When The Stalker is Too Pitiful to Deny
About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Convenience Store Clerk's Twisted Love. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to age gap, power imbalance, overwork, stalking, obsession, child abandonment, child neglect, unsanitary living, mentions of sex work, excessive drinking, dubcon, knowledge gap, mentions of cheating (not between the main couple), and breakups, as it appears in the manga.
Synopsis:
Itsuki is an overworked salaryman. He works for the pharmaceutical industry, and after traveling from pharmacy to pharmacy, meeting with pharmacists, and making emergency deliveries, by the time he gets off, he’s worn out and smelling like a doctor’s office. The main thing he looks forward to on his way home from work is buying some cat food from his local convenience store and feeding the stray cats. A bonus, though, is seeing the attractive convenience store cashier. He’s a beautiful man but a young adult far out of his league. So, he simply enjoys looking at him from afar.
That is, until the cashier happens to be outside feeding the cats before Itsuki can get around to it. Itsuki is surprised but once again is stunned by the cashier’s beauty. But Itsuki is a bit thrown off when the cashier uses his name. Then, the cashier, Fumio, gives Itsuki his medical card back, claiming Itsuki dropped it when pulling his card out. Relieved, Itsuki decides to take this opportunity to grow closer to Fumio, and day by day, as they interact, they do until Itsuki finally gets a chance to ask him out for dinner.
Over dinner, Fumio and Itsuki talk; all the while, Fumio drops strange hints regarding how Itsuki lives and the precautions he should take as if Fumio knows much more about him than he should. But that’s not possible. Fumio’s just a good and thoughtful young man, while Itsuki is the older pervert, right?
Review:
The cover art really drew me in on this one. It looked very unique, with wide, expressive features, and I was interested to see how those appeared within the work itself. Unfortunately, it is much more inconsistent than I was anticipating. There are very lovely panels thanks to those expressive features, but there are many panels where those same features make the characters appear more frog-like than I would prefer. Fumio is probably the most inconsistent, which is unfortunate since he is also the most beautiful. Itsuki, while more consistent, is much plainer looking. That isn’t necessarily bad, but I wish Fumio was just as consistent as Itsuki. Overall, it’s fine, but it’s certainly not the prettiest or the most consistent title I’ve ever read.
Something I haven’t read in a while is a good old stalker and victim romance, which this very lightly touches upon. While it isn’t as overtly stalker-esque as some other titles, and the stalker becomes a lover almost instantly after being discovered, it is still a stalker romance. I actually really like that it doesn’t spend a ton of time dwelling on how Fumio figures out where Itsuki lives, where he keeps his spare key, and his living arrangements in general. How it gets the stalker aspect through is much more subtle, foreshadowing it with Fumio dropping hints about knowing all these things through their brief interactions. We do see him going to Itsuki’s house, but that’s really all we see, and I think for the length of this work, that is plenty to establish how obsessive Fumio is without taking up too much time in the one-shot. Part of me wants a longer series to see more of that obsession, but considering the length, this is just right. It establishes just how obsessive Fumio is but leaves enough room to develop other aspects of the story.
Another bit of foreshadowing we get is on Fumio’s background. It’s a really nice touch that Fumio eats like he’s starving, with a very awkward way of holding utensils and little to no table manners. It’s a very easy way of showing how little raising he had and how his life might’ve been based more on desperation and survival over everything else. It’s mentioned very briefly in the story that Fumio was abandoned or neglected by his parents. This is a very short one-shot, so it tries its best to establish a lot of background quickly. It relies heavily on hinting before outright saying it, which gives us a good foundation before the reveal. However, we don’t get much more about it. The stalking and Fumio’s background are important for the story, but they aren’t explored beyond the reveals, which is a missed opportunity and stunts Fumio as a character.
