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A review by blithesquesttoread
This Wonderful Season With You by Atsuko Yusen
May contain spoilers
Oh, this manga proved to be good but at the same time questionable and now I am confused as to what rating I should give it, so I am just gonna list down my opinions here.
First of all, the artwork was really good! The character design as well as the placements of words seemed good to read through so that was a really good thing about it. Furthermore, it discussed - in just a few chapters - some really important things related to bullying, divorce and homophobia.
However, there were a few things that I found really uncomfortable. Starting with the "segregation" and name calling of supposedly two different sects of people. I mean it's nothing new and can be seen really everywhere, it felt that it was being unnecessarily being dragged here and formed the major plot of "opposites attract". It would have been much better if the story just highlighted personality differences instead of physical (big guy and small guy) and social (loved by everyone and called a mushroom by everyone else) differences.
But more than that, the fact that Enoki was willing to change... to build up his physique just to satisfy Shirataki, didn't swim well with me. The manga ended up finishing on a note where it portrayed that Enoki doing something he isn't comfortable with was okay just because he was in love with Shirataki and wanted to do so for him. Which brings me to the whole topic of consent and boundaries and... guilt tripping? The "love scene" at the end was honestly not what I was anticipating and it was just so wrong on every level. Enoki expressed before how he wasn't ready to have sex with Shirataki (it was also because he felt insecure about his body) but even after working out or whatever, he wasn't ready but he wanted to do it out of his love. And Shirataki expressed how he was frustrated when Enoki said "wait" without giving explanation because of which Enoki felt bad and decided to give it a go. Shirataki even imposed this absurd three times wait and then stop rule which he followed but then after Enoki said wait three times, he said how he was really looking forward to have sex with Enoki due to which he finally said "let's go all the way". I mean it was wrong on all levels.
That whole scene really bugged me a lot. The consent, boundaries and affirmative response in a sexual relationship (well, all kinds of relationships honestly) is really important which this manga didn't end up portraying well.
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia, bullying, divorce, name calling, graphic sex
I received an arc copy in exchange of an honest review
Oh, this manga proved to be good but at the same time questionable and now I am confused as to what rating I should give it, so I am just gonna list down my opinions here.
First of all, the artwork was really good! The character design as well as the placements of words seemed good to read through so that was a really good thing about it. Furthermore, it discussed - in just a few chapters - some really important things related to bullying, divorce and homophobia.
However, there were a few things that I found really uncomfortable. Starting with the "segregation" and name calling of supposedly two different sects of people. I mean it's nothing new and can be seen really everywhere, it felt that it was being unnecessarily being dragged here and formed the major plot of "opposites attract". It would have been much better if the story just highlighted personality differences instead of physical (big guy and small guy) and social (loved by everyone and called a mushroom by everyone else) differences.
But more than that, the fact that Enoki was willing to change... to build up his physique just to satisfy Shirataki, didn't swim well with me. The manga ended up finishing on a note where it portrayed that Enoki doing something he isn't comfortable with was okay just because he was in love with Shirataki and wanted to do so for him. Which brings me to the whole topic of consent and boundaries and... guilt tripping? The "love scene" at the end was honestly not what I was anticipating and it was just so wrong on every level. Enoki expressed before how he wasn't ready to have sex with Shirataki (it was also because he felt insecure about his body) but even after working out or whatever, he wasn't ready but he wanted to do it out of his love. And Shirataki expressed how he was frustrated when Enoki said "wait" without giving explanation because of which Enoki felt bad and decided to give it a go. Shirataki even imposed this absurd three times wait and then stop rule which he followed but then after Enoki said wait three times, he said how he was really looking forward to have sex with Enoki due to which he finally said "let's go all the way". I mean it was wrong on all levels.
That whole scene really bugged me a lot. The consent, boundaries and affirmative response in a sexual relationship (well, all kinds of relationships honestly) is really important which this manga didn't end up portraying well.
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia, bullying, divorce, name calling, graphic sex
I received an arc copy in exchange of an honest review