And this is the volume that made me give up on the series.
We are over halfway through and it’s clear now that at no point is this series going to explain to me WHY these two are in love. Like WHY are these two together? I can’t see any reason for it at all: they have nothing in common and don’t seem interested in each other’s work or hobbies or in helping each other—and this only changes (a little) in like the final volume or two. Before that Yuki is just constantly grouchy or cold or rude to Shuichi, if he’s not ignoring him completely. Shuichi has no chill at all and his personality seems to consist entirely of “I love Eiri Yuki” and “band”. Yet there’s no real point of demonstration of WHY. What would Shuichi lose (other than having another tantrum) if he lost Bad Luck? Why would that be bad? Why does he HAVE to make Bad Luck successful? And moreover, what would he lose if started dating someone else? I just don’t feel the story has given any real reason for these strong passions of his, so they ring hollow and it’s hard to believe him when he makes grand declarations of going platinum or staying with Yuki no matter what. Each time Shuichi says something like “I love Yuki I just can’t abandon him” my only reaction is “okay, but why though?”
Speaking of plot, there doesn’t seem to be one. The characters more or less just go from incident to incident, tied vaguely together with a theme of “music” or “Yuki obsession” or “incredibly shallow feeling minor personal drama”. It’s mostly these few minor…themes of action, really, which are recycled every few chapters: Bad Luck gets some kind of rival; Bad Luck gets into some hijinks and has to navigate through some publicly embarrassing situation; someone threatens to leave, which rarely ends up being more than a threat; someone says something overly dramatic (like “I murdered a man”) which never develops into anything happening in the plot later on. It feels very sitcom-ish, or like it thinks it’s an episodic TV series instead of a manga.
This is desperately trying to be a comedy, but it doesn’t come off as funny—it comes off as incapable of having a serious or heartfelt moment: like we can’t go a spread without a skit happening or the reader might get bored. The humour is gory, never takes a break, and is constantly at full volume so it ceased to be funny, at least to me. It’s also kind of hard to tell what’s a visual metaphor for humour’s sake and what’s actually happening—people are getting shot and knives stabbed into their heads so often, and the gore persists from panel to panel which leaves me confused. “So is this a gag or are you actually bleeding?”
I skimmed through the rest of the books, and I see that this pattern basically doesn’t change. There are the shortest moments of something that seems like it could be a promise of a deeper plot, but it’s too little too late. Then the series just…kind of ends. It leaves a very “did someone rip the last pages out?” kind of feeling.
I think this series would benefit immensely from moments of downtime which lasted more than a heartbeat. If the characters took some moments to be serious and down-to-earth, it would make it possible to take the grand, heartfelt admissions and declarations seriously. Right now I can’t—everything feels fake (like a big joke) because the series seems allergic to being genuine or honest with its feelings.
It would also benefit from a significant plot running through the series. As it is, the only continuity is Bad Luck trying to make it, the “will they, won’t they” between Shuichi and Yuki (which doesn’t really change or get explained significantly), and some incredibly lukewarm backstory about Eiri Yuki’s past. The rest is just random hijinks which doesn’t amount to much.
This is not a series which rewards the reader for sticking through it, but almost slaps you across the face for it. My advice: read the first book or two and if you’re into that, only then keep going, because it’s just exactly that for 10 more volumes. But if you find the first volumes disappointing like I did, quit now. It doesn’t get better. There is no deep love story waiting at the end of the rainbow; go read Heaven Official’s Blessing instead, it’s WAY more rewarding.
I regret having wasted this much time on this series—I should have listened to my friend’s advice and quit 5 books ago.
One star out of ten for this book and the series as a whole. It’s like Marmite, if you like it you like it; if you don’t, eating dirt will be a more pleasant experience.