stressedpenguin's manga / #angst(93)

Dropped a few chapters into the second volume (ch 8?). I got what I wanted out of it. 5 or 6/10

Yknow hanahaki used to be my favorite fanfiction trope so this was right up my alley. A mailman falls in love with an enigmatic flower vendor. One day while delivering a letter to the vendor's house, the mailman stumbles upon a secret. Where do all those out of season flowers come from? Very sweet and slower than the usually BL speedruns. Hard to really call this "smut." Its more like lovingly sweet sex. 8/10

It's got all the friends to lovers tropes you could ask for but without being annoying somehow. It's got a short misunderstanding, unrequited love, and that thing where the one in love starts avoiding the other bc they cant be friends anymore but the other one doesnt want to lose their friend so they start dating and voila theyre actually both in love. It's very cliche, but I like this one cuz the background characters act like humans instead of plot devices and the drama feels character driven not author driven. 7/10 Series order: 1) Renai Nante Yurushimasen 2) Netsuai Nante Ariemasen 3) Dekai Nante Mitomemasen

Closet gay still coming to terms with his own sexuality falls in love with the openly gay cinnamon roll he sees at the cafe he goes to often. Seeing Yuuichi be confident with his sexuality even tho he let's his shitty ex walk all over him for a while encourages Takase to finally accept his own sexuality. 7 or 8/10

Uke's entire family died in a tragic accident, and now it's just him and his nephew trying to survive life together. The hot and mysterious guy running a small restaurant in the town they move to takes in interest in them and they start building a relationship. The overall tone is melancholy as all three main characters are suffering from painful experiences, and it's sweet how they fumble through supporting each other in their developing relationships. There's some angst, some drama, and some ghosting, and there's a This story gets two big pluses from me: 1) The kid actually has agency. He's not used as a plot device. The story takes him seriously; it doesn't do that thing where they just call him cute and ignore that he's a real person with real feelings. Still looking for a story where the adults validate even the silly things kids get upset over because... like it's silly to us but very impactful to them and--I'm getting worked up lol. Anyway, this story did the kid justice. 2) The single mom the uke makes friends with is amazing and feels like a real person. For all the degrading the seme did of women, I was worried this would be another BL where everyone woman is shitty. But this mom was incredible and her handling of her son was incredible. I know this is like almost the bare minimum, but I'm happy to see it. Also a plus is the sex is consensual. Aside from the somewhat dubious bit because alcohol, the seme doesn't force the uke into anything sexual. I appreciate it. This is an 8/10. Would be 6/10 but it gets +2 for the kid and mom friend

....wut. So there was a lot going on with that and absolutely none of it got any attention. So the uke is in debt and that's why hes a porn worker, and we see that maybe once or twice for a page. They keep doing the omegaverse "I can't control myself" thing purely for the angst but without the set up... idk plot goes by too fast and it's kinda disconnected and confusing. 3/10

Woman is in love with her boss who is married to some shitty guy who's probably cheating on her. She and her boss start an affair of their own. There's some angst, a lil bit of drama, and a cheesy happy ending. There's a bit of sexism and traditional patriarchal ideas thrown around that the characters have to deal with. Didn't really get into those, but I appreciate that they brought them up and treated them seriously This didn't really grip me much. The plot was pretty standard for an office romance. As a minor gripe: why did they not have nipples? 6/10. I felt absolutely nothing reading this but plus points for having women who look like grown adults and not children. My expectations are rock bottom.

The angst is strong with this one. Seme took advantage of uke's break up back in high school. They started a messy friends with benefits relationship until they graduated. Seme was and still is in love with the uke. Four years later, uke seeks out the seme and they have a lot of angsty back and forths. There's a fine line between understandable, character-driven drama and annoying, unrealistic miscommunication plots. This manga walks that line. It works just well enough and the characters are just forgivable enough that I could indulge in the angst without wanting to peel my face off over the fact that neither of them bothered to clarify their relationship for like, what, 1 year? 2 years? 6/10

Yknow. I'll never understand these "I love you, goodbye" ghosting plots... Writer picks up a naked guy of the beach who claims to have amnesia. But does he really? And who is this mysterious kid? *Dun dun dun* 5/10 i guess

10/10 background characters Edit: I'm rereading this rn (on ch 35) as the official translation comes out and I'm enjoying it a lot more. Probably because I'm actually in the mood for an indulgent fluff fest with a rich hot bf x low self esteem cutie whose actually competent Juwon winds up becoming the fwb of the no. 1 model and fluffy shenanigans ensue. Juwon's boss is abusive and exploitative and I felt do bad for him. Aiden was very sweet and supportive. There was a bit of drama but not much and not too long. Overall, it was sweet and fluffy, but it kinda started to lose me halfway. Things just felt weightless. 6/10