And my heart doesn't need too much / And I never speak my mind enough / But I want you to come my way-ay / And I won't let this moment go to waste (All Over You – Majid Jordan).
This ain't nothing, but it's all I nee~eed, and the pe- oh sorry, I got caught in a song. Hey, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, when I close my eyes I can picture a simple story about a romance between an innocent sunshiny sunshine person and a super cool, super-hot popular guy who’s also super aloof. I know right, groundbreaking. I mean, I guess that’s not totally fair to Takara’s Treasure, because the manga is rather more involved than just that, but maybe the reason for my slight hostility is just that I usually find the idea of a "cool guy" in fiction or real life to be kind of uncool. Because this manga isn't just about the "sweet guy, cool guy" dynamic, as its specific plot is about a first year college student named Taishin who abruptly switches universities and major in order to meet up with a sexy dude named Takara, simply because he had comforted him in a moment of intense crisis. And look, I might have mischaracterized them a little bit, because despite the bones of this story being intimately familiar, between Taishin doing his little Nicky Youre, “kinda cool and kinda not” routine and Takara being an outwardly cold and indifferent jerk, yet still being able to apologize for his actions by the end of the manga really improved its standing with me. Made things a little more interesting, you know? I know it doesn't seem like much, but with the “doe-eyed” main character not being beacon of purity and light and instead getting a little weird with it while having the sexy love-interest showing slight emotional maturity by having even an ounce of self-reflection adds a level of refinement to their dynamic that allows the relationship to stand on its own outside of the pretty art. Sure, it’s almost always about the art for me, which is why I can't get into One Piece, but I can’t lie that it’s a nice surprise whenever the story happens to be pretty good too. Because if I'm just here for art, I could just scroll Tumblr or Bluesky (which I do anyway)! Again, that’s not to say that I don’t appreciate pretty manga with hot dudes in them, because that was probably about 50% of the appeal about Takara’s Treasure, I can’t lie. And since we’ve waded over here in shallow waters, can I just say that I also really enjoyed this manga because it didn’t have one designated hot guy… but two! Woah, can you imagine!? Really though, one of my biggest pet peeves whenever I’m reading manga is when there’s one super attractive guy™ in universe that everybody treats like a superstar for some reason and the main character might as well be leftover scraps... even though everybody is drawn with the same level of attractiveness. Which is why Ryoko Kui, the author of Delicious in Dungeon is unmatched in this regard, because she's able to draw diverse characters with all kinds of body-types without things turning into harmful stereotypes.
But yeah, the problem is that manga that aren't written and drawn by Ryoko Kui tend to just obsess over appearances despite the fact that everyone has the same face. Which is funny as it also makes the general obsession with looks in these kind of manga seem a little silly verging on the edge of bizarre because it’s like… there are a hundred other guys who quite literally all look alike, so just pick one of them if you care about looks so much! Like, things are getting a little too "Number 12 Looks Just Like You" in here! And trust me, it's not like these good-looking guys have anything resembling a personality to fall back on, because they sure as hell wouldn’t be getting any action on their behavior alone. And yeah, I know it’s a thing. You know, where the love-interest walks around all unbothered, because it gives them an Edward Cullen, tortured poet vibe, but I’ve always just found those characters incredibly unappealing if not downright reprehensible. That’s why I thought Takara was a standout despite the fact that he fits that role down to the letter; in a genre full of guys just like him, just the fact that he even took a moment to look back on his behavior and not only reflect on it, but actually act on his feelings of remorse proves that this manga artist was cooking with some spice. Good stuff! Man… oh sorry, I’m still here, I was just covering my bases, figuring out if I really don’t have any complaints about this manga. I'm channeling my hater spirit and all that. Because damn, right now I feel like one of the Seven Princesses of Heart the way I don’t hold any anger towards Takara’s Treasure. That can’t be, can it? It's weird because I can almost always count on my ability to find anything annoying! So the fact that I’m coming up empty when I normally don’t even have to work that hard to complain is actually kind of wild! All I can say about this manga is that it's a nice and sweet love story about infatuation turning into something real. Or at least more real. Sure, I think their relationship might lean too much on codependency here and there and it's hard to imagine what they'd look like as a couple in ten years time, but weirder things have happened. "'C'est la vie,' say the old folks. It goes to show, you never can tell." Oh, you know what? Because I’ve been searching my memory banks for annoying things since the start of this paragraph, I’m other stuff is resurfacing instead, and I'm coming up with a bunch of other examples that decidedly aren’t this manga. Has anybody else seen that new Daredevil show? Yeah well, even though I’ll tell anybody who cares enough to listen that I liked it, in the same breath I’ll go on and on about how I thought the dialogue was wooden, the chemistry Daredevil had between him and his therapist girlfriend was mid, and the action was too Jason Bourney in that things went by too quick to before I was even able to figure out what happened. And yet, I’ll still say that I thought the show was pretty good… even if one of the major reasons why I liked it whole lot was because there was a character I HATED in the original show that isn’t there anymore.
