Dec 31, 2015
(Review taken from my Goodreads page! Link to my page can be found in my profile)
This book features two different stories. Neither of them are memorable.
The first story really seems to have an issue with 'doth thou protesteth too much' because in every chapter, at least five times in a row, one of the main characters must reiterate that he's not gay, even though he's embarking on a rather sexual relationship with a male co-worker.
No, nothing gay about that at all. Not even a little bit.
But being gay is seen as a really big issue, and seeing it's in Japan I can understand, but for
...
someone who comes from a country that's a little more open-minded, hearing "somehow word that he's gay didn't spread around" and "I'm not gay" and "Shinohara is gay" gets very tiring very quickly. Hayashi clearly has some issues to work through if he's obsessing about who is gay (Shinohara) and who is not (Hayashi, apparently).
The biggest trope I've found in yaoi manga is that men are often emotionally stunted when it comes to love between two men. They tend to stress out, agonise over everything, and fuck it up a time or two. They also cling to their former status of heterosexuality like it's a lifeline, saving them from drowning to death, because they're terrified of what being gay may entail (it's really no different than heterosexual love, fyi).
Some mangaka can really make this trope work, but some (like this mangaka) almost hit the mark but at the very last second they seem to change their mind and veer off course.
What I did like was the art style; it was very clear and well-drawn, and detailed when it counted. I never felt confused at what I was looking at, nor did the faces sort of blend together to the point where you can only differentiate between characters by their hairstyle.
Either way, this book is a good way to kill time for a while, or boost your reading challenge for the year, but ultimately it really is forgettable and not something to be taken seriously.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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