters, I’d rather have had Sou and Katsura’s relationship progressing in a better way.
Now let’s move on to the art. I’ve touched on it a bit before, but I didn't like neither the translation of this series nor the art. I'm not sure which word they used in Japanese to describe their feelings, but the two first times that Sou says he has feelings for Katsura, it was translated as "I like you", which is much less intense than "I LOVE you" (leading me to believe they probably translated incorrectly, because Japanese doesn’t really have that distinction, unless talking to a friend), and made it too uneventful. Then the art made it worse - Katsura shows absolutely no expression whatsoever when being confessed to. His face is as plain as a sheet of paper, no emotion there. I mean, wouldn't you at least be surprised if your childhood friend confessed to you? Or scared, frustrated, excited, happy...ANYTHING! But no, he just stood there. The art is also made to be the focus in a bad way when, every time Katsura says Sou is looking at him in an "alluring and hot way", not only is the art not capable of showing, but there are NO PANELS of just his eyes. Come on, people, we're reading BL for the male x male, gimme some sexy looks here!
I just don't like the art in general in this series. It feels sloppy and more to the "cutesy" side, which is not my type at all. I prefer the clean, modern-looking manga, where characters look more hot / elegant / gorgeous than normal and boyish. Katsura is even worse. Sou can be somewhat cool looking, but, like I said before, Katsura looks like a baby, to the point that the steamy scenes made me crinkle my nose a bit - it was like seeing a kid. Yes, I know there are a lot of BL set in high school, which is fine, but at least make them look old enough to have a sex life (even if the beginning of one!), please. But then, not only does he LOOK like a boy, he is a bit of a cry-baby. Not my type of uke at all. This should be called "how an uninteresting uke can get so many gorgeous guys into him". He does have a redeeming quality, which is a bit of character growth, and it was nice to watch him stand up to his fears, try to be straightforward when talking to people about serious issues or feelings and generally manning up. But the last volume falls backwards with this acquired maturity…
Sou's the opposite. He started out just the way I like semes - reluctant, sarcastic, a bit mean, cold...and then turned into the biggest fluffer of all! Not the pushy, sexy type of seme, but just the clingy, "I love you all the time" kind. Ugh, not for me at all!
All in all, the very first part of this series was enjoyable, but after chapter 4, I struggled to make it through the rest, as it dragged on for chapter after chapter of what felt like filler and bad plot. I wouldn’t recommend it, as I'd rather spend my time reading something else.
(-26)
