Cressida's manga / #reencounter(7)

One of the most unique takes I have seen on the old Cinderella trope. A marvelous aspect of this story is how it deals with incredibly heavy topics without losing humor and warmth. Our main character had a very hard life; his mother abandoned him when he was little, his father was an alcoholic, he dropped out of college, and has been taking care of himself for most of his life. What puts the story in motion is the fact his father dies and leaves him with a huge debt. On the same day, he founds out about this, he re-encounters a classmate from middle school, who happens to be the only person who has always treated him with respect and kindness among his peers. This guy offers to help right away, which the uke refuses profusely, saying he doesn't need pity and charity, especially from someone as privileged as him. What differentiates this manga from others of the same genre is the constant communication, in other Cinderella formats the person who needs help and the person who desperately wants to help them don't really talk, and it feels claustrophobic and sad. The first thing that is established about these two is that they really like each other, and the only thing keeping them apart is the class divide and the uke's last shred of pride. Our poor main character makes his feelings clear from the beginning, it is really hard for him to accept this person in his life because of his inferiority complex, regardless of how much they love each other. But the seme is extremely honest and determined, therefore continuing to reassure him of how important he is until he believes it. It's as sweet as a story about poverty and debt collectors could be.

In general, I don't love the "it started as a joke with friends but I love you now" trope but this execution is so emotional and true to characters, everybody feels so much, it's overwhelming but at the same time so cathartic. Love the drama.

The story is about a frustrated salaryman with an inferiority complex who thinks they peaked in primary school. The uke runs into a man he knew as an overweight, shy child who is now a very thin and accomplished person. The man has been in love with him since then and has beautiful memories of the uke making him feel included and less lonely. But the uke is very self-aware of the fact that he approached the seme just to seem nice and to feed his inflated ego. Even though he was just a child, uke judges himself very harshly, he's a very good person. I hate these "co-workers fall in love" stories, mostly because of how depressing they are. This one isn't that different, they spend 90% of the story at work. I still like that they don't just jump into a relationship, and how understanding the seme is. There is one lesbian character that ends up being there just to draw a parallel to his situation, I guess it still counts as an empathic view of a woman in the story, which we don't see very often, unfortunately.

Basically, the uke spends 15 years of his life suffering thinking his best friend could never like him back. He stays away from him for a long time but finally tries to be his friend again when he needs help with his daughter. He even has a very toxic relationship with a senior just as a way to punish himself. At last, the guy liked him the whole time and even confesses first, everything just works out fine by the end. All that angst was for nothing. When re-reading I would definitely skip the first 2 chapters.

If I could give 10 stars, I definitely would.

Extremely confusing and poorly developed

When Director Waragaki wakes up at three o'clock in the morning... he finds his subordinate, Kiyoi Kugii, straddling him half-naked! Kugii claims to be helping dispel the ghost haunting Waragaki, but could he have another motive? Love the art and the couple is adorable. 9/10