tofu's manga / #Manly(202)

TW: manipulation, wrongful accusation of sexual assault // the storytelling in this is honestly superb. I really felt like i was in MC's shoes-- i was confused, angry, and felt betrayed by the ML at the start of the manhwa. Then, little by little, like the MC did, I started getting to know the ML, forgiving him, understanding him until finally falling for him. It's truly a journey, one that i'm glad to be part of.

TW: age gap

I realized i never wrote a serious review for this so i just gave it a reread and wow this manga?????????is so light and silly and sad and heartbreaking and heartwarming and wholesome???????? It's well written with great characters and i love it so much. I love it so fucking much i never want it to end. I wish there were a hundred more chapters. I wanna see them grow even older together. I wanna see them do and argue about stupid shit even as they're balding and greying. I wanna see them happy for many, many years in exchange of the ones they spent being heartbroken over each other. I just. Love them so much, man it hurts.

Hoo okay. Just finished reading this all in one go and i have too much to say and think about, so i'll just say this: it's far from perfect, but it's well written. It's far-fetched at times, but it's also painfully realistic. I hated both characters at first, especially Ziming. He was the classic rich-possesive-forceful-asshole love interest, complete with a tragic backstory -- you know the type. And Chulin was also the stereotypical BL main character, someone opposite of Ziming who was reluctant of his advances but would eventually succumb to his charms. We see these characters countless of times in countless BL works, and it always goes the same way. I never planned to read this manhua but people kept recommending it to me saying that the character development is worth it -- so i finally gave it a chance. And oh boy do those people tell the truth. These characters ARE cliche BL characters, yes, but in this manhua, they're made human. They had depth, they grew and changed for the better but they also stayed true to their characters. Take Ziming for example. He was toxic since chapter one, had always been his whole life. He'd changed A LOT throughout the series, but not so much that he was unrecognizable. He still had toxic thoughts and manipulative behavior, but the difference is, by the end of the series, he acknowledged what was toxic and was willing to take it back and apologize. Being in love didn't serve as a cureall for his rotten personality, but it gave him something worth being a better person for. Chulin was the same -- the impostor syndrome he had wasn't going away anytime soon, but he was more confident and assured, at least when it came to his career and Ziming. He had matured and become an outstanding person, but he was still his mother's boy first and foremost. His journey of discovering his sexuality was also very (painfully) realistic, alongside with Ziming's constant insecurity and guilt for making Chulin fall for him. Here we can see a glimpse of what homophobia, internalized or otherwise, can do to people -- and it's not pretty, but it's closer to my truth than what most BL works depict. I'm also glad that the story didn't end with a vague happy ending where everything worked out. JUNE was still struggling, people were still unaccepting, Ziming and Chulin's relationship was still rocky at times, but they were in a better headspace. They still had a long way to go but the most important thing is that they knew and was willing to stick it out together. There is that one storyline that almost ruined the manhua for me (spoiler alert: the kidnapping-sex slavery-blackmail thing) but i'll bite my tongue and also say it: the character development IS worth it. Just read it for the characters and overlook anything else. All in all, a good one, glad i gave it a read.