隣の彼

by Keiko Kinoshita, 木下けい子

大学に入学して憧れの一人暮らしを始めた松田くん。
ところが、アパートのお隣さんは無精髭にジャージ姿の怪しい住人・早乙女さんとちっちゃな住人はなちゃん・・・
最初は早乙女さんを警戒しまくっていた松田くんだったけれども、
いつしか強く意識するようになっていて!?

Genres: Manga, Romance, Yaoi

187 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2007

About the author

Kinoshita Keiko (木下けい子) is a Japanese mangaka.

Reviews

[bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

[ ★★★,3 / 5 ]

[ cw//tw: age-gap. ]

Kinda fast paced, hence, too short for any good characters development. The ending was abrupt. I can't say I'm satisfied with it. Yoshihiko still hunged up with his past love. Imo it's still one-sided, kinda feels like they become sex-friends instead of lovers. Matsuda deserves better.

In conclusion: great start with rushed ending.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thankfully this one wasn’t graphic ;)

[Betsy :D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far to short! Definitely needed more !!!

[M.A. Grant · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm learning that more often than not, the artwork is what sets a manga apart, especially in the yaoi genre. There are specific tropes that come up frequently, along with key plot points in each story, and after a while, the repetition becomes clear, regardless of the writer or artist.

This story has some unique elements to it: a young child being cared for one of the protagonists, slightly more realistic view of the pressures of college life for a protagonist who isn't perfect in the academic world, and a HFN ending that seems more realistic for the protagonists than a forced HEA. The artwork is breezy and there are some lovely panels, but it's not a standout to me.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always had a weakness for stories where one of the guys has a kid. This is a very nice example of that kind of story - overall, there wasn't as much romance as I would have liked since the seme was a little too hung up on his previous love of his life, but I really liked the pacing of the story. Love at first sight can be fun to read about, too, but I actually prefer the slowly falling in love kind of story.

[Myka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely slow developing relationship, no insta-love.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always like Kinoshita's stuff. Very cute and sweet. Barely any sex. I read the kindle edition, and the images aren't as good as the sample available through the DMG app. They seem to suffer from jpeg compression artifacts. No idea if that's amazon's fault or the way it was uploaded. I know from seeing "print replica" kindle samples that they can do better than this, so it's a bit disappointing from that perspective. Love the story and the artwork though.