Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder if I'm reading the same thing that everyone else is, because I don't understand the overwhelming positive reaction to this particular work. I'm self-admittedly pretty lazy when it comes to writing reviews unless I really, really loved it or I really, really hated it. You can take a wild guess at which category my reaction falls into.
To begin with, I'll start with the pros: I liked the smut and I enjoyed the art, but I didn't like the dynamics of the first relationship. Atsushi is a prick love interest of the first order. I kept waiting for the guy to redeem himself in some manner, but he was probably the worst type of lover. I might have forgiven the fact that he wasn't very good at expressing himself, that he wasn't very considerate, and that almost all of the overtures of their relationship came from Haruki, but I really had to throw my hands up at the final act.
Atsushi finally gives Haruki a key to the apartment - confirming an important part of their relationship - and the next thing you know, the secret of his birth is blown, and he's moved out without a single word to Haruki.
I mean, freakin' A, I get that you might want to move but how do you do it without even saying anything to someone you care about? A text, a phone call? The number of times I've seen this trope used, the love interest always had some type of reason (no matter how lame). This guy had none, except for the fact that he was an inconsiderate jerk. And when he finally deigns to text Haruki, the first thing he tells him when he sees him is, I'm moving to Hawaii. Gee whiz, no sorry, no hello, no I'm sorry for being an ass and not telling you anything, just I'm moving. What did he expect with that type of news? Happy happy joy joy, I'm gonna hug you?
Again, he waits for Haruki to make the move. He wants Haruki to beg him, Haruki to reassure him.
And I get it, you poor baby, you had an abandoned childhood, boohoo. That's still not an excuse for piss poor manners. Everything was about him and how he had to be coddled because his mommy didn't love him.
Jesus, I wanted to kick a cat at the end of it. I know there's an audience for this type of male love interest in shoujo and BL. I sometimes like the cold love interest too, but only if they make up for it in some manner. This guy had no redeeming features at all except for his sob story. At no point when it counted did Atsushi do anything to reassure Haruki of their relationship. Instead of clearing up the misunderstanding about his mother, he let Haruki believe what he wanted, therefore allowing him to embarrass himself and then have to grovel to get Atsushi back. The eye roll factor was great for this one.
I'm not sure if it was just the version I downloaded, but I found the pacing of this manga to be odd. They'd be doing something on one page and the next panel, it'd be some other time, some other place, somewhere else with very little transitioning. I had no clue how many days had passed or how long they had even been together. There was very little sense of time, place, or setting in general. The characters were all stock despite the twist of the uke/seme role reversal.
The second story was obviously an earlier work of hers, but one I couldn't really get into (probably due to the terribleness of the first).
Overall, I'd give this a huge thumbs down, way down. It's a five for the smut and the art, but everything else was terrible. There's better out there and more talented manga-kas who probably could have taken this same story and written it better.
(Side note: I do realize that the manga-ka has passed away, RIP. However, this work is not meant to be offensive to her, just a criticism of her work. I hope that's understood and that people don't misunderstand the point of my review.)
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