Chinese title: 管他是戀還是愛
English title: Will you set love aside?
This has 神率 of 47.2% on Chil-Chil.
4⭐️
I know Amamiya sensei’s debut BL manga is smutty and the two characters met on a drunken night. One may say the plot is cliche but a talented artist can turn it into a heartwarming and healing story.
The Japanese ver was published in 2017 and Chinese ver in 2018. I finally bought a 2nd hand copy of this manga online, it’s discontinued and very hard to find, when something’s a keeper people just won’t sell!
The BL manga industry is very competitive and cruel, I once read the survival rate of new artist is very low… So every single book needs to meet a certain sales target or their career would be on the line. Of course after the artist is more famous with a steady fan base then they can have more freedom to draw what they want, rather than what’s commercially popular.
The seme 岡崎 太一 is a 27 year old office worker with typical workaholic life and always get dumped by his ex-gfs because he cannot spend enough time with them, only meet up for sex but would fall asleep in the middle because he’s drained from work. He’s longing for someone to lean on when he’s tired but he’s not good with keeping up with relationships.
The uke 藤 仁成 is a 22 year old bar tender, he was heart broken after seeing his year long ex-bf cheating with a girl at his home. Then he’s just been going with the flow and not had a stable partner, until he got picked up by the seme on the bench in the park. He degraded himself as a “convenient masturbation cup” and told the seme to just toss him away when no longer needed.
The uke kept on pushing the seme to others because he’s not confident that he can hold onto a straight man. He knew the seme is into girls so he’d put himself in a disposable position, just continue to visit the seme’s home while not causing any trouble or burden to the seme. Quietly wait for the seme to finish work late at night, wait for the seme to come back from unannounced business trip…
The seme couldn’t take the uke seriously because of his pretentious smile and frivolous attitude. He always thought that he’s just one of the guys that uke is flirting with. Until the moment that uke ran away while he’s asleep and left him a note on the table. The seme finally realized that he didn’t just want to have a physical relationship but just wanted to spend time with the uke…
Sex is only the beginning but love is the end goal. Amamiya sensei is really good at drawing the tug-of-war situation between the two men, what they show on the surface (bluffing) and what they really think inside (falling). It’s so sweet to see these two eventually letting down their guards, slowly shrinking their physical distance (finally kissed), also softening their facial expressions.
The main story is way too short, only 4 chapters with 2 short bonus. Why didn’t the publisher include the After Story as a booklet? Same issue with Blue! Blue! Blue! I need more dose of these cute couples…