Huh, I guess I'm using this site as if it's Letterboxd now. Which is kind of funny because the reviews over there tend to annoy me a little bit. Though maybe I'm just jealous that I've lost the ability to write one sentence reviews, and it's gotten so bad that I always end up with whole ass essays, even for a one volume manga series! But enough about that, it's a story (or rant) for another day! For now let's get back to the treasure at hand, Takara's Treasure! Oh wait... what's this? Oh great, now my Haterade Detector is picking up something else in the recesses of my mind! Ahhh… let’s see… take Toy Story 4 for example, by all accounts a totally fine movie with a nice little message that could offend absolutely no one, and yet here I am offended that the little girl ignored vintage 1950’s doll, Woody, for that piece of shit fork. I know the whole movie is about how anybody can find value in anything and even if a worthless plastic fork that sucks and nobody likes can learn to find love or whatever, but like... can it though? I mean, I’m not 100% confident in anything, but I know for a fact that even when I was a kid, I totally knew the difference between a quality toy and a cheap utensil that sucks. Also, they made Buzz Lightyear too stupid. Like, he doesn’t know what emotions are!? Come on now, what was the character arc he went through in the first movie then? He didn't know what he was feeling were emotions!? Hey, does anyone know where was I going with this? Because reading back I feel like I've been sounding kind of drunk for this entire review. Like I'm a little tipsy teehee! But nah, unfortunately all of this is done completely sober. Oh yeah, I remember now... no nitpick is too nitpicky for me when I'm out here singing my Hater’s Lament, so when I tell you that I’m giving Takara’s Treasure my complete stamp of approval without any accompanying asterisks, you know that it means something! It's funny because I'm almost saying this begrudgingly considering it kind of proves that all the lines I draw for romance tropes are all kind of bullshit. I guess the lesson here is that I’ll like anything if I like it. Does that make sense? Okay then, I’ll try to put it in more concrete terms. I think that other than the fact that it was cool how everyone in this manga was hot (and nice to look at), another reason why I became such an easy grader towards it was probably just that I’ve finally come to terms with the fact that if something is gay, there are a great many things in a story that I’ll forgive. Cliché storms, aloof boyfriends, indecisive main characters with a miscommunication problem, that’s all prevalent and prominent here in Takara’s Treasure, and yet I can only look back with an unprecedented level fondness. Ah, you know what? I’ve cracked the case… it’s all of the above! The gay thing, the hot guy thing, and the hot guy apologizing thing. Should I be ashamed that that was all it took to sway me? Probably, and yet here I am unabashedly splashing around in these shallow waters!
10/10 A cute & gorgeous college boys-love story! There's size difference (Tak is just sooo tall 😆), obsession (cutie type), & dating! I couldn't help but linger on scenes.
🌠Taishin's eyes are gorgeous, he is cute (smol 😆). He may be short but he is like 15cm taller than me lol. Someone wrote he may be autistic coded, tho I did just see him as dense/oblivious, socially awkward but honest & focused (on Takara). 🗻Takara comes off as cold, harsh but he is quite kind, also secretly possessive 😉. He consoled Tai when he'd lost his pet, as strangers (which led to Tai choosing Tak's college to come thank him—obsessed, lol—hence starting the story!). He doesn't care which gender, so pansexual confirmed?! (No label here)
It is sweet overall, there's a stalker scare but its resolved in same chapter. We have a naive country boy in the dense city, of course something would happen ugh.
Tak made Tai work for it 😂 but I'm glad Tai puts a word to it. I liked: (1) their dating stage, Tak was a real one, he be like: u can start dating someone before liking em 100%, u can grow to like em in time; agreed. (2) That Tai kinda forwarded their relationship. (3) The hiking/marbles scenes! Flashback made me appreciate it 🥰. (4) That they thought of future too.
The side characters are fun, even if they don't show up much. There were scenes that I felt like "ah, that is Japanese people stereotyping shit", but I guess in a way it shows their culture 🤔. I wish they were out but they want to keep it to themselves, secret ok 😩, I respect it tho. I did not expect actual (hot & sweet) spicy scenes, but it is there in bonus hehe. First love virgins 🤭.
Comic rating: 1) The Characters: 5/5 2) Story feels: 😅🤨😆🥺😟😤😍😯🥰🙃😉🥵 3) Art: 5/5 (not colored) 4) Sexy/Steamy scenes: Yes, in bonus!
This was super cute and wholesome! It's a college romance where the two love interest have met before and reunite in college but Takara (the ML) gives Taishin (the MC) the cold shoulder.
