Feb 20, 2021
Junsui Adolescence is a pretty fair look at being in an age gap relationship. It skeevs me a little because of the specific ages of the protagonists, but as someone who's been in age gap stuff before... I can't complain, it just creeps me out now. It honestly has a lot to say about the relationship insecurity that a gap in maturity can breed in a person, and the kinds of things we feel we need to leave behind in order to grow up. Things we'd be considered 'childish' for doing as an adult, etc. Adults can legitimately be like big children sometimes, depending on
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the topic, and we all have some kind of inner child that never really goes away, as much as we may try to ignore or repress it as adults. What separates us from children is our breadth of experience, in the end. That's why I honestly avoid the hell out of age gap romance stories these days, but while I initially disliked Junsui Adolescence, I have to give it a fair shake for doing the thing justice.
The art of Junsui Adolescence is reminiscent of middling BL, and the author's background in drawing men was something that didn't surprise me at all, as I kind of had an inkling that that was the case. It's not bad, and the characters do look like women, but the style is a blend of shoujo and BL that hasn't aged amazingly well, in my opinion, compared to older art styles (Utena, Kaze to Ki no Uta).
The principle conflict of the manga is the forbidden romance between a student and the school nurse. That's... fine, whatever. Not pedophilic in the slightest /s. It does happen. It usually doesn't end well. This manga acknowledges that to some extent. Nanao is maybe 16 at the start of the manga, I think? She becomes a senior later, and then has to worry about graduation, so... 16-17 based on Japan's school system? It's kinda creepy, tbh, but on some level I also feel it's important to portray things like this, because it does happen. It happened to me, though I was a year or two older. So when I say the feelings portrayed in Junsui Adolescence are pretty accurate, I really do mean it. You can love someone ten years older when you're at the end of your teen years, and it can work long term, but it's also often a scary and deeply confusing experience, as you have less knowledge of how relationships work at that age. It's very much a 'in at the deep end' kind of experience, and Nanao's confusion and erratic behavior in the early chapters were very relatable. On the other hand, looking at it as someone who's no longer that confused young adult, I see that and my insides shrivel up in anxiety, wanting to tell her 'no, no honey, that's a bad idea'. It can work out. But it can easily not, and that older person can take advantage of you much more easily due to usually having experience in relationships that you will not have at the time. Even if they don't intend to, it can have some toxic effects on your relationship unless both of you are very careful. At least this manga isn't presenting it as an absolute walk in the park, but at the same time, it also presents those problems as far easier to deal with, and far less risky, than real life.
Essentially, this is a thing that happens, and it's not wrong for this manga to depict it, but even with its attempts at realism, it presents these kinds of age gap relationships as a bit too safe for my tastes. It's kind of like when YA novels acknowledge a risky relationship dynamic as dangerous, but then show it pretty much working out mostly okay. Like, that's fine, but over time also normalizes the idea that the base relationship dynamic was fine to begin with, especially if it gets popular and other authors start copying the trend. And that breeds complacency towards those risks the story originally brushed off. You can kind of see this in action in how romance fiction shapes our early perceptions of real life romance as teens, which is when someone might read this manga and conclude that their irl crush on a teacher will work out.
Overall, I'd say Junsui Adolescence is worth a read if you're starving for content, or you otherwise have no problem with large age gaps in the main pairing. Just... be prepared for some skeevy content at times.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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