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must re-read. soo sweet and cute but with real emotions and situations. hott sex and saki-san is pretty sexxy. a pleasure to watch both their relationship develop and their growth as individual characters- really enjoyable read.
would deserve 5 stars if the ending were longer/had more resolution. great writing, deep feels, and confronting past demons. its never too late to grow up or atone for your mistakes. one-shot after the main story is pretty good, as well.
features shio-san from sangen tonari- which i liked very much- but i might like this one even more. very gentle romance, but still deals with hard stuff like facing yourself and being honest without descending into melodrama or nonsense. beautiful artwork, too.
love! really sweet to see a relationship built on mutual respect, personal growth, and desire to build a future and protect what's important. perfect pacing, and the sex scenes were really satisfying. both MCs actually looked and acted like men, too. nice art.
sooo cute, though shinoyama was a whackjob. i like the idea of how being able to see lies would effect a relationship. short sequel is Count H, which is a good follow-up a few years later.
real feels, good pacing, human mistakes and terrible reasoning, but still coming to a good conclusion and learning to love yourself and others' flaws. got a little melodramatic with all the hospitalizations going on there, but otherwise pretty believable plot.
actually brought me close to tears. simple and moving-how society/bigotry can turn love into fear, and being scared and doing it anyway.
a lot of the story and the characters' emotions really hit in the feels, very natural relationship and pacing. just great story. a little short on the smexing, though. i feel bad that the only encounter the mangaka shows is physically painful. feel like the story could have benefited from another chapter to wrap it up a little neater.
normal guy falls for a rent boy and helps him get out of the life. sounds like a knight in shining armor story, but it's really about kindness, forgiveness, and learning from yr past. Nice art. Although this is part if miyamoto kano's sprawling universe of characters, you do not need to be familiar with any of her other stories to understand this one.
fluffy, sparkly, sweet stories. student x teacher with a secret, delinquents in love, and chief x subordinate. just light and fun and great art.
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What’s top drawer means? Top arts? Or mangas that always draw you to re-read them again and again? XD I love your list btw...
Thanks, I'm glad you enjoy the list! I always wondered if people understood the reference in the title, so I am so glad you asked about it! And your take on its meaning would have never occurred to me, even though I really do appreciate great art in manga. So, thank you for sharing that.
Anyway, the drawer in 'top drawer' is like a chest of drawers, one you pull out of the wall or a cabinet and put stuff in. The phrase 'really top drawer' is old slang meaning 'of good quality.' It's in the movie 'Auntie Mame' (the Rosalind Russell version)- this snobby woman refers to some of her equally snobby friends as being 'really top drawer' and I always thought it was a funny phrase, so I used it for the title of my list of (in my opinion) 'top quality' manga. You can look up the phrase on YouTube, it's only a couple seconds long and it's worth hearing in all it's affected glory.
Thanks again for asking, you made my day!
Hey I love this list, I'm so glad you put your opinion in the notes too because it helps me get an idea of what to expect more than just the description. Love this, tysm for putting it together. It certainly is "top drawer"!