Mayo hides behind the screen as "Mahiru"—but how long can he hide his true self?
Compared to his radiant online alter ego—Mahiru, a bubbly VTuber beloved by thousands of fans—the real Mayo is gloomy, shy and plagued by self-doubt. And the more love Mahiru receives, the more Mayo feels the sting of isolation. Even Mr. Ogino—Mayo's affectionate, doting manager—seems to care more for the persona, not the real Mayo behind the mask.
So even when Mr. Ogino tells him, “I love you,” how could Mayo ever believe his words...?
Yet Mr. Ogino might see more than Mayo realizes. Sensing Mayo's secret longing and unable to resist, Mr. Ogino utters the words that will change their relationship
“In that case... shall I bully you instead?” - explicit sexual content, dubious consent, alcohol use, kink, depression, mild suicidal ideation, self-harm
I have really got to start being more careful about my Tokyopop purchases. They have some good stuff, but they also bulk-license such trash titles at a muc higher rate than any of the other BL publishers seem to.
This is basically a subpar version of Let Me See the Real You, Senpai!, about a moody, depressed vtuber who's nothing like his bright, cheerful, popular public persona. While the love interest in this one is the guy's manager rather than a fellow vtuber, the character designs are honestly so similar it can hardly be a coincidence. I just checked the dates on the series, and as far as I can tell, this one came out a year after.
That's not terrible on its own - a lot of manga plays off the same tropes - but it's like Luria took all those story beats and said: how can we make that beautiful, interesting, surprisingly sweet love story into something toxic and chemistry-less?
We start off with a pretty minimal introduction: Mayo is, like I said, very popular and has been doing the vtuber thing for four years. He's had his current manager, Ogino, for three years, due to a company policy against managers dating the talent and shuffling everyone around so they only have same-sex managers.
Little do they know that Mayo is actually gay! So he falls in love with Ogino, who constantly praises him, but in a way that makes Mayo think he only cares about his vtuber self.
Until the day that Ogino realizes Mayo's attracted to him and takes advantage of that to have sex with him, despite Mayo's protests. Then proceeds to have unprotected sex with him that Mayo begs for...only after getting so drunk that he doesn't remember any of it after. Something Ogino explicitly says he knows will happen to Mayo after he drinks.
So yeah it's just straight up assault.
Then they have sex in a public bathroom after going to see Mayo's vtuber ad on a billboard. Very romantic. Up until this point, this is literally all that's happening, "plot"wise...except for Ogino also moving in with Mayo because of some suggestion to follow what kpop idol groups do, which is apparently housing them in one location with their manager so they have a support group.
Cool idea. Except...Mayo's not getting friends or support, he's just got his sexually aggressive manager sharing a bed with him.
All of the sexual stuff is framed in a pretty horrible way, with Ogino running an internal monologue about how he's doing this as Mayo's manager, to "help" him. Look, I'm not against imbalanced power dynamic relationships. But the way this one is set up and progresses just hits all the wrong notes and truly doesn't leave me liking - or knowing anything about - either character. Ogino hasn't been secretly attracted to or in love with Mayo or anything. He saw an opportunity and took it, and started getting possessive of Mayo in the process.
Mayo does start doing some collabs with two other guys Ogino manages, which finally (after four years??? of solo vtubing) allows him to start getting out of the house and socializing a little more. Ogino is appreciative of this as Mayo's manager, but also resentful of the fact that it's giving Mayo more self-confidence and causing him to lean on or need him as much.
"It felt very one-sided," Mayo muses after a jealousy-fueled sex marathon. "It was a bit scary...but it felt really good."
I just grimaced the whole way through, honestly.
The next drama is about overworked Ogino being switched away from Mayo's management, or so Mayo thinks from overhearing some workplace gossip. This finally leads into a little bit of backstory: a very minimal glimpse of Mayo being mildly brokenhearted by a single offhand comment during his school days, which wasn't even directed at him. And then Ogino's big reveal: that Mayo's vtuber streams were what inspired him to quit his job and come work at his company, to save Mayo from the kind of soul-killing overwork that had been draining him.
Too little too late, really. This is an interesting backstory that frankly does not fit at all with how Ogino was treating or interacting with Mayo for the bulk of the volume. (Although he also kind of manipulated his way into being Mayo's manager, so I guess it kind of does match his personality.)
Finally: "You're a real masochist," Ogino tells Mayo. Except...he's not?
All his internal musings were nothing like that. He wanted someone who would adore him, who would love him and cherish him as himself. He's full of self-hate and negative talk and self-harming tendencies not because he likes those things but because he's really depressed????
