I will say right off the bat, this series handles the romance elements much better than in usagi drop, namely how the older lead actually addresses the elephant in the room. Which is to say, “isnt it bad to date someone ten years older than you? How will this effect my family? How will my peers see me?” Etc etc, which is something that usagi drop completely ignores (which earns it its notorious reputation).
This concept of a young adult dating someone much older than them is novel, and is explored quite well here. The first third of the story deals with the repercussions of such a relationship from a conceptual level, with the older lead trying to rebuff the younger leads advances. Her specific reasonings for it are revealed over time and are rather grounded. Nobody does things out of nowhere, and motivations make sense. This isnt incest or milf-shota bait, these are actual characters, which is refreshing. This makes the first part of the story quite enjoyable.
However, in the middle of the story, the manga becomes more of the run-of-the-mill romantic comedy, ensuing all of the tropes and scenarios you’ve seen a hundred times before, down to your typical shy bikini reveals and hot springs trips. This generic middle section also reveals weaknesses in our main cast. While they are likable and generally agreeable for a romcom cast (including a crackerjack wingman in the daughter, Miu, second only to Sunakawa from Ore Monogatari), they also lack many defining traits, especially the male lead, Takkun. This lack of characterization makes following these generic rom com tropes even less exciting than it already is(n’t), making the bulk of the latter half almost entirely skippable.
The final few volumes introduce a love triangle that adds some much needed drama to the work. While i wont spoil it here, what starts out feeling forced or shoehorned in and out of character eventually culminates into one of the most satisfying “confession” chapters i’ve read in quite some time, which retroactively reveals all of the players here were actually following their hearts and true to their characterizations. Its quite cathartic, and elevates the entire work from the genericness it had been suffering from.
However, the most recent volume (22) introduces some more annoying backtracking and will they/wont they nonsense seemingly just to extend the manga’s runtime. If the story had ended with volume 21, with volume 22 just being a resolution, i would have rated this a point or two higher.
As it stands, this is a rather unique rom com that takes its concept seriously, but is bogged down by your typical romcom tropes and thin characters. The art is nice though, and at its worse it is only inoffensive if not very interesting. This isn’t rent a girlfriend territory. If you like milfs and want something of a different take on the genre, you could do worse.
