I wanna say 4.5* but am not putting five because of the last point of my UHHHH HMMM section, if it's addressed I'll come back and put five stars.
So if you see five stars it's all good (I don't think it's something that could count as spoiler so you're good to read that part even if I changed my rating)
Ok so there is one thing that bothered me and it's the proof reading in the italian edition. There are a few mistakes that take you out of the story. But that's on the italian edition team and not the mangaka so I'm not having it influence the rating because it's not the fault of the original.
I wrote a lot.
Ok so things I really liked :
• the personalities of the characters, personally I enjoyed their banter, they aren't cliché and in bl it's really refreshing.
• the art is very cute & I. LOVE. SILLY. EXPRESSIONS.
• The author clearly knows their subject (or did their research) because instruments are an important part of the characters and setting and there's a lot of conversations around instruments, how to breath,etc... but it's all very easy to understand to someone who doesn't know anything. The instruments are also drawn so detailed, I couldn't tell you if they're drawn accurate (we all know of series with guitars and basses with the wrong amount of strings) but usually when it's detailed it's a good sign since it can at least tell you that the artist looked up references.
• I liked that the misunderstanding and conflict that came with it were resolved quickly and in a pretty natural way to the story. Misunderstandings that can be resolved with one simple question but drag on forever are the worse.
• The fact that there wasn't smut that would've taken away pages for the plot was great. If there was we wouldn't have them resolve the conflict before volume 2, I know it.
WHAT I'M UHHHH HMMM ABOUT :
• wth is that kink and do real musicians have it?
it's been hauting me, are there real people who get excited after performing because of the performance itself? I have so many questions...
• Guys maybe, just maybe after being f buddies for so long you should start reevaluating your sexuality because I don't think real straight people would make love exclusively to one person who just so happens to be of the same sex as yours for FOUR years. People usually stop calling it experimenting before it becomes "oh I don't date women because I already have you and they're too much of a hassle anyway!", straight people would still rather look for a partner of the opposite sex on the side, even with these bad experiences, than stay in a sex friends relationship with someone from the same sex for, I'm gonna repeat it again, FOUR YEARS. A straight person would've already gone to prostitutes for their fill if any relationship with a woman was too messy.
So can we please drop the Im straight but also into you, a man, but only you and will never be into any other man ever. Even tho I'm into a man rn but I could NEVER be again in the future.
seeing how this author did everything else right I realy hope it's gonna get addressed in the following volumes.
LITTLE ANECDOTE : Somehow this manga ended up on my physical TBRSoon pile right on top of this author's yuri "5 seconds before the witch" even though I had no idea they were by the same author & have hundreds of books/mangas in my TBR and just pick the vibes/kind of stories I want at the moment to put in my TBRS only pile, and with that the two mangas from the same author ended up on top of each other, like what are the odds?!?
(I have not a single time looked at the author(s) of these mangas and only found out when this manga didn't show up when searching for it on goodreads with the cover+barcode*, I put the mangaka's name and saw this manga and 5SBTW and got shocked because it's right next to me)
(*since the title was translated in italian I wrote the author's name first and would've tried with the title if it didn't work)