So Ogino deciding he needs to "bully" Mayo in bed was a weird, weird take on their relationship and truly shows how little he understands him. And then it turns out in the final pages that Mayo...wasn't even his real name either? It's just a nickname?
There was truly very little about this story that made it worthwhile. Again...read Yuho Okita's instead if you find this setup interesting. It's got a whole lot more plot and actual character development.
Bastante interesante la pequeña parte que podemos ver sobre los vtubers. Se toca el tema de la depresión y la soledad en ese mundillo. El estilo de dibujo me ha gustado, el tomo en general está bien, pero me ha faltado algo en la relación entre los protagonistas. Siento que es muy precipitado. El añadido de los personajes secundarios que también son vtubers está muy bien planteado. Sé que hay un segundo tomo, lo tendré en cuenta aunque no creo que lo lea porque siento que se deja muy bien cerrado con este.
This was absolutely cuuuute!!! Uncensored too! We get the whole d!ck and h0le and everything haha. The story is sweet, seems like a common trope in streamer mangas (happy sunshine avatar = sad, depressed emo boi) which i think is cute. His manager is hot, like so many hot scenes, i wish there were more bullying but the top is a super green flag
i found this while at kinokuniya yesterday and picked it up from the staff recommendations, and maybe also grabbed it because i'm a sucker for this kind of art style. it also gave a free sticker, how could i not get it??? the cover is breathtaking, as is the art style, but could be very misleading to people if this isn't the kind of book they want to read. it's actually so rare for me to give five stars and it is kind of embarrassing that this is my first five star of the year... lowkey feel like a fat fucking chud 33 the art style is absolutely gorgeous, lowkey more porn than plot but i'm looking past it because i love the trope the mc's are in. i read a fic on this trope not even a day ago, feels kinda uncanny. i'm looking forward to the second books release, i definitely will be reading! hopefully the smut doesn't start so fast in the second book, one of the few issues i had with the book but still a good read.
"My Noons and Midnights are for You" grabbed my full attention with its cover and synopsis. I thought it was so original to have an MC who's an online celebrity, and there were all kinds of chat rooms and video platforms elements all over the cover and end papers that I absolutely loved, to the point that I got sad when the black and white manga started. I wasn't sad for long, because Mayo was introduced and he became my favourite manga character ever.
The author did a wonderful job contrasting Mayo's fabricated and audience-tested, cheerful, uplifting online persona and how much he was struggling with his mental health in his personal life, with his personal space reflecting that. He was loved for who he pretended to be online and gave no one a chance to love his real self. Not until Ongino.
Both these characters have very demanding jobs, and I liked that even in the midst of a very romantic story, where Ongino would rather sleep on the floor than wake Mayo, there was a lot of realism about how putting that many hours into their work had an effect on their lives and relationship.
This was one of the spiciest and hottest mangas I have ever read, and it hurts my heart, because I absolutely loved these characters, their chemistry, their relationship, and how there was even an attempt to portray their intimate scenes with a bit more realism than manga usually gives us, but it wouldn't be a Japanese manga without some murky consent issues, so I have to take away a star simply because of that. Japan doesn't understand that the bottom saying no and being ignored doesn't uphold the family honour or make him any less gay.
That was the only stupid decision in this story because Ongiro was otherwise the best kind of unhinged and dedicated, and if it wasn't for him, nothing would have happened. This manga did a wonderful job of exploring both characters, particularly Mayo. He was a real reminder that you never know what is going on in someone's heart, and to be kind to everyone. Mayo had impeccable fashion sense and the funniest reactions, so even when he was at his lowest, his mind was a pleasure to be in.
This was one of the best manga I have ever read, with characters that felt real and catered to an adult audience with relatable issues and problems. I would love a sequel. Please!
Thank you to Edelweiss, TokyoPop and Love Love for this DRC.
Okay I feel like I'm a little blinded by the beautiful art and the smut. I have a lot of gripes, but I still really enjoyed this.
The sexual stuff happened too quickly and it would've fit better after they started living together. The living together thing also seemed wrong like the company suggested it, but Ogino is in charge of two other talents so it would've made more sense if they ALL lived together. They should've of just made it the Ogino is like I'm going to stay with you because you're not properly taking care of yourself instead or something like that. I also wish they would've established their relationship as manager and talent a little better in the beginning. We didn't really get to know their relationship that well before they started to get intimate and display feelings. We get to see it explained at the end, but I would've wanted more in the beginning. I also wish they had played up the "bullying" aspect a little more in the beginning like okay Mayo is a masochist, but I wish there was more established before Ogiro was like you want to be bullied?
