I'm impressed from an objective point of view. The writing, though a bit sugar coated, was excellent. The art is, of course, a bit dated, but the manga itself is rather old. The characters are endearing and admirable with just enough roughness around the edges to make them feel real. Over all this is definitely a manga worth reading.
Now, my subjective and personal feelings. Due to being written for the shounen ai genre, I found myself dissappointed. What can I say? I love a little sex in my homosexual romance manga. Even if it is not explicit and only implied - ie: They lie down together kissing and shedding clothes in one frame and wake up in each other's arms in the next frame. This felt like the two, nearing middle age, protagonists were actually tweens playing house or a pair of married octagenarians with false hips and bad backs. The pitiful excuse of "I'm not ready" really made it worse for me. The guy has been in love for years and was completely ready if it meant he'd not be found out sooner or allowed to stay. Yet, to consummate their newly found mutual love it was a no go? Sorry, that was just too lame in my book. There are probably thirty thousand "fan theories" as to why he wasn't ready, but that would not change the fact that they would all be just theories and nothing the writer or mangaka included to justify or explain his reaction. He would have done it the night of the festival, but not now? It was an obvious ploy by the mangaka to not have to include anything sexual beyond kissing. Which, honestly, is why I often avoid reading shounen ai. I don't mind only kissing if the characters are kids because that seems realistic given their innocence, but two middle aged men not having sex? Sorry, not on the planet I have lived on for nearly 50 years! Regardless of this disappointment, I still enjoyed reading this manga very much and I would definitely recommend it.
Thank you so much for picking this up and taking the time to translate, clean and typeset such a wonderful manga. I know I am not the only one who enjoyed this manga immensely and had been dissappointed in the lack of updates. So, you have saved your poor fujoshi and fudanshi brethren's hearts with your kindness and generosity. Thank you so very much. You also did a fine job with your translations. Keep up the great work and thanks again.
By the hedgehog sex??!! This mangaka is known for human/animal pairings. I expected it. Honestly, I expected something much worse. Like horses or donkeys or reptiles or platypus... now that would have been an interesting dick to draw! They're star shaped! The damn thing looks like a sea anemone! It's a dick with tentacles on the end, like a damn Christmas tree with a star on top! Horse and donkey dicks would have, literally, killed our poor Hachi and reptile dicks fold inside out like socks! So, yeah, hedgehog dick is sooooo okay in my book. If you love someone, you love all of them. And Hachi loves Hanabi. Of course he is going to accept his hedgehog form and love that form as much as he loves Hanabi's human form. If I were in Hachi's shoes, I'd do the same thing. Otherwise, saying I loved someone would be a lie.
Even the semi-happy endings are enough to make you cry. That said, these were incredible stories. Each was interesting, well written and decidedly original within the context of the theme of "zombies". My kids love zombie flicks. So, I thought I might get a laugh or two out of this manga, but I cried quite a bit. I'll admit to being more impressed than I expected to be.
This is such a heartrending, yet beautiful, story. The art is fantastic. Most of the emotion in the story is expressed in the facial expressions of the characters rather than through dialogue and exposition and the mangaka didn't miss a stroke. The pain and anxiety the uke felt was apparent on every frame and then his confusion when the seme came on to him didn't come off as anger or rejection. This artist has really done their homework beyond basic facial expressions. The plot itself was simple and relatively commonplace in the genre, but the art changes the feel of it. It didn't come off as boring or typical. Personally, I could really feel the character's emotions and that drew me into the story. I was very impressed.
Oh, okay. Hmmm. That was.... So anticlimactic. I feel like I just got 4 hours of foreplay and no orgasm. WTF?! Don't get me wrong, 4 hours of foreplay - and the story up until now - is and was amazing, but if you know what "blue balls" are, you know how I am feeling right now. The feelings of disappointment, frustration and incompleteness are even more powerful than the story's plot and conflicts up to this point. I can only hope that the potential extras will somehow make up for the ending.
I never, in my wildest dreams, would have imagined a mangaka would create a leading character in yaoi who is autistic! It's freaking awesome! I have a very dear friend who is the living embodiment of Tatsumi and he has autism. Jake is just the most wonderful person you'll ever meet, but only if you are patient enough to get to know and understand him. His mind perceives the world differently than me or, probably, you. However, if you take the time to exchange your perceptions with him, you find an amazing, kind, witty, articulate and fascinating young man hidden beneath what seems like an awkward, rude brute. He is beastly strong and, just like Tatsumi, had trouble gauging his strength when he was young. Tatsumi is the manga version of Jake to me now! And that makes me unbelievably happy! I can't wait to show this manga to him!
As a psych major, I'm so disappointed I haven't made that conclusion given all the symptoms right there. Kinda made me see the whole manga in a different light thanks to you
It's funny, I am going back and reading all this mangaka's works right now and it seems that most, if not all, of her characters fall somewhere within the autism spectrum. Most can be passed off as simply "socially awkward" or "overly serious" in their personalities, but Tatsumi was the first to be portrayed so high on the spectrum. It was the excessive strength, or better to say the inability to judge one's own strength, that was the clincher for me. I met Jake when he was 3 and I would often care for him in his mother's stead when she had to work. Even at 3, the first time he grabbed my wrist to get my attention, I had bruises for a week! I find it amazing what people without autism take for granted and do without thinking much about it, like gauging their own strength.
