I really like this for showing a friendship developing into a relationship, and how awkward and slow-moving that might be. I like both the characters individually and together, because they're cute and awkward. I like how Samejima-kun is so quiet and nervous a lot but then he suddenly gets over-zealous when he starts talking, and Sasahara-kun seems oblivious at first but at the same time he's someone who accepts things as they come. There are several cute little moments that I thought worked nicely in the story. For instance, Samejima-kun is a germophobe, and at one point Sasahara-kun has started to accept Samejima-kun's feelings but he also can't help playing with him a bit, so he does things like commenting on Samejima-kun's food, and Samejima-kun pushes the food over to Sasahara-kun to eat even though he'd only moments before thrown out chopsticks someone else had used once. He'll step out of his comfort zone for Sasahara-kun in that way, and Sasahara-kun will step out of his comfort zone for gay/straight things for Samejima-kun.
Also, there are short little comics between some of the chapters, and I thought they were super cute. In particular, the ones where Samejima-kun is dancing alone out of happiness due to something related to Sasahara-kun.
The art is a bit different, because the backgrounds/items in it (like the pocky knock-offs) are detailed and really well drawn, but then the characters themselves (in particular their faces) are a sketchier. It does lead to a bit of confusion in a few scenes, where it's hard to tell which character is which because the only difference between them is the color of their hair and their clothing. I found that the expressions/art style took me out of the story a few times, but there were other times it was kind of cutely done. So I think it's mostly just preference.
There isn't really any rape in this story which is a nice break. There are some very minor things where one or the other is kind of forceful but there's never anything anywhere near to what has become commonplace in BL, of one completely forcing himself on the other despite screaming protests. If anything, Samejima-kun is extremely hesitant and shy. (There's actually a really cute panel involving him and a blanket). So that's another plus for this story.
One minor complaint I have isn't to do with the manga itself but rather the publication of it. My copy had some of the word bubbles eaten up by the binding, making it nearly impossible to read what was being said. I don't think they gave enough blank space on the page. Luckily, it's only maybe 3-5 places where that happens in the whole book.
I also found it interesting because the sex scenes are drawn from multiple angles, almost like amateur porn movies or something. I kind of liked the way it mixed things up a bit from the usual BL.
I bought this at akadot for cheap, and overall I'm glad I got it. It's a nice story about two people who are sort of incompetent at love and sort of not, but who remain friends throughout. I recommend it if anything in any of these reviews speaks to you. I bought it based on reviews here and am glad I did. That being said, the art isn't the best I've ever seen, and I really liked the story for the most part but this also isn't going down as my favorite BL manga ever written. However, that might be because I've become rather discerning of late and I really don't know if there are many series that COULD make me love it enough to call it my favorite manga ever.
I kind of wished there was more to this story at the end of it. If there ever were another volume with these characters, I would definitely buy that as well. I liked this manga enough to now want to find other works by the mangaka and try those out as well.
I'm rating it 8.5 because I really appreciate that this story had a much more realistic take on friendship-to-more than the majority of stories with that plot, and because I really liked how awkward and hesitant Samejima-kun was and how Sasahara-kun would laugh at Samejima-kun, and the way they kept getting into silly little fights. I don't have it higher mostly because of the art and some minor other things.
(-27)
