#menkui!

wholesome first relationship

self esteem issues + courting

misunderstandings and high school shenanigans

weird addition of supernatural elements

cute and fluffy kisses

Menkui! (Tanaka Suzuki)

The feelings I have for this mess of a manga are... eternal. It is probably the most re-read manga among my favorite ones. This is a complete one, 3 volumes.

Plot: Akaiwa is a popular and handsome student, while Kotori is really not. Kotori is quite plain, and has a bunch of self esteem issues, also because his older brother is amazingly handsome and quite popular, the opposite of him.

One day, Akaiwa starts to court Kotori, and hang out with him, and of course, Kotori thinks it's because Akaiwa surely wants to spend time with his older brother (that is usually what happens). This misunderstanding ends up pretty quickly, and soon Kotori finds out that Akaiwa wants to spend time with him and court him.

The manga has a great start! It is fluff, soft and adorable, with a lot of the classic first love troubles, and it is absolutely safe for work (it is a shounen ai). Secondary characters are also quite prominent, like for example Kotori's brother and his best friend, both having interactions with Kotori. It's just... this manga has such positive relationship and such a light nice feeling to it.

Volume 2... mysteriously adds supernatural elements, that suddenly clash a bit with the general slice of life feeling of the first part of the manga. The supernatural elements add some adventure, while the relationship between Kotori and Akaiwa strengthen.

Volume 3 returns to its slice of life track with some weird time travel element, which makes the supernatural adventure of volume 2 and the slice of life of volume 1 even weirder, and still, it is a lovely read, full of fluff and feelings.

The end felt complete, but I definitely wish it had been a more coherent read!