I'm glad I could put this manga into a different light for you and, hopefully, for others. To me, having an autistic protagonist who finds a happily ever after is a huge win.
I thought I was the only one who thought this! I have read a bit about autism and this manga made me think he was autistic.
I love how he it isn't one tragedy or overdramatic manga. He also finds somebody that accepts and loves him, while they both have chemistry.
And Shinobu also gets offended. It is not like he is oppressing himself to stay with the seme. He asserts his own feelings, too, which is very important in a relationship
Thank you for leaving this lovely comment and sharing about your friend Jake! It's so sweet to hear how much representation matters!!
Shinobu likely has no idea that Tatsumi is autistic. Which means, he doesn't pity Tatsumi, he simply loves him because he is Tatsumi. And, honestly, who doesn't want to be loved for just being themselves? Right? That is what makes this story so perfect IMO. There is no tragedy or pity and Tatsumi isn't regarded as anything more than a simple man who wants to be loved and accepted. Which portrays a person with autism as having the same hopes and desires for love and happiness as anyone else. There may be differences between a person with autism and one without, but there are also some basic similarities. We all want to be loved and accepted, whether we are a "normie" or not.
Exactly!!! You know, lots of bullying happens because people consider the bullied as "weird" and different, but difference doesn't mean inferior, nor is it negative either. It is something neutral...
This manga kinda shows this. The dude is different, but he has desires and feelings. Even if he doesn't have "common sense", he still can like and respect the person he loves.
For the rape scene, but the rest of the manga seemed dull and listless. Don't get me wrong, I understand why that scene needed to be intense. It was horrific for Maki and it comes across in the art, the staging and the writing. However, the rest of the story was written with the intensity of a narcoleptic sloth. Sure, I enjoyed seeing Shuuichi beat the living shit out of the fucker that raped Maki, but even that scene could have used a bit more intensity. I'm never fond of the "lack of communication" trope so heavily relied upon in manga, but it really irked me in this one. We, as readers, don't see Shuuichi's POV until an extra and then it is the typical, "I love this person, but because he is a guy, I'm going to suppress this feeling and fuck chicks." trope. I guess it just felt like the mangaka put all their thought and energy into one horrific rape scene and phoned in the rest.
About Shuuichi's pov I feel like it was more "oh hes like basically my family so I need to suppress my feelings because I don't want to ruin our relationship" rather than oh its because hes a dude.
Fair enough. That is a possibility too. Though, if I remember correctly, he specifically mentioned in his monologue that he felt concern over the fact that he had romantic and sexual feelings for another male. Which, by all accounts from gay men, is a common concern when they first become aware of their homosexual nature. Especially in socially conservative countries and cultures like Japan. Romantic and sexual attraction between hetero distant relatives is more acceptable than any homosexual attraction, whether a relative or a stranger, in contries and cultures that are deeply conservative.
That was the basis of this story... nothing. There was no plot to speak of, no attraction, chemistry or feelings between the main characters and ultimately no one has sex. I'm sure the boyfriend kept him awake all night playing video games. This was nothing if not a waste of time, energy, ink, paper, data and 15 minutes worth of strain on my eyes.
Damn! I read this again! I don't even remember reading it the first time! Don't get me wrong, all the morally righteous platitudes spilled out by the adult were nice and quite the change of pace from a standard yaoi. However, this is YAOI or, at the very least, shounen ai. Where is the love? If it is yaoi, Where is the sex? The guy only gives the kid half-hearted head. If I, as a reader of BL and hardcore fujoshi, want to see an adult give a child a lecture on morals, I'll head to my local church youth group. I read this genre for love and sex... fantasy love and sex to boot! Maybe this mangaka suddenly found Jesus or something. Though I didn't even know he was missing. Look, fantasies are morally questionable to start, that's why they are fantasies! In fantasy we can see and experience things through fictional characters that would be prohibited, or frowned upon, in real life. Can we really invade the private life of a couple, gay or hetero, and stand there and watch as they have sex or go through the motions of falling in love? Hell no! That's why we do it in fiction! So, why the hell am I reading a one-shot that amounts to an "after school special" on the Lifetime Channel?! Give me kinks and fetishes that would make a sailor blush and be afraid to look his mother in the eye! And if you can't give me that, at least give me a sweet and fluffy love story. But whatever you do... don't you dare give me a sermon!
ROFLMAO !!!! Preach on Mameiha ! LOLOL !
You've probably read all these but, here ya go !
http://www.mangago.zone/home/mangalist/99110/
It’s a oneshot what did you expect
Baby, I have read one shots that have made me orgasm, blush, cry, question my world views, laugh and cringe. And I have even read a few that did ALL those things at once! The fact that is a one shot does not mean that it can't be engaging, interesting or, in the case of this one shot, something more than a sermon.
Thanks, Torian! I'm sure to find one or two I haven't read yet. LOL
"Humans become stronger with the number of tears they shed." It sounds like something my grandmother would have told me. It's beautiful and true.
Loved this manga too. It was rough going at the start because the English in the translations was so poor as to be distracting, but after a few chapters it vastly improves. Yato was, by far, my favorite character. He seems to be a one dimensional character at first, but like the translations, his character development also improves vastly. Jizo was also a necessary character to facilitate the comedy. Without his harsh wit and crushing words, I doubt this story would have been half as funny. I'll be looking forward to reading this again.