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25時、赤坂で #4
At 25:00 in Akasaka Vol. 4
HOMECOMING OF THE HEART
Hayama Asami and Shirasaki Yuki decide to visit home for a former classmate’s wedding. But Hayama hasn’t been back in years. His parents’ home just makes him uncomfortable and memories of awkward years at school come back to him. Hayama only briefly interacted with Shirasaki in school, but the young man left an impression on him.
Hayama Asami and Shirasaki Yuki decide to visit home for a former classmate’s wedding. But Hayama hasn’t been back in years. His parents’ home just makes him uncomfortable and memories of awkward years at school come back to him. Hayama only briefly interacted with Shirasaki in school, but the young man left an impression on him.
200 pages, Paperback
First published December 23, 2022
2 people are currently reading
31 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 31, 2025
Tuve un bloqueo lector bien culey pero Hiroko Natsuno sensei era la solución.
Este tomo respondió mi petición del tomo pasado, "Necesito un tomo sobre Asami" y WOOWW, some things felt really close :( pero en general el nivel de devoción que Asami le tiene a Yuki ÑASLKDFÑAS PARA CUÁNDO YO DIOSSSSS.
Este tomo respondió mi petición del tomo pasado, "Necesito un tomo sobre Asami" y WOOWW, some things felt really close :( pero en general el nivel de devoción que Asami le tiene a Yuki ÑASLKDFÑAS PARA CUÁNDO YO DIOSSSSS.
July 22, 2025
I actually really enjoyed this volume. I liked the fact that it focused a lot on Asamis past because it made some things make a lot of sense. I continue to find the romance between Asami and Yuki to be just ok. I found the final mini scene with Hajime and Kasuma to be cute and humorous. Overall a very enjoyable read I just want more for the romance between our two leads as I feel like something is missing.
August 1, 2025
This was a nice break from the usual fast pace in this series. This volume is, quite literally, just a very short break in between projects, with the two of them going to their friends' wedding, and then to their families' homes for visits.
Five stars is possibly a bit generous, since sometimes there's a little bit of a lack of clarity in scenes or dialogue (possibly the fault of Seven Seas translations), but I liked it enough to not particularly care. The important parts were done really well, to a level I was definitely not expecting during the first volume.
The main thing, the relationship between Asami and Yuki, is genuinely incredible. I'm not sure I've encountered a series that gets through this many volumes with basically zero relationship drama. And without getting dull in the slightest - which is why authors usually add all those misunderstandings and jealousies and love triangles.
Instead, this continues to be a quietly developed story about love, careers, dreams, and families. Asami was the main focal point of this volume, so we got to see a whole flashback of how he'd met and initially started to fall for Yuki. We'd already been told the basic story: that Yuki was the one who'd believed in his acting talent and wanted him to pursue something more substantial than a modeling career. Not that modeling isn't hard work...but there's a reason this encouragement was so important to Asami.
Turns out he was born to a novelist father and a model mother and had lived in England for a while, until his mother's modeling dreams gradually got crushed. Again: because modeling is actually really difficult, soul-grinding work. She didn't have the "look" needed for London runways, due to her height and probably her ethnicity. Between the career problems and the casual racism, she just couldn't deal with it anymore and took her kids back to Japan.
Her husband stayed behind. I can't tell if they actually officially separated/divorced or if he just...kept going with his career and didn't care where his family lived?
Asami's mother didn't handle any of this well, and started channeling all her aspirations and failed dreams into her son, who had a face as beautiful as hers. When he brought home a book report he'd gotten an award for, all she cared about was the lovely photograph of him that'd been published alongside the article.
She taught him how to stay beautiful, which involved a lot of shutting down any actual human emotions because they were too "ugly" for a face as lovely as his.
That explains so much about Asami's inability to naturally channel emotions in his acting. It's also why he got hooked on acting to begin with: because it was the only place in years that'd given him the freedom to express emotions and to yell and scream and cry and do all the things he never did in his own life, as himself. He's not naturally amazing at it. But he loves it. Even though everyone still continues to cast and praise him for his looks, without caring about the work he puts in.
Except for Yuki, who was blunt and vibrant and passionate and everything Asami was never permitted to be, and who saw past his exterior to the passion and talent lurking beneath his pretty face. All that depth that Asami is secretly pretty scared would come up empty if anyone ever bothered to actually go looking.