Taishin was absolutely ADORABLE. He is so earnest and has a little bit of naiveite that people have right out of high school and I felt like that added to his overall charm in this book. He was like a little brother imo and he was too cute! I liked how honest he was with Takara and I think thats what really helped their relationship. This honest boi carried the manga ngl.
As for Takara I feel like he was over all very apathetic so I didn't care for his character much but you could tell he cared about Taishin a lot. I liked how his backstory kinda connected with his feeling of apathy and why it kinda took him a while to fall for Taishin.
Overall this was a very cute bl oneshot and I hope the author can make a full series in the future.
Un Boys Love carino, ma ammetto che non mi ha presa del tutto. I disegni mi sono piaciuti, ma anche qui, nulla di trascendentale. In generale la trama è carina, anche se… non lo so, forse alcune cose non mi hanno molto convinta. Consiglio comunque la lettura, magari ad altri può piacere.
This was adorable. Taishin is precious and his affection for Takara is so pure and wholehearted from the start. Takara starts off a bit cold, but quickly is enchanted by Taishin. Their relationship is sweet and moves at a good pace even with this being a one-shot. The art is gorgeous, and I'm in awe of how the author was able to make Taishin's eyes radiate from the page.
Czytałam w aucie - śmiałam się dosłownie przez cały czas, z radości, przez łzy. Nie spodziewałam się, że to będzie takie cute & fluffy - uwielbiam historie pierwszych miłości ❤️. Jedyne, czego żałuję, to fakt, że nie będzie nic więcej i to zaskoczona historia.
This was an unexpected one. It was sweet fluff. Tai wasn't really the cute doll type, but his innocent made him sweet. Kinda what I liked about His Favorite. Takara came off as brash and cold in the beginning but then competing with Tai's denseness, it was just fluff. Couple of moments where things got serious. Tai's stalker and the miscommunication about Takara's mother. All clean until the bonus where smut happens more than once. That was an awkward tram ride. It was cute in stages prep before losing virginity. The whole thing was aww.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I was approved for an early copy of SuBLime's official translation through edelweiss so this is my review on that.
My previous reviews are based on fanscans and google translate so I will say that I think reading the official translation helped my enjoyment a bit more? Something about it this time felt longer and more full. I think I gained a lot more from the characters, their motivations and their relationship. I'm not sure if it's the reread or the translation doing that, but either way I loved this so much more. I feel like I understood the characters and I loved seeing them get closer. I think Taishin is still pretty naive and that I would still like a little more of him. The story is more centered on Takara overall, but calling Taishin one dimensional in my previous review was kind of harsh lol.
Idk maybe it was just the right time for me to read this in this moment, but I really enjoyed it. I can't wait to get my hands on the physical copy.
Es ist mega mega mega niedlich und einfach sehr entspannt zu lesen. Taishin ist zwar SEHR sehr ukig und auch sehr naiv, aber irgendwie ist es wirklich putzig. Sie überdenken nur beide ständig alles, was fast nervig ist, aber ja, es ist ein süßer Manga - und übrigens auch deutlich dicker als normale Mangas.
This was so good. Taishin is a first year university student in Tokyo who has chosen the same university as Takara, a second year student who was briefly kind to him during summer. He’s naive, maybe slightly autistic even, as he has trouble understanding other peoples’ signals and spaces out occasionally. That’s not specifically mentioned though, so maybe it’s simply about the difficulty of communication, or emphasising him being a country boy.
Takashi is the coolest, most popular person among his peers, constantly pursued by random people, so when Taishin approaches him to thank him, he’s rude at first. But university life, and the hiking club they both belong to, constantly throws them together. Takashi ends up looking after Taishin, who fears he’s just a nuisance. He’s not even aware men can be in a relationship, so he doesn’t understand his feelings at first. Little by little, Taishin grows on Takashi, and in the end, he manages to convince the younger man that he wants to be with him.
This is a stand-alone story told mostly from Taishi’s point of view, but one chapter is about Takashi’s childhood and why he treasures certain things. The romance unfurls slowly and sweetly, and there’s even spice in the bonus chapter where it finally dawns on Taishi that it’s the cool Takashi’s first relationship too. Ilustrations vere beautiful.
Primer volum d'una història BL que sembla incompleta amb una dinàmica de poder molt estranyota i un protagonista, el sempai, massa críptic i ambigu... M'ha fet patir massa la innocència del noi més jove i veure com intenta conquistar un tio que no mostra cap senyal d'interès :/ il·lustracions cuquis, però trama que fa aigua, com és costum amb la mangaka ^^'
taishin my boba eye sweetheart no one could ever make me dislike you
[ rtc ; this was as cute as the live action was. takara & taishin are genuinely so adorable together hsjdjsjsj i love them so much. i wish this was longer though, it sucks that it’s under 8 chapters…luckily there is always the option of rewatching all 11 eps of takara no vidro 🥹 ]