I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #university(6)

Udou's bitterness and breezy cruelty towards others is rooted in an unrequited love for Kiyotake, a basketball teammate from high school. His misery and jealousy has prompted him to commit despicable acts against the very person he loved, twice. Now, in college, karma has caught up to him and his feelings are revealed in all their rawness, but what does Kiyotake have to say about them? Here is how one man's kindness can redeem someone who has fallen so completely. Ogawa Chise's stories often go over the top into outright madness, but this story hits all the right emotional notes without going too far.

Tomiura and Shirosaki are, both, neighbours, classmates at the same university and gay — a fact which Tomiura uncovers by pure chance when Shirosaki is abused by a former lover. Together, they discover they have more in common than a similar sexuality, and it is all these other attractions and intimacies which make Shirosaki reluctant to go further. Unfortunately, a promising beginning segued into a standard conclusion, with their reticence quickly dismissed, and the conflict added as an afterthought in Chapter 3. (2) Samiya and Toujou are dumped, have drunken rebound sex which turns out to be a little more serious for each other than they originally thought. (3) A gay boyfriend tries to come between his clueless boyfriend and the younger brother who won't allow it.

Yuki acts like the perfect wife for Keiichirou, his late sister's husband, preparing his meals, tidying his clothes—which is why Keiichirou wants him to stick around—doing everything except sleeping with him. He wants to, but Keiichirou doesn't know that, and he will never know as far as Yuki is concerned. Yuki's already got a job lined up in Osaka after he graduates (even though his professor and fellow students also want to marry him) and that hours-long commute is the best way of keeping what he sees as an inappropriate love to himself. So far, a lively and engaging story with a tragic past and beautiful art.

Reluctant seme and red string of fate story with body-warming kink thrown in during a blizzard.

University dorm roommates develop an attachment to each other over the pain of family estrangement and loss.

An impulsive hire turns into love for a chef-in-training and a computer design student away from home for the first time. The story focuses on the sweet aspects of their relationship, and yet, some very serious story conflicts are skirted as though they mean nothing, like intellectual property theft. I was left wondering if that would ever be resolved, but instead, the story jumped to a love triangle conflict, which is far less interesting to me.