I love how intensely and yet gently Asami loves Yuki. That hug when Yuki admitted he hadn't really had any friends in school? And then Yuki kissing him in return, and just...ugh, every instance of them showing affection to each other. It's so good.
The next volume is likely to be a hefty one, with Asami going to England for two months to film a role that...is actually a film adaptation of one of his father's novels. But he's been opening up to Yuki about it, so he'll definitely have a support system that wasn't present before.
Five stars is possibly a bit generous, since sometimes there's a little bit of a lack of clarity in scenes or dialogue (possibly the fault of Seven Seas translations), but I liked it enough to not particularly care. The important parts were done really well, to a level I was definitely not expecting during the first volume.
The main thing, the relationship between Asami and Yuki, is genuinely incredible. I'm not sure I've encountered a series that gets through this many volumes with basically zero relationship drama. And without getting dull in the slightest - which is why authors usually add all those misunderstandings and jealousies and love triangles.
Instead, this continues to be a quietly developed story about love, careers, dreams, and families. Asami was the main focal point of this volume, so we got to see a whole flashback of how he'd met and initially started to fall for Yuki. We'd already been told the basic story: that Yuki was the one who'd believed in his acting talent and wanted him to pursue something more substantial than a modeling career. Not that modeling isn't hard work...but there's a reason this encouragement was so important to Asami.
Turns out he was born to a novelist father and a model mother and had lived in England for a while, until his mother's modeling dreams gradually got crushed. Again: because modeling is actually really difficult, soul-grinding work. She didn't have the "look" needed for London runways, due to her height and probably her ethnicity. Between the career problems and the casual racism, she just couldn't deal with it anymore and took her kids back to Japan.
Her husband stayed behind. I can't tell if they actually officially separated/divorced or if he just...kept going with his career and didn't care where his family lived?
Asami's mother didn't handle any of this well, and started channeling all her aspirations and failed dreams into her son, who had a face as beautiful as hers. When he brought home a book report he'd gotten an award for, all she cared about was the lovely photograph of him that'd been published alongside the article.
She taught him how to stay beautiful, which involved a lot of shutting down any actual human emotions because they were too "ugly" for a face as lovely as his.
That explains so much about Asami's inability to naturally channel emotions in his acting. It's also why he got hooked on acting to begin with: because it was the only place in years that'd given him the freedom to express emotions and to yell and scream and cry and do all the things he never did in his own life, as himself. He's not naturally amazing at it. But he loves it. Even though everyone still continues to cast and praise him for his looks, without caring about the work he puts in.
Except for Yuki, who was blunt and vibrant and passionate and everything Asami was never permitted to be, and who saw past his exterior to the passion and talent lurking beneath his pretty face. All that depth that Asami is secretly pretty scared would come up empty if anyone ever bothered to actually go looking.
I love how intensely and yet gently Asami loves Yuki. That hug when Yuki admitted he hadn't really had any friends in school? And then Yuki kissing him in return, and just...ugh, every instance of them showing affection to each other. It's so good.
The next volume is likely to be a hefty one, with Asami going to England for two months to film a role that...is actually a film adaptation of one of his father's novels. But he's been opening up to Yuki about it, so he'll definitely have a support system that wasn't present before.
November 12, 2025
The sadness of being apart. That was what this manga was about but it was about pride in your work and communication. Even though the MLs were apart it was a great manga.
July 9, 2025
Sortant toujours au compte-goutte, les volets de cette histoire d’amitié-romance entre acteurs sont pourtant touchants et passionnants.
Et c’est au tour d’Asami de se dévoiler dans ce tome et de mettre à nu sa passion pour le cinéma. Quel bonheur de les suivre, lui et Yuki, dans leur ville natale le temps d’un mariage et de retrouvailles avec leurs familles, ouvrant ainsi les portes de leur passé.
J’ai beaucoup aimé, comme toujours avec Hiroko Natsuno, la douceur avec laquelle elle accompagne les personnages à ouvrir les failles de leur passé. Raconter, son enfance n’a rien de simple pour Asami. Il vient d’une famille où sa mère ex-mannequin a souffert d’une grave dépression ayant de lourdes répercussions sur lui à l’âge où il construisait son identité, et avec un père bien trop absent, absorbé par ses recherches et ses écrits, ce qui a donné de lui cette image distance qu’on avait au début. Le lire entre ces pages est éclairant.
