At 38 chapters out at the time of writing, i feel confident giving my impression of this work.
It’s an age gap romance(?) about a 13-y.o. child actress that has a crush on her manager.
ART
Art is probably the best part of this manga. Jaga-sensei has his/hers specific drawing style, which is both beautiful, soft and warm, while retaining remarkable simplicity of style.
CHARACTERS
Ayano is the female lead. She is a child actress which has recently made a comeback, and is being managed by Isshiki Fumi. She quickly falls in love with him and tries to make advances on him, which he deflects. There is a great deal of good writing here, and her veneer of her capability and maturity often crumbles against her true childish self, esp. when her advances are always skilfully rejected by her manager.
Ayano is earnest, intelligent, mature beyond her years, socially savvy, gentle and patient but is also pushy and smug, though always respectful of Fumi…
She is also lonely and for all intents and purposes abandoned by her workaholic mother, to the point that even other employees at the company quietly resent her mother for her neglect.
That’s perhaps the reason why Ayano is attracted to Fumi who obviously cares for her well-being.
Overall she’s an enjoyable character to see, and her careful antics are the best part of this manga, next to the art ofcourse.
Isshiki Fumi is an employee of a talent management company who finds himself managing Ayano. He is quiet, earnest, and tries his best for her as her manager. But he’s also deadpan, boring and listless workaholic that privately, i don’t know what he stands for, if at all. First i though this is good because i assumed him being so “dead” is result of a past trauma. While there was indeed trauma involved, and maybe i missed something, i came to the conclusion that this could have been written better.
Fumi is actually the biggest weakness of this manga. Not because he doesn’t try anything, but because when one sees him, one thinks there is more to him than there really is. That’s at least the impression i got. He seems to me as a character with undercut potential. But let’s see, maybe this will change later (i hope it will).
PLOTLINE
The initial premise stArted as both intelligent and fresh but soon reveals it’s limitations.
The fan-service in this manga is non-existent, which is good this is not a silly rom-com. This manga instead paints a calm and picture, in a sense is aimed at older audience.
Is it a romance manga? Honestly, i’m not sure at this point. It should be, but it kind of isn’t.
and the plot instead focuses
my biggest problem is that the plot is designed in a way that it’s deadlocked. Even with Ayano’s advances, with Fumi being uptight guy he is and keeping it professional (which is a smart choice), the plot basically spins in circles and paints itself into the corner without a time skip.
And this brings me to this manga’s biggest weakness; it gets stale pretty quick.
At begin i was intrigued by the premise and there was a real “where are you taking me?” anticipation with this. Not as in “oh, this is a dumpster fire and i know it”, but “OK, let’s see where this is going in a normal healthy world”.
And i think there WERE options to weave a quality plotline, mostly through them overcoming their inner traumas while learning to trust each other and perhaps starting a platonic and ever to slow burning romance with promises to later get more serious.
But this is just my example.
But unfortunately, i noticed that the plot just keeps spinning in circles; Ayano tries something, Fumi refuses her gently, stuff happens, she looks for another change, tries something else, gets rejected, etc. the progression is VERY slow, to the point i’m not even sure it’s there.
With that said, i find my enthusiasm for this manga waning. While i’d have jumped at a listing of a new chapter before, i didn’t even bother to open last few chapters until much later. I suppose it will be axed and have some sort of time skip.
It’s still enjoyable, but the novelty wore off.
(-5)
(+1338)
