beta
[from Behind The Smut:] 28-year-old Chako's family are tea farmers, and she has returned home to ru...
This is how I wish romance would work for everyone... I don't agree with s*x before marriage, but everything else about this is so wonderful. The fact that Chako is 28 (and I'm 25) and is just finding Isshin makes me feel really hopeful that I will find my own man someday soon I had no idea that tea makers had such an incredible and inspiring and deep emotional and mental and even physical relationship for their craft, every single step of the way! I knew that appreciation for tea culture in Japan ran deep, but I had no idea how much it meant to them-- not like this. It's really beautiful, all of this. I love seeing two emotionally constipated people find their best selves with one another. It's wonderful that Chako has been able to be so open to Isshin about her thoughts and feelings, even though it's so hard for people like her (and me, lol) to do that. I hope Isshin opens up with Chako more, too.
I really love this manga. I've been feeling so hateful and jaded against the anime and manga industry for the past 4 or so years now, because it's all just dirty sex appeal, sexual jokes, seriously mentally unhealthy characters doing all sorts of really toxic things to other people and themselves; all of that really depressing yucky dark stuff. But this was different. This was so different, and it almost brought a tear to my eye. I pray that more manga and anime like this come about in the next couple of years. I fell in love with anime and manga because of the deeply profound, soul-enrapturing rich thoughts, feelings, concerns, passions, and ideologies shared in them. This reminded me of that love. I'll be looking forward to chapter 43, that seems like a crazily important chapter to have been skipped!