I mostly said negative things, but I genuinely had a good time with this. I'm looking forward to reading the sequel. I just wish this could've been cleaned up so it could've been ~perfect~
despite it being only a solo (I think?) manga I actually loved it so much, yes there were too many sex scenes in my personal opinion, and the one in the first chapter caught me off guard because I didn't expect it to start that early, but I can excuse it this one time. People in the reviews say that they didn't like Mayo's "gloomy" personally and although I can somewhat understand that, I also relate to Mayo a lot in a way, with the overthinking of basically everything going on in your life, past and present, it can be easy for some people, but for others it isn't and I'm one of them. And also, he's trapped in his apartment 24/7 for his vtubering streaming without going out much, he also very clearly has depression, and although it's "healing" in the later chapters it's still occurring. And for another example, he in his school years he crushed on another boy, while then soon finding out that he's homophobic.
I've written more about this review but I accidentally deleted it by pressing 'paste' instead of 'copy' on it... I wrote so much 😭
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
3⭐. No me ha gustado nada de nada, la trama es horriblemente superficial, siento que el manager tiene una obsesión mas bien creepy hacia el vtuber, mientras que este ultimo simplemente tiene una gran dependencia emocional ya que necesita sí o sí sentirse querido.
El dibujo es bastante básico, no siento que destaque demasiado (y eso que en la portada lucia mejor).
Su relación no me ha gustado, ni como se forja ni nada, siento que no están enamorados, sino que más bien se retroalimentan, uno alimenta la obsesión del otro mientras que la otra persona tiene lo que busca, que es sentirse querido/deseado.
No tengo problemas con las relaciones toxicas pero es que esto es otra cosa porque es insano y repito, en ningún momento me hacen creer que se quieran de verdad que es lo que busco como mínimo siempre que leo bl.
No me agrada que sea el tipo de manga que tiene muchas escenas subiditas pero una trama completamente vacía (al menos para mí es así).
I enjoyed this better than “Let Me See the Real You, Senpai” because I felt significantly less second hand embarrassment and the character interactions felt less… cliché? Though, I am also biased because I relate to Mayo’s mental health and attachment issues heavily; moreover his design is appealing to me (I’m gooning to his ass 😭😭✌️✌️SON IM NUTTING.) This manga definitely stuck out to me, but it wasn’t life changing. I thought it was a cute and simple read overall, and I’m looking forward to reading the next volumes.
edit: i also agree that the sexual relationship happened way too fast, but my expections for yaoi are literally in the trenches so i forgot to mention,,, sorrryyyyy,,,, btw i LIVE yuuho okita, plz read their other works
Interessant, aber mir kommt ehrlich gesagt die emotionale Seite etwas zu kurz. Mayo wirkt sehr sensibel und das scheint hier zwar aufgegriffen, aber nicht verarbeitet zu werden. Ogino wird dadurch an manchen Stellen wie ein... Psychopath. Naja, nicht ganz so krass, aber schon so in die Richtung. Zumindest ein Wolf im Schafspelz...
I had a really hard time getting into this book, and I didn’t feel much chemistry between the characters at all. The relationship felt very unbalanced to me, like one of them was clearly taking advantage of the other. There is a reflective part about life and work that was… fine, I guess, but overall I don’t think I’ll be picking up the next book in the series.
The plot is pretty surface level but its not meant to be a long extensive series, more so a short story. LOVE the art and I LOVE the characters and the vtubers. I expected this to be a one volume story but apparently there's another! Can't wait to read Vol 2 when it comes out
I liked this one! From the summary it did sound like it would be a lot like "Let Me See The Real You Sempai!" but after reading it, I found it quite different. The overarching theme of being a vtuber is similar, but I found the story themes in "My Noons and Midnights Are For You" were different, more mature and deep. Mayo as a character is complex and interesting (and beautiful.) Ogina is...alright I suppose haha. I am not so so much a fan of him, but the dynamic they had was interesting. It had more of a BDSM feel, mixed with complex psychological aspects happening for both characters. I liked it--the scenes were hella hot and uncensored. I was very embarrassed flipping through this at the bookstore (how does tokyopop not wrap their volumes 😅) and it seemed more SA and noncon upon flip through. That being said, once actually reading it through, it didn't give me SA or noncon vibes, everything seemed consensual in the story. Ogina is still a bit creeper to me, but whatever gets Mayo going I guess... In any case I'd give this a 4.5 so round up to a 5. Its not my most favorite story out there, but I find it well-executed, interesting, and hot. And what else does one look for in a BL than that 😹? I'd save my 5s for stories that I find personally touching but also I will keep up with this one. I am interested to see where this could go.