Back to yuulfuji's Profile yuulfuji's Profile

The Neighbor I Desire…a very interesting manga..?

The 2 main characters are Soichiro Kominami and Yuta Mori. Soichiro is a total people pleasing school nutritionist, and Mori is a college student who seems to have little to no interest in eating. One day, Soichiro notices Mori sitting outside their apartment building wet from the rain and hungry. He takes him in to care for him and provide healthier food than what Mori admits he usually eats.

Right off the bat, I absolutely loved Soichiro’s character. He was written very humorously and likeable, I was often compelled to feel pretty bad for the guy throughout as well ... lol..on the other hand I don’t have much to say about Mori, but he compliments Soichiro nicely.

While the manga was admittedly very enjoyable to read I did have some problems with this causing me to have mixed feelings, and this is where we get into slight spoiler territory so just a heads up.

Around chap 2-3, Soichiro hooks up with a very strong lookalike of Mori. The manga treats this with some suspicion, which it did appear to be very much so but then never actually explains what the deal was. We don’t find out if it was a brother, a simple lookalike, something more sinister, etc. Relatively big plot hole if you ask me…

Quickly after that when Mori and Soichiro begin dating, Mori lets his ex-girlfriend sleep over at his apartment like the next day and this is very quickly just skimmed over, and doesn’t seem to be much of a problem to Soichiro? Which just felt weird.

(Major spoilers here)

Finally, the age gap. Honestly, the age gap isn’t weird at all, if it wasn’t for the fact Mori has been pursuing Soichiro (and honestly, stalking him) since he was around 9…and Soichiro was already in his 20’s by that point. Soichiro is honestly pretty innocent in this situation and didn’t know it was the same kid till (adult) Mori brought it up. But man, this is just..super weird from Mori’s side.
The author does admit in the afterword that they wanted to show that Soichiro and Mori are an unstable and co-dependent couple, but that they can be happy regardless of that. Well I definitely respect the honestly lmao.

Overall, I would recommend ‘The Neighbor I Desire’ if you can look past the weird age thing and the slightly stalker-ish behavior. The manga has a happy ending and although it made me a bit weirded out at parts generally I enjoyed reading it a lot.

Cutover Criteria is one of my favourite manga ever, honestly.

Story: 10. The manga throws you directly into the story, starting with Seto Haruma, a software engineer, reflecting on himself turning 30. Hagiwara Jin is the younger subordinate of Haruma, having only recently joined the company and has a crush on Haruma. He quite quickly pursues him, wanting to "test out" a relationship. Haruma is quite reluctant at first but soon accepts his confession.

The pacing is a little fast at the start, but soon slows down into a nice pace, although it can be a bit too slow at some points. What I especially loved was ... how good the communication between Haruma and Jin was showcased. Besides Jin being extremely upfront with his feelings, problems are easily understandable and clearly worked through, and doesn't beat around the bush too much. Just about all the characters in this manga feel realistic and well written.

Art: 10>>. I gotta say, the art is absolutely amazing. The mangaka is very clearly a very talented artist. Everyone has (imo) a distinct recognizable face (although there were around 2 points where it slipped up) which are all drawn very beautifully, and the anatomy and linework is very well done. The art alone makes Cutover Criteria a pleasure to view and read.

Characters: 10. Haruma is toned-down, mature and can be pretty blunt at times, but is surprisingly kind, which makes it easy for Jin, someone very upfront and persistent, but ultimately incredibly adorable, to tease Haruma, creating a very cute dynamic between the two, and it really makes you root for them and enjoy reading. (P.S. there are many panels where Jin is drawn as a chibi dog/with ears when reacting to something strongly, which i think is totally adorable hehe)

Overall, I give Cutover Criteria a very confident 10! Something about this manga just makes me absolutely adore it and I will continue to re-read it many times.

I thought that this manga was just..okay. When I heard it was about an aroace character, that got me excited to read it. But I can only say im sort of..disappointed? The characters felt quite bland, and it bothered me that Chika mentioned that asexual people can still fall in love, yet throughout the rest of the manga aromanticism and asexuality are still treated as the same thing. They're not. The title is "Is Love The Answer?" but she's an asexual woman. In general the manga felt very surface level and bland, the characters aren't developed on a lot, and it doesn't feel like they ... had a great place to develop from in the first place. I often found myself getting bored, especially throughout the later parts of the manga.

At the same time though, not every manga has to be incredibly deep. So I think this manga works well for someone who just wants a bit of basic escapism and representation. But even though the entire manga is about asexuality, it feels like the rep for it wasn't done well at all.