Responses
omg i also grew up on yaoi in ye olden days and the first story had such a huge impact on me too. masayoshi approached souma's circumstances with so much empathy and kindness, and didn't use his role as an authority figure to exploit him at all. he was able to give souma the space to be a kid. this definitely made me look forward to her other works
Back when I was but a young a Tibetan fox cub full of innocence, all I knew about yaoi and "boys love" content was limited to the likes of "Gravitation", "Loveless", and "Gakuen Heaven", where the characters were stereotypically a masculine top and a blushing girly bottom. Back then life was simple, pure, almost virginal. This manga blew my mind, particularly the first story.
I remember feeling disturbed but also enraptured by the dynamic of the main couple and their relationship. But it wasn't the unusualness of their relationship that made it memorable to me, It was the characters themselves and how human they are. It struck me that there are so many dark undertones in this manga despite it's seemingly light-hearted tone.
One scene I'll never forget is that one where Masayoshi and Souma are walking to Souma's home and Souma stops Masayoshi from walking him all the way to his front door, and then we see that there's a ton of angry debt collection notices plastered all over his door. He's a kid and it's not his fault but he feels embarrassed by their poverty nonetheless. Another is when Masayoshi thinks to himself that he "doesn't have to ask to know if Souma is eating well" as he observes the boy's small frame and hunched shoulders.
But the most impactful moment in this story for me was when Souma tells Masayoshi that he's going away to live with his aunt while feigning indifference and Masayoshi, upset that Souma is again having to deal with losing his new friends and pretend to be okay with it all, angrily yells "so? what do you want me to do about it?!" and then finally Souma breaks down and finally acts like the child he is and cries that he doesn't want to go. It's so painfully obvious that he's had to grow up too soon.
I'm pretty sure I will someday forget the title of this manga but I will never forget this story. It's one of the reasons why Abe Akane's art style has become burned into my memory.