Museru kurai no Ai wo Ageru
Choking on Love

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contemporary romance done so well ⭐️

a love story between two college students, with ml in a music band and fl into editing. they both cross path on uncertain happenstance but it doesn't take long before both of realises the spark they feel between them and take action to cool the fire. they navigate through their romantic affair, growing closer, making memories, etc. the side characters are so charming !!

the only complaint i have is that it gets "too cheesy" at times so if you love that !! please go ahead.

the art is beautiful, the plot is simple and plain and the characters are ... cute and lovable. the pace is really good, you don't have to pine for them to figure things out because they are quick in their actions.

enjoy because i sure am :)

I love shojo and this one caters to my taste for out-of-this-world gorgeous men kind of like In the Clear Moonlit Dusk also does. The main love interest, Gaku, is everything I look for in a manga boy, the quick pacing of Gaku and main girl Hibari getting together is very satisfying and fast enough so that the reader won't lose interest. The art style is clear, coherent and funny when needed. The plot is kinda gengeric but personally I enjoy predictable stories for comfort reading, which this manga deafinitely is. Hibari's and Airi's friendship is cute and there are plenty of fluffy cuteness between ... the main couple you can gush over while screaming alone in your room.

However, I'm not convinced of the artist side of this manga. Music coulture and bands are hard to write and there are more manga that fail at this than those that succeed. The writing for Gaku's band has its own problems but they are so minor they don't affect the believability of the main plot. My biggest issue with Gaku is that he uses Hibari as their bands personal designer. Hibari is not a great designer for what I understand to be an alternative rock band. Her style is very generic and dare I say even boring. It caters to very modern, minimalistic design preferences but it just doesn't fit with their band, Pantera Negra. It's understandable that Gaku wants Hibari to design everything for them because he's in looooove but the choice to make Gaku fawn over Hibari's "talent" annoys me to no end. It seems like a cheap wish fulfillment for the reader who wishes for their own love interest to find them special.

The story could very well do without Hibari designing for the band and it would make even more sense for her to be frustrated with her own artistic development if the manga would agnowledge Hibari's designs for what they are: bland. The choice to make Hibari's art simple and cutesy might fit in with the average reader, but it doesn't cater to people interested in art or design. Of course the manga doesn't have to be about art but it centres art in it's plot quite heavily from the beginning so it doesn't make sense that the art style of Hibari lacks any visual interest. It would make sense if her art was even somewhat bad but now all it is is plain.

A perfect example of my confusion about the relationship between Hibari, her art and Gaku is when Hibari sells her T-shirts at their university's art festival. The T-shirts look like something from H&M. They are white and each features one little graphic in the centre front of the shirt. Gaku sets his eyes on a design of a simple heart that has sort of distorted outlines. The design looks like it was drawn in under two minutes. I cannot for the life of me fathom why the oil painting prodigy Gaku, who's own work in the manga looks quite interesting, is over the moon for wearing this joke of a graphic desing.

The manga is great at being a shojo about university students if you don't care that much about music or art. If you have any experience in those fields yourself, be prepared that you might be very annoyed at the portrayal of them. I know that in the story Hibari starts off as insecure about her art and even the teachers comment on her lack of personality but the lack of personality in her designs doesn't improve between the first chapters and the art festival where we see the atrocious T-shirts, so it baffles me that everyone is so ga-ga about the shirts. The plot is about Hibari improving on her art but one does wonder how did she get into art school in the first place. Of course design in manga is simplified for the sole reason of manga being a hand drawn piece of media. Still, with Museru Kurai No Ai Wo Ageru's art style being so clean it would be well possible to make more detailed and inetersting graphic designs. Take Gaku's art for example. The details aren't being spared on them, quite the opposite. Overall, it feels like the author got lazy when deciding on Hibari's art style, which is a great shame if you want your visual media people to be immersed in your story. The laziness with the T-shirt designs is all the more confusing when Hibari's first poster made with Gaku's painting for Pantera Negra is actually quite good. It feels like the author is saying that Hibari can't be interesting without Gaku's influence or help which is sad because it makes it seem like Hibari needs a man's help to make her shine.

Despite all of the complaints this is a great read for when you want a light, no bs, quick to the point shojo story. Only avoid if you are looking for a great manga about being an artist. For that I'd say Blue Period is a good one, although that one is not meant for the fluff-craving romantics. Maybe one day a manga emerges where both fluff and great art-school representation are seamlessly combined.

Lovely art and exciting premise, let down by the execution of story. Fast romance with not enough development, and lackluster story about aspiring artists.

Museru Kurai no Ai wo Ageru, or Choking on Love is a shoujo romance story sets in college. That in itself is pretty exciting, since manga sets after high school is not as common, especially with shoujo. College days is the time when one starts discovering about their aspirations, trying to be independent, and possibly forming more serious romantic relationships. We could see all these aspects from our main protagonist—Hibari—a design student who is trying to balance lectures, assignments, and a part-time ... job. Hibari's challenges don't stop there, as she also struggles with low esteem, thinking of herself as being ordinary and having her art being criticized as being too plain. One day, she met the bold and free musician—Gaku—that will soon change her life. Just like what Gaku commented about Hibari's design, this story has "a really good base". The plot has a lot of potential, unfortunately it just failed to deliver.

The romance moves too fast, Gaku and Hibari become a couple almost instantly. Although it may be believable for the unpredictable Gaku to quickly develop interest for Hibari and pursue her immidiately, Hibari is actually a more serious and guarded person. It is unconvincing that she falls really fast for Gaku's approach that seems very forceful at times. Not to mention, they barely knew each other! Their relationship does not feel very genuine. There were too little build up for them to become a believable couple, minimizing their chemistry and depth in their relationship.

Dreams and art seem like a major focus in this manga as well, with both main leads pursuing their goals as a designer and musician. Hibari's life as an aspiring designer also changed ever since she met Gaku. She received opportunities in her field, and gets compliments on her designs. However, it feels like a "too much tell, not enough show" where the story is trying to convince that Hibari's design has improved but still only showing her plain designs. Gaku's band life story is also not too interesting to follow. Even when something happens with the band, it never feel like it will turn into something significant. It may felt that way because of Gaku's carefreeness, or how he is mostly characterized by how in love he is with Hibari.

Speaking of characterization, Hibari and Gaku seems to be strictly defined by their characters from the beginning of the story—the serious and insecure designer Hibari, and the free-spirited musician Gaku who fell in love with Hibari—with little to no development throughout. The manga feels like an elongated premise with little to no development, kind of bizzare since the plot moves very quickly especially when it comes to the main leads getting together. Might be because things happened in the beginning, the rest felt like there's not much change.

There are few things I enjoyed from it, such as the side love story, but most of all is the art. It is clean and pretty, just overall pleasant to see. Unfortunately, there are way too many flaws—big and small—that eventually is just hard for me to look over. Sure, it can be enjoyable for those who love the serious girl x carefree guy couple dynamic, but even that is not so original. There are better written works with similar dynamic that doesn't force itself to have believable chemistry between the characters.