Now we focus on marriage problems of the COUPLE or the individual journey of the WOMAN? At the beginning the author tried to look at both and seemed to manage it, but you only get to see the woman and HER struggles after 50 chapters. If the purpose was to portray a woman breaking off of a unfulfilling marriage the narrative had to start differently. The way it is, you actually feel more for the husband, as it seems unfair that he doesn' get to show his side as much. While the reasoning behind the sexless marriage at the beginning made the story a relevant theme for josei, the love drama later on ist just shoujo and I had to drop it.

I don’t understand people who do things half heartedly when it comes at the expense of other people. How can you be married for so long and not know how to communicate properly? Is this something normalized in Japan? I noticed this theme comes up quite often in mangas and it seems like it’s the norm over there. I found myself becoming annoyed with the FL more so than the ML because it seems like all their stress is stemming from her. The ML seems more open to discussion and the only reason why he isn’t more vocal is because the he knows the FL gets all whacked out and emotionally/mentally annihilated. I can’t imagine being in that type of relationship where you have to walk on egg shells around eachother…that is unbearable.

I was enticed to check this out by the low rating (4.9) for the seemingly mature subject matter and its presentation. There is cheating (various forms, depending on the way you define cheating before it gets physical) and I think the FL's character development starts and stops too many time. The drama gets a bit excessive for what the author set the story out to be (the 2nd FL reminds me of Sae from Peach Girl, down to the design, lol) and I would have rather read a sedated slice of life about these two than where the author has taken it. There are some good nuggets of dialogue and thought in here, however by Ch. 40, that silver lining reaches saturation. From that point on, we just get into the back and forth of the plot drama ( much involves you going, "Can this woman [FL] catch a damn break, please?!" ) Right now, the raws are at 100+ chapters -- that's a lot for a josei where I could have mapped out the conflict in about 50 chapters.

I'd recommend this for people who like capital D Drama, you know, the kind where you want to pummel the ML and shake the FL and then the story goes on too long and you just wanna throttle them all in waves and for some reason, you can't stop reading now that you've started? That's one group.

The other group of people who might like this are those who are interested in josei about marriage and the troubles married couples face -- yes, there is cheating in this, but the author does try to present it as "how could this seemingly nice couple, who do still very much love each other, get themselves into a situation like this?" I will say that while there is Drama, it's much better than the stuff you see in shoujo. You can feel for the FL (even through her self-pitying inner monologue sometimes) at so many points, so you can get why she makes the choices she does. Some bits of her life and what she says to herself really resonated with me. You might be tempted to shout advice at her, but at the end of the day, it's much harder in the situation than it is outside. She makes it a point to emphasize early on how alone she is, even with friends around her (they all have their own lives and she doesn't want to burden them with her seemingly petty problems).

The 4.9 is pretty harsh but I get it because of the cheating, repetitiveness, the length, and FL's personality at some points when you're really trying to root for her. I'd give the story a 6 overall, with the beginning getting a 7 for drawing me in and showing me the FL's growth through independence.

... Last updated on May 11th, 2023, 10:05am

Raw is ongoing
I hope this shit ends up soon

I am kinda curious when they're dropping more. I hope it hasn't ended.