Boku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu
The Dangers in My Heart

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Story:

Starts off on a weird note and no telling where it'll go. Is it a romance between an unpopular guy and most popular girl in school? A chuuni-edge lord living his life? A SOL about an awkward kid? It didn't know what it wanted to be at first, but the chapters are too amusing for it to be a huge rain-on-a-parade. It definitely does shift towards a romance tone, though largely remains a subtle-comedy SOL.

Art:

A goofy art-style that'd you expect from a SOL school-life comedy. This series has a great "show-not-tell"-style of comedy. The characters' expressions & the background never fail to ... crack a smirk on my mug, it's not blatant but subtle. Overall, a very fun art style that does its job.

Characters:

If you've read WataMote, you'll likely enjoy our protagonist, though his awkwardness is much more comedic and light-hearted than Tomoko. You might wildly cringe or adore Ichikawa. At the start, his character was purely an edge-lord chuuni, which has toned-down over the progression of the story. Now, he's an awkward kid that doesn't know how to interact with girls (aka every middle-school guy). His narration is hilarious, couldn't ask for a better MC. As for our heroine, Yamada, she's the exact opposite. Bright, cheery and extroverted; her character allows for amusing interactions with Ichikawa. Though sometimes an airhead, she has some self-awareness and tact that doesn't make her an annoying bubbly character. The side-characters are also great for amusing scenes, that also help bring the two MCs together.

Enjoyment:

Though this series isn't entirely transparent with what it wants to be, it's nonetheless a very amusing and casual read with its wandering plot with its subtle comedy and romance. Very epic enjoyment.

Overall, I reward this an 8/10.

This manga got an anime adaptation not too long ago, and I got absolutely hooked on it. So much so that I couldn't wait for the episodes to come out, so I decided to read ahead in the manga. As I read the manga, however, I started to slowly fall out of love with the story. Whenever the new episodes of the anime came out however, I was once again in love with it. There are a lot of people out there who defend mangas over their anime counterparts, but I'mma be real here, I think the anime elevates this story a heck of a ... lot.

I am aware that pretty much everything the anime does the manga does too, it is the source material after all, but what the anime does is it focuses the pacing, and adds a few details here and there that make the story feel cohesive. I get frustrated by romance stories that never go anywhere, which is why I was drawn to this series in the first place. It has a sense of progression. I find the manga has a lot of fluff that bogs down this sense of progression, especially with it's little bonus chapters that they sprinkle in constantly. They're all fun to read, but at the same time they feel pretty much tonally indistinguishable from the chapters that actually do matter. There's often a feeling in romance stories that revert to the status quo of hanging threads being unanswered, which I really dislike. Like, something happens between the characters and there's a moment of ooooo I wonder how they're gonna resolve this tension and then.... it just tangents onto something else and we forget the prior thing ever happened. This is my biggest complaint with stories like komi can't communicate (but let's get back to the focus at hand). The problem with the pacing of the manga is there's a lot of padding, and various plot threads feel like they go unanswered for a little longer than you'd expect, even in actual full chapters sometimes. There's an episodic feel to things with occasional continuity, which can be a little frustrating. What the anime does is it cleans things up, and rearranges some of the events in a way that makes them actually feel like they are cohesively flowing into each other, day by day. That was the biggest reason the anime even stood out to me, is there never felt like a moment where the continuity just got reset. There were also occasional details that were modified in the anime that I felt better suited the character developments. Generally I just find the progression in the manga a little haphazard in comparison. I ended up dropping the manga around episode 8 in the anime's continuity (I think it was either ch30 or 40, somewhere around there) in favor of experiencing the show blind, because I felt like it executed everything better, and I plan to do the same with its season 2. If you are someone who is interested in watching the anime, I'd say watch that instead, and if you have seen it and want a little more content between these two, the manga does have the advent of having the extra little bonus content in its bonus chapters, but it's nothing you haven't seen elsewhere, so idk, it's up to you if you read it.

Also somewhat unrelated complaint with the manga, but it has a decent amount of somewhat creepy art of Yamada. Like, when Yamada is being romanticized/sexualized from the perspective of Ichikawa, it makes sense because that's from his perspective. But the manga has a lot of non-canon panels that feel more like pandering for the audience and... need I remind you all that Yamada is a middle schooler? This kinda made the whole manga reading experience a lot more uncomfortable, and I couldn't end a review on it without at least mentioning it

I can't decide between a 6 or a 7/10, but I'm leaning 6 just cause it's okay, but there's a better version out there in my opinion. However, I cannot deny that the manga came first and did write the baseline for a story that I really enjoy. To those of you manga fans of this one, if you like this one I can totally see why. It does have a lot going for it, it's just not my preference.

It was fun… at first. "Psychological thriller" quickly turned oddball romantic comedy was a welcome change for most, and the series quickly found its place among modern rom-coms with a relatable protagonist and steady relationship growth. At some point, I figured they'd soon acknowledge their relationship and start dating, with the series establishing itself as one of the few well-paced romance manga out there.

That point was two years ago.

Now, the manga feels like Zeno's paradox in practice: every two weeks a new chapter comes out and their relationship makes half as much progress as last week's, getting so close to but never actually reaching ... any sort of cathartic release. We're constantly being reminded of how close the two are– and how little that means as every new batch of chapters finds a new excuse for the gridlock of 'will-they-won't they' that has become the norm for the series. Ichikawa's hesitation and lack of self-confidence goes from endearing to just plain annoying as he continues to find new reasons not to press forward with his relationship, and eventually my ability to empathize with him was thrown out the window..

The series seems to be part of a larger trend of romcom manga where the characters, aware (or at least semi-aware) of each other's feelings, behave like they're dating without ever actually crossing that line. This style, admittedly, seems to have worked out in BokuYaba's favor given its sheer popularity (both the manga itself, and the horny art of Yamada that keeps being posted to the author's Twitter). Personally, I don't enjoy this type of romcom– I like the satisfaction of more conventional romance milestones much more. Unfortunately, BokuYaba takes an even uglier middle ground, where the unchanging nature of the series is combined with the emotional urgency of wanting to take that next step. I quickly went from rooting for them, to getting frustrated at the lack of progression, to finding it all meaningless in the end.

I'm aware I'm in the minority opinion here and if you want to see for yourself how the series is, don't let me stop you– just be aware that the brisk pace set by the series' early chapters will soon become much, much slower.