Usually like Minta’s work but this was a real slog to get through. Not really the type to leave comments about disappointing works but this was quite unexpected from Minta. Some comments have pointed out how unlikable Akihito is or that the pair lacked any chemistry, but I think it’s also attributed to the poor writing quality. There was very little tension or drama once Akihito reconciled with the fact that he could now rely on Sumeragi, which made the story lose steam despite efforts to sustain it with manufactured tension (Akihito’s overreaction toward Sumeragi’s marriage interview or the jest in receiving Jun’s approval). Actually those latter chapters were really brutal to get through, since we get the realization that Sumeragi is much older than Akihito. I’m generally tepid on age gap romances but it recontextualises their relationship in quite a negative light, since Akihito’s immaturity and brattiness is overshadowed by the years Sumeragi has on him. It also makes their sex scene much more repulsive since Akihito is so … prudish and reticent while Sumeragi comes off insistent and gross in making Akihito experience “the pleasure” again. Akihito was really not a good character.
It’s even stranger that I had the passing thought that a story between Sumeragi and the uncle would’ve been a better story, playing of the black cat/tsundere and puppy seme tropes. You would assume that he and Akihito are the same type but somehow it’s just really poorly executed and utterly boring. It must be an early work of Minta’s.
Gorgeous art, decent enough story but that absolute bogus myth about limited bilingualism really came out of nowhere lmfao. It's not a real thing, a child without pre-existing language disorders only has language acquisition difficulties if they are not spoken to/no language was around them. Limited bilingualism where the child speaks neither language well because two languages were spoken 'unequally' is nonsense, given the program to promote bilingualism in children in One Parent One Language. Kind of seems like a xenophobic ideology perpetuated by monolingual communities/research against bilingualism.
I love Syaku. I read Kafka on the Shore a long time ago, and Syaku’s the closest BL mangaka to what I’ve distilled from Murakami from then. There’s a kind of eruditeness to Hare to Mononoke (and Syaku in general, when given time and breadth), interested in scraps of mythology but also countryside life; making sweet buns, observing rituals, observing mundanity. For Syakku, the co-habitation gives rise to aberrations: the cause of deviation from the known is the addition of the alien element, a lover so opposite. It’s a total shame that Hare is unlicensed in English because it is easily her cleverest, her most oblique. The basic premise of an immortal mononoke coming to ‘clear the impurities’ of a lonely young man slowly dries away into beautifully inked mountain scapes, black gakuran-motorcycle jacket duos, and a painfully aware narrative on loneliness.
It must be the knowing-not knowing what a person can mean or already means to another that drives Syaku’s work. The mysterious character, inexplicable but present, the imparting of brief verses, love and knowledge. Hare to Mononoke must be Syaku’s masterpiece; it’s so reticent, lurking dimly in the shadows. Syaku must be a reader; maybe Murakami isn’t right but rather Oe?
I think some of the criticisms are fair like us not seeing Yoongun’s side of falling in love and becoming aware of his feelings but I generally think manhwa is much too expository and dialogue-heavy in handholding every single thought and idea that passes through the mind of both the MC and ML. So it was a nice change of pace to experience Yoongun’s realization visually, in terms of the panels of him violently reacting to the thought of Kyuho. I don’t really care so much about the chasing arc being short either because him doing anything for Kyuho, that didn’t align with his self-interest or personal satisfaction is enough to communicate the depth of his emotion.
I thoroughly enjoyed the personalities of the main characters in this so much. I think it’s rare to see a manhwa with this vocal a main character, and to create one involved in his world, and how people behave in it, and relate it to his sense of morality and ambition is really fun. And Yoongun as a self-involved personal satisfaction seeking type is such a good contrast. They’re both really complex and have such various sides to them. Lots of mention for their conversations, where they work things out or even share perspectives; feels really rare to me, especially since we get conversations that actually discuss their personal feelings about love and dating before we get to misunderstandings or confessional scenes. Really endearing. I wish we spent more time with them as an actual couple but I’m really positive on the critical aspects of the conflicts in the two. Definitely one of the better manhwa I’ve read, that doesn’t delve too deeply into psychological elements and still holds up as a narrative based on personality based conflict.