It's things like some of the comments here, I'll admit. That are giving me a viscera hatred of large breasts. Which is sad, because hating a chest size probably isn't any better than hating a skin colour. But every time something remotely nice happens in terms of human sexuality, in comes the peanut gallery to say we cannot have nice things.
Several comments here are doing nothing to review this manga based upon the body type of Ageha. Not personality, not character development, not writing of the story. Her body. And then promoting Morino x Tsutomu based upon that. Well fine then, why even try to not be shallow. I'll be shallow, too. Ageha is a million times better looking than Morino. Not all of us are into ugly cow tits. In fact, if there's any complaints I have about Ageha's body, it is that it's too curvy. Her chest certainly isn't completely flat and she has a huge bottom, at least by my standards. The flatter a woman is, the better. And if this was a manga about Tsutomu and Morino, I'd be irritated at staring at Morino's cow utters all day. Amazume Ryuta likes small breasts? Good. I like small breasts too. Flat chests are justice. I don't know how anyone is into curvy women. I'd like to see more mangaka feel the same.
Well, onto some other related things. What is Toshiue no Hito? A really really dirty romance drama with, from what I've read so far, a tiny harem element that I hope to see not return at all. Of course, I've only read up to chapter 11 as I write this. What other people are commenting on negativity, is that this is basically one of those "guilt free lolicon" manga. It takes just about every thing that could possibly be wrong with "lolicon" even, and removes it entirely. Of course, as long as a character doesn't have DD breasts, there will be some annoying person out there who complains. But there isn't such a thing as truly "guilt free lolicon" in our current world, sadly, there is no safe haven or escape route.
You see, Toshiue no Hito is somewhat of an age play manga about an older woman, who is supposed to look much younger than she is. Possibly "like a kid", and an adult man who is several years younger. She is given an adult personality, though with some flaws, character development, and generally, the antithesis of what is seen as wrong or exploitative or anything about lolicon. She tip-toes on some lolicon fantasies, mostly, just the fact she doesn't have large breasts(about a small A cup) and is fairly short in stature. In everything else, she's more adult than almost every anime character ever, as most anime characters are teenagers. Ageha is an adult woman in her mid twenties, at the very least starts off assertive, is a college student, had previous romance and sexual encounters(is obviously not virginal), and even very clearly her face is adult. She has that "seinen adult" face, and her face doesn't much conform to "moe" standards at all, most adult anime characters actually have younger faces than Ageha. And the way the manga tends to focus on her face and angle her body, it's often hard to actually tell she's short. The manga definitely plays up her adult characteristics. If you're one of those people that's kind of lolicon but don't have anything really wrong with you and you just don't like large breasts, this is going to be one of those rare, guilt free manga.
Other than that, this manga has some ups and downs for me. I really liked how the manga started off, going against gender roles and pointing out some remarkably understated truths about human sexuality. For instance, that guys, obviously, can be raped by older women. Especially if they're minors. And can be traumatic experiences that cause troubles in their adult sexual lives. Also, that women can be sexually assertive and interested, moreso than the men in their peer group. Which Ageha starts as.
But, and don't read this if you don't want any spoilers, it quickly changes and has development, that while character development is good, goes right back into gender norms. Ageha becomes a damsel in distress. And certainly while anyone of any gender should take action when Ageha went, well.. It becomes this whole thing that Tsutomu needs to be a man and his sexual inadequacy as a backwards symbol for his lack of masculine assertiveness and dominance. Ageha's strength becomes this wilting flower and she harps on obnoxiously about how she's a predator and an old woman when she's in her twenties. She becomes the stereotypical, crying emotional wreck woman of almost every romance movie or comic ever. I'm sick of this sexist cliche. And Tsutomo, filling his gender role, becomes the "Knight in Shining Armor" to save the day. And Ageha, at least at this point, has become completely submissive and teary. Even doing the cliche "no, stop" and "no, not there" in the bedroom. Gee, you're such a predator Ageha, with all the "oh! I couldn't possibly be interested in sex! Oh dear oh Tsutomu!" thing. I like character development, that's good, Ageha seems like an adult human with flaws. I'm not sure I like everything it has entailed so far, though.
Also, in with the seinen demographic, I guess, the manga sexualizes the female characters all of the time with clothing and POV and so forth. There are random naked women all the time. Just like, any excuse will be taken. Ageha certainly isn't the only person you will see naked. But you will only see women naked unless it is a sex scene. Are heterosexual adult men so immature they can't be exposed to another man's naked body without feeling terrible?
I guess you can only as for so much. It's nice to see another romance manga about adults for a change. Adults with respectable, realistic personalities. A manga that isn't afraid to offend the sensibilities of people who are morally and sexually outraged to attraction to women with small breasts. It isn't afraid to blur the boundaries between porn and romance, and if all porn was like this, it would be a lot more wholesome. Most porn is about rape or domination and submission of some high variety, most sexuality in this is done is a purely romantic sense. And I like the moe aesthetic, but it's nice to see this kind of material done without resorting to the moe aesthetic. With all that, I suppose, again, you can really only expect so much. After all this nice stuff, there's a lot of various cliches, some of them kinda sexist.
From the sum of its parts, I think it's worth a go. If the negative parts aren't too irritating for you.
(-51)
