Self-Hating Man Gets Love Bombed by Coworker
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Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Sweet or Bitter 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 gossiping, power imbalance, mentions of domestic violence, peer pressure, self-deprecation, self-loathing, overwork, and excessive drinking, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
In a world where every consenting adult, regardless of gender, can legally get married, marriage is seen as the ultimate road to happiness. Well, for everyone except Ichigi. Ichigi isn’t opposed to getting married, and there is part of him that would like to, but he has had little to no luck in that department. Plus, his mother had to run away from a violent marriage to raise him alone, so Ichigi is well aware that marriage doesn’t always have a happy ending. Still, when surrounded by people who are gushing over romance and marriage, he can’t help but long for that kind of happiness.
And he even has a person in mind.
Ichigi works with Odajima. They aren’t super close, but Odajima would be the one person Ichigi considers a friend and is actually the object of his secret affections. Ichigi is perfectly aware that he has no chance with someone of such high social standing as Odajima, but part of him can’t help but hope he’d have the opportunity to be with him. Little does Ichigi know, the next time he gives blind dating a try, his partner will be none other than the man of his dreams, and it will lead to a cohabitation trial that will reveal just how happy Ichigi could be.
Review:
Once again, I was swindled by a cover. I’ve had some terrible luck with that recently, and this is no different. I love a sad fella, and when I saw Ichigi on the cover, I was so freaking excited. The designs do look a bit antiquated, but I was so into our blushy bottom Ichigi that I was more than willing to give it a shot. Unfortunately, the art in this is probably one of the roughest I’ve seen in a while. There are multiple panels where their eyes are completely different sizes or crooked on their faces. Their heads are super wide, and with their little necks, they might as well be bobble heads. Add in their awkward poses, and this is just a super unattractive series, which is so disappointing. This also suffers from the weird issue a couple of TokyoPop titles have, where they put the text in various text bubbles too far to one side. It’s all just so unfortunate.
I also have to mention how much I hate Ichigi’s mouth. I know this is extremely specific, and I am well aware that I am particularly picky with art, but Ichigi’s mouth is one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. For whatever reason, whenever he reacts, his tongue is suddenly up in his mouth like he is trying to lick something. He also has fangs, which I typically like, but these are sometimes full-on vampire-length fangs. His mouth is just weird, random, and gross. Add on the panel where both of our main characters are openly drooling into each other’s mouths, and this is a horror show.
The story, unfortunately, isn’t much better. I did get my wish for a sad boy with Ichigi, but his level of self-deprecation is intense. The main point of contention in all of this is that he doesn’t believe he is worthy of being with Odajima, which I understand as a genuine feeling. However, there are so many moments where Odajima goes out of his way to be intimate with Ichigi that I find it hard to wrap my head around his unwillingness to believe Odajima might be attracted to him to some degree. I mean, there are multiple times they are having sexy time, and Odajima spends all of his time pleasuring Ichigi, only to stop before he gets the chance to pleasure himself. Sure, I’d be worried if Odajima wasn’t getting hard during these moments, but he clearly does – he just doesn’t want to push and hurt Ichigi.
It’s to the point that Ichigi overhears a phone call with little to no context beyond Odajima saying “one year,” which is the length of time their trial period is before he crashes out. He crashes out so dramatically that he packs up all of his stuff, agrees to a promotion, and moves to a remote island without saying anything to Odajima. It’s such a huge decision that you’d think this has permanent or long-standing consequences, but no. Odajima suddenly appears on the island, confirms his feelings for Ichigi, and explains the misunderstanding; then, the project that allowed Ichigi to move to the island in the first place is conveniently cancelled. It all makes little to no sense to me. Sometimes, nonsensical stuff is fun and even understandable due to extenuating circumstances, but this is neither of those.
Results:
I can’t express how disappointed I was in this one. I think it’s because a lot of the titles I’ve been reading have been misses, so this was just one more to add to my pile of disappointment. The art was thoroughly subpar, and the story was equally so. There is very little to enjoy here. I personally would not recommend this one, but here we are.
Have you read Sweet or Bitter Love? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!
