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juushikaTitle: There Are Things I Can't Tell You
Author: Edako Mofumofu
Translator: Christine Dashiell
Published: Tokyopop, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 475,065
Text Number: 1677
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Profoundly adequate. I'm an easy sell on pretty art, vaguely atypical characterization (I like that the protagonist has a detailed personal life to flesh him out), and a relationship influenced by real social issues. It's tropey, but in that vaguely-nuanced way where the characters/relationship feel dynamic. As usual with this kind of manga, there's some thoughtful touches but the thing entire is pretty forgettable: I need a weirder relationship or less predictable pacing or something less slice-of-lifey to really catch my attention.
But! My local library had this in ebook! I just think that's cool: if we need start with 'pleasantly forgettable' to normalize library copies of BL translations, then sure, yeah, hit me with something pleasantly forgettable.
Title: Dear,クレイジーモンスター / Dear, Crazy Monster
Author: motteke
Published: 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 195
Total Page Count: 475,610
Text Number: 1679
Read Because: browsing manga by trope again
Review: When our protagonist discovers that his brother is gay, an already-strange relationship spirals out of control. This is weird one. It doesn't stick to its guns enough to be truly unhinged, but (as other reviews attest) it's insufficiently hinged to be hollow, tropey comfort reading. I dig the profoundly unlikable protagonist, and I'm an easy sell on an incestuous relationship; there are small touches here I really love, particularly the surprisingly convincing way in which disgust morphs into fascination. But it's just too easy, too willing to be resolved, in a way that undermines how intriguingly fucked up is the central dynamic.
Title: 花のみぞ知る / Hana no mizoshiru / Only the Flower Knows
Author: Rihito Takarai
Translator: Kimiko Kotani
Published: Digital Manga, 2022 (2009-2012)
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 550 (179+180+192)
Total Page Count: 485,005
Text Number: 1716-8
Read Because: look I just think it's cool my library has BL; borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I like the set-up. The character types (traumatized closeted introvert and ungrounded incidentally-bisexual extrovert) aren't especially distinctive, but the slow-burn slice-of-life pacing gives them a lot of space to grow, individually and in their dynamic. Unfortunately, much of that disappears once sex enters the scene. This is fine, but the sexual dynamics are so tropey that I zoned out and don't have strong impressions beyond the first volume.
Author: Edako Mofumofu
Translator: Christine Dashiell
Published: Tokyopop, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 270
Total Page Count: 475,065
Text Number: 1677
Read Because: personal enjoyment, ebook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Profoundly adequate. I'm an easy sell on pretty art, vaguely atypical characterization (I like that the protagonist has a detailed personal life to flesh him out), and a relationship influenced by real social issues. It's tropey, but in that vaguely-nuanced way where the characters/relationship feel dynamic. As usual with this kind of manga, there's some thoughtful touches but the thing entire is pretty forgettable: I need a weirder relationship or less predictable pacing or something less slice-of-lifey to really catch my attention.
But! My local library had this in ebook! I just think that's cool: if we need start with 'pleasantly forgettable' to normalize library copies of BL translations, then sure, yeah, hit me with something pleasantly forgettable.
Title: Dear,クレイジーモンスター / Dear, Crazy Monster
Author: motteke
Published: 2015
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 195
Total Page Count: 475,610
Text Number: 1679
Read Because: browsing manga by trope again
Review: When our protagonist discovers that his brother is gay, an already-strange relationship spirals out of control. This is weird one. It doesn't stick to its guns enough to be truly unhinged, but (as other reviews attest) it's insufficiently hinged to be hollow, tropey comfort reading. I dig the profoundly unlikable protagonist, and I'm an easy sell on an incestuous relationship; there are small touches here I really love, particularly the surprisingly convincing way in which disgust morphs into fascination. But it's just too easy, too willing to be resolved, in a way that undermines how intriguingly fucked up is the central dynamic.
Title: 花のみぞ知る / Hana no mizoshiru / Only the Flower Knows
Author: Rihito Takarai
Translator: Kimiko Kotani
Published: Digital Manga, 2022 (2009-2012)
Rating: 2.5 of 5
Page Count: 550 (179+180+192)
Total Page Count: 485,005
Text Number: 1716-8
Read Because: look I just think it's cool my library has BL; borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: I like the set-up. The character types (traumatized closeted introvert and ungrounded incidentally-bisexual extrovert) aren't especially distinctive, but the slow-burn slice-of-life pacing gives them a lot of space to grow, individually and in their dynamic. Unfortunately, much of that disappears once sex enters the scene. This is fine, but the sexual dynamics are so tropey that I zoned out and don't have strong impressions beyond the first volume.