De la même façon, j’ai fondu en assistant à leur rencontre et en découvrant le jeune Yuki, plein de fougue et de morgue, qui osait dire ce qu’il pensait sur le jeu et la réalisation des autres, tant sa passion pour le cinéma l’emportait. Je comprends qu’Asami ait été attiré, lui qui était encore en recherche de lui-même. Il avait devant lui le modèle de quelqu’un qui s’est trouvé. Mais on comprend également que le chemin n’est pas terminé et qu’il reste une dernière étape à Asami pour enfin être au clair avec son passé et son histoire familiale : la proposition de ce film en Angleterre basé sur un livre de son père. J’ai hâte d’en voir le résultat.
En attendant, l’autrice nous livre de belles scènes d’intimité entre eux. Peut-être un peu trop vu le peu qu’elle avait à raconter dans ce tome entre ces scènes justement. Elles ne sont pas mal mises en scène mais elles n’ont pas forcément à chaque fois d’intérêt narrativement parlant. Elles font juste plaisir à voir combien ils sont proches et attentifs à l’autre.
Belle romance qui continue à prendre son envol et prend soin aussi bien de sa relation sentimentale que de la santé mentale de chacun et en particulier de celui ayant grandi avec un traumatisme ayant des répercussion sur la construction de sa personnalité. C’est doux, tendre, touchant et bien fait, le cinéma étant ici un accessoire permettant de se trouver et d’avoir une passion. J’aime.
Article complet : https://lesblablasdetachan.wordpress....
Et c’est au tour d’Asami de se dévoiler dans ce tome et de mettre à nu sa passion pour le cinéma. Quel bonheur de les suivre, lui et Yuki, dans leur ville natale le temps d’un mariage et de retrouvailles avec leurs familles, ouvrant ainsi les portes de leur passé.
J’ai beaucoup aimé, comme toujours avec Hiroko Natsuno, la douceur avec laquelle elle accompagne les personnages à ouvrir les failles de leur passé. Raconter, son enfance n’a rien de simple pour Asami. Il vient d’une famille où sa mère ex-mannequin a souffert d’une grave dépression ayant de lourdes répercussions sur lui à l’âge où il construisait son identité, et avec un père bien trop absent, absorbé par ses recherches et ses écrits, ce qui a donné de lui cette image distance qu’on avait au début. Le lire entre ces pages est éclairant.
De la même façon, j’ai fondu en assistant à leur rencontre et en découvrant le jeune Yuki, plein de fougue et de morgue, qui osait dire ce qu’il pensait sur le jeu et la réalisation des autres, tant sa passion pour le cinéma l’emportait. Je comprends qu’Asami ait été attiré, lui qui était encore en recherche de lui-même. Il avait devant lui le modèle de quelqu’un qui s’est trouvé. Mais on comprend également que le chemin n’est pas terminé et qu’il reste une dernière étape à Asami pour enfin être au clair avec son passé et son histoire familiale : la proposition de ce film en Angleterre basé sur un livre de son père. J’ai hâte d’en voir le résultat.
En attendant, l’autrice nous livre de belles scènes d’intimité entre eux. Peut-être un peu trop vu le peu qu’elle avait à raconter dans ce tome entre ces scènes justement. Elles ne sont pas mal mises en scène mais elles n’ont pas forcément à chaque fois d’intérêt narrativement parlant. Elles font juste plaisir à voir combien ils sont proches et attentifs à l’autre.
Belle romance qui continue à prendre son envol et prend soin aussi bien de sa relation sentimentale que de la santé mentale de chacun et en particulier de celui ayant grandi avec un traumatisme ayant des répercussion sur la construction de sa personnalité. C’est doux, tendre, touchant et bien fait, le cinéma étant ici un accessoire permettant de se trouver et d’avoir une passion. J’aime.
Article complet : https://lesblablasdetachan.wordpress....
February 9, 2026
I feel like I understood Asami’s motivations and backstory here much more than in the drama. I think when I watched it I missed a lot of nuance that is much more clear in the manga. I also liked the scenes the drama didn’t have. I fee like they flushed their relationship out more and you come away feeling that Shirasaki is a much better boyfriend from reading this.
December 13, 2025
Not sure how I feel about this one. The pacing of this volume felt a little off and even though I read book 3 right before going into this volume it felt like I didn't. I don't mind the direction the story is going in, but I don't feel as invested as I initially did.
October 12, 2025
ganbatte asami-kun...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews