I was just about to review this and I was glad I did, because I found out about volume 2, and I liked it more than volume 1.
If it was to be judged based on Koga and Sasano's romance, this manga to me would've been just a distraction to pass the time. It's not bad, it's alright, but it's not different, either. I guess the nice thing about it is the pace, very slowly developed, which I appreciate. However, the plot itself is basically non existent. Since it's a shounen-ai, not outright yaoi, there's no sex, so it's not like that, but... it's a pretty straightforward love story. I think Hiwatari-sensei wanted to try her own take on it? I don't know.
It was cute how Sugiyama and Hibiya kept trying to help the main couple in volume 01, but I honestly can't say much more than that. All the dates and festivities made it seem very much like a shoujo manga, and not a remarkable one. As for the resolution, I really dislike the "I like you", "I like you too" climaxes, I prefer more complexity. My favorite part about it was probably when Koga was jealous, even though that didn't last very long.
Another problem is that neither are my type. Sasano is the complete opposite of my type. The shy, sweet megane uke. At least he doesn't cry, I suppose. Koga is even worse, because a seme can make or break a manga, and to have the SEME cry all the time... Yeah, he feels like an uke, too.
Even though my review this far reads like a bad one, I didn't hate this manga. I just didn't think it was remarkable.
But then volume 2 came, and oh! It's much better! It's not like it's the most original story in the world either, but it does have a great shounen-ai steady, slow pace.
I liked how they were a bit past the relationship stage and too much into the friendzone. Although this isn't a new concept, the way it was done here was quite a new take. Normally, they're childhood friends or something. But Sugiyama and Hibiya weren't, they met during the story, but kind of missed the timing? I also liked that Sugiyama had a deeper complexity about him than basically all the other characters. The fact he wouldn't let Hibiya in because of that made for a much more interesting story.
And I like that, even though Tatsumi is used to create jealousy, much like Shimizu, they don't actually cause anything but another character's wrong impression. Tatsumi ended up being just a friend, not a love interest, which I liked.
If I could change something about it, it would be Hibiya having confessed early on. It took Sugiyama a bit to fully accept him, and I like that it wasn't angsty (even though I'm a sucker for it), but rather a slow, steady pace, like the rest of the story. But if Hibiya had held it in longer, I think it'd have been better.
Finally, neither are my type of uke/ seme (apparently, looks like this will be a constant with Hiwatari-sensei 🙁 ), but I don't dislike any of them, either. I really thought I'd hate Sugiyama because I thought he'd be Sasano 2.0, but smaller and even more girly, but he's the complete opposite of it. He actually conquered me and I kind of love his personality. He's sarcastic, that's pretty rare to see in yaoi. He's witty and also even make dirty little comments here and there, despite it being shounen-ai. He's a really refreshing character that I wish we saw more of in the BL world.
Finally, it seems obvious to me that Tatsumi and Kurata are the third couple, so I'd like a little special chapter about them. I don't want a whole volume, or worse, an entire manga for them, because Kurata is even less the type of character I like, but I'd like some resolution between all of them.
Oh, as for the art, it's lovely!
(-1033)