Instead, the main focus isn’t on Fumio’s sad past. Fumio’s painful past and tough living conditions exist to grow Itsuki, which I don’t like. Itsuki takes Fumio into his home because he feels bad that Fumio is living in squalor. Itsuki says he thinks he loves Fumio only because of the sexual chemistry they have, which he discovers is thanks in part to Fumio’s past as a sex worker. There are times when Itsuki admits that he likes Fumio because Fumio’s life has been so opposite to his. He’s more curious about Fumio or guilty over Fumio than anything. As a result, their relationship never ends up feeling like real love to me. Itsuki wants to care for Fumio, while Fumio truly loves Itsuki. At least, that’s the feeling I get. It just doesn’t feel very successful on the romance front. Instead, it feels like the story of a privileged guy realizing how much privilege he has and wanting to essentially raise a lover, which isn’t my favorite thing in the world.
Results:
This has so many elements that should make it a favorite for me. I love older bottoms, I love opposites attract, and I love a good obsessive lover. However, the focus is entirely on Itsuki and how he feels bad for Fumio, which is the basis for the romance. It just makes it all feel lacking by the end. I would’ve loved some growth for Fumio, too, but there just isn’t. He appears to be trying to learn to cook and clean, but that’s the extent of it, which was just disappointing. In the end, I think this is alright but not much better than that.
Have you read Convenience Store Clerk's Twisted Love? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
(Can you tell I’m finally going through my email inbox?)
“Frog-like” made me laugh lmao! I looove stalker/romance, so I think I’ll be checking it out even if it doesn’t lean too hard into that aspects. I love obsessive leads too, and sometimes a oneshot is just enough. This though: ” There are times when Itsuki admits that he likes Fumio because Fumio’s life has been so opposite to his.” Man, I’ve definitely read stuff like this before and it can be frustrating. I can’t recall the title but I read a manga last year that had the character picking up a beastman who he essentially pitied and still treated more of a pet than a person in the end, and while I love power imbalances, it can make the love feel one-sided. Like there is a future potential for abandonment once the person gets bored.
EXACTLY. It makes their romance seem so tenuous that if Fumio were to do better for himself and become less dependent on Itsuki, Itsuki would then have no reason to be with him (beyond their sexual compatibility, of course).
I need to go on a stalker-romance binge here soon because it’s one of those tropes that really sit with me in the best way.
I think it was because of you I read Kuroe and the Garden of Feminine Pleasures, and while not exactly a stalker, it became one of my top obsessive and dark leads manga. Seriously blew me out of the water and found the artist’s style so unique and interesting to read. I hope more of their work gets officially translated. (Also as a trans guy, even though MC is cis, I can’t help but grab at what little there is in different anatomy representation).
I look forward to this binge and the good reads you’ll reccommend!
Oooooh! Kuroe is such a severely underrated title, and, like you, I became obsessed (badum tssss) with that artist’s style because it is just so unique. I need to review the other work I’ve read from them because there are so many interesting things to talk about.
You kind soul. It never even occurred to me how affirming representation of varying anatomy might be in erotic comics. I wonder if there are any out there with deeper exploration into that in a way that isn’t sexualized (I’m on the hunt, haha). Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on my reviews. Discussion like this is my favorite part about sharing reviews.
Unfortunately the only other titles like this are “Fucked By My Best Friend” (it’s full title is… almost alarmingly racist) which is a total genderbender (every time he orgasms, his body vacillates between that of a cis woman and a cis man), and then the oh-so lovingly named “Welcome! Cuntboy Cafe” by Onoko Ya Honpo (it was licensed through DLsite) which was a refreshingly enthusiastic consent eromanga, who just seemed to be a bunch of trans men? It didn’t touch on it at all in terms of gender, but there was no mention of medicines or magic so I’m going with that headcanon lmao. If you ever feel like reading pure smut it was definitely an experience.
I love discussing about this stuff too! It’s nice to have a reliable place for recommendations that has a lot of effort for filtering etc, just really nice work you have done.