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甘くて切ない
ショッピングモールにあるメガネ店で働く律は、幼い頃から不仲な両親を見て育ったため、他人と距離をおき、ひとりで過ごすことに慣れていた。そんなある日、ふとしたきっかけで人気作家の西 倫太朗と知り合い、高校生の弟とふたりで暮らしている倫太朗の家に、料理を教えに行くようになる。人と親しくすることを恐れ、誰かに恋することも、触れられることもなく生きてきた律だけれど、倫太朗といるうちに、やさしさや幸せを知るようになり!?
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About the author
Kei Tsukimura
70 books11 followersAssociated Names:
* Kei Tsukimura (Japanese)
* 月村奎 (Japanese)
* Kei Tsukimura (Japanese)
* 月村奎 (Japanese)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 4, 2020
Ritsu Yokomuro works in a glasses store in a shopping mall, living a quiet existence of cooking, sewing and reading books by his favorite author Rintarou Nishi. One day, a would-be customer comes in asking to have his glasses repaired, but as they’re quite busy that day instead of 30 mins the wait time is 2 hours. Ritsu, in the spirit of Customer Service, lends them his glasses instead. The next day, the would-be customer returns … and Ritsu finds out he’s none other than Rintarou Nishi.
The story is really mostly just slice-of-life with Ritsu and Rintarou sort of dancing around each other. It’s pretty obvious from the beginning that early on Rin has had his “oh shit he’s hot” moment, but Ritsu’s reaction, as he’s mostly put people at arm’s length, is more of, “wait, do I like him or do I admire him? And even if I do like him, it’s not like he (a famouse authore) would want to be with me!” So that’s one hurdle to their relationship.
The other hurdle is Ritsu’s family — specifically his mom. His mom and dad divorced, but even from a young age his mom has always verbally abused Ritsu. The trend has continued until now, when he’s an adult and supporting himself — his mom never finds anything to praise Ritsu about; she’s always complaining about how “little” he gives her (50k a month, which, if your base salary is like 250k, is not small change) “despite all she’s done for him”; she keeps telling him what a bad son he was.
In the end Ritsu realizes it’s his own choice to be happy and they wind up sort of happily ever after.
What I liked
● MY BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY KENJI, I love him so much. YOUTHS ARE GOOD SOMETIMES. Also I live for Kenji sort of cockblocking big brother Rintarou from the past. But also, Kenji standing up for Ritsu when his mom was abusing him in a freakin’ family restaurant, of all places. MADAM HOW DARE YOU SULLY THE SANCTITY OF JONATHAN’S, THIS IS A HOLY PLACE. Shut up and eat your mixed grill set. Kenji’s love for Ritsu is so pure and true.
● The development of Rintarou and Ritsu’s relationship. I really like that they didn’t like, fall in love with each other right away? That there was some time before they saw each other as, you know, boyf potential. With the slow development, you can see why Rintarou likes Ritsu and vice versa and you can believe it.
But also, you could practically see Rintarou’s thirst and the way he keeps dropping hints for Ritsu like, “oh, yeah, I haven’t had a boyfriend for a long time, I am absolutely 100% free,” and Ritsu takes note but he thinks Rintaro’s just, like, answering his question, and he’s all, “Oh, Kenji will be happy to know that you didn’t have to break up with a boyfriend to take care of him!”
The fact that Rin fell for Ritsu first is so 💯 and honestly delicious. As a reader you could almost see the glowing neon sign above Rin’s head: “I like you LOTS do you like me too check yes or no”.
● Ritsu finally standing up to his mom in the end. That was such a relief, honestly.
● Rintarou and Kenji’s mended relationship. They were a little bit mad at each other in the beginning. Kenji thought that Rin didn’t want to be back in their dinky little hometown taking care of him, or that he was being a burden or like a drag on Rin’s awesome party life, and Rin thought that Kenji resented him for not coming home more times or only showing up now that their mom was gone. Ritsu did a lot to mend their relationship, which was kinda sweet.
● This book was so easy to read? Language-wise, I mean. I didn’t have to like, constantly re-read a sentence two or three times just to understand what was going on. It was almost as easy to read as Solitary Castle in the Mirror was.
What I didn’t like
● The female representation is bleh: Ritsu’s mom is the biggest female character in the book, and she’s such a ridiculous human being (in a negative way) that she becomes this, like, caricature of a human being. She was just so ridiculous and had no redeeming features. However, even after Ritsu’s acknowledged that his mom is ridiculous and that she’s poisoning his life, he still sends her the money she was asking for. I mean, I’m hoping that that’s like the end of it? And that he’ll stop giving in to her ridiculous demands and just sets like a 50k limit or whatever? HONESTLY, she was complaining that 10,000 yen “isn’t even enough for lunch”. LADY HOW MUCH FUCKING LUNCH DO YOU EAT?
● Reading through the abuse that Ritsu’s gone through, again and again — like literally he keeps thinking about it — was fucking hard. I had to just skim some parts just so I could get through ’em, because I really wanted to reach into the book and strangle his mother. LADY SOMEONE COULD REPORT YOU AND SOMEONE SHOULD.
A solid 3/3.5. Just that if Tsujimura could maybe next time put in other female characters and not have just one female character who’s a ridiculously ridiculous human being, that would be great.
The story is really mostly just slice-of-life with Ritsu and Rintarou sort of dancing around each other. It’s pretty obvious from the beginning that early on Rin has had his “oh shit he’s hot” moment, but Ritsu’s reaction, as he’s mostly put people at arm’s length, is more of, “wait, do I like him or do I admire him? And even if I do like him, it’s not like he (a famouse authore) would want to be with me!” So that’s one hurdle to their relationship.
The other hurdle is Ritsu’s family — specifically his mom. His mom and dad divorced, but even from a young age his mom has always verbally abused Ritsu. The trend has continued until now, when he’s an adult and supporting himself — his mom never finds anything to praise Ritsu about; she’s always complaining about how “little” he gives her (50k a month, which, if your base salary is like 250k, is not small change) “despite all she’s done for him”; she keeps telling him what a bad son he was.
In the end Ritsu realizes it’s his own choice to be happy and they wind up sort of happily ever after.
What I liked
● MY BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY KENJI, I love him so much. YOUTHS ARE GOOD SOMETIMES. Also I live for Kenji sort of cockblocking big brother Rintarou from the past. But also, Kenji standing up for Ritsu when his mom was abusing him in a freakin’ family restaurant, of all places. MADAM HOW DARE YOU SULLY THE SANCTITY OF JONATHAN’S, THIS IS A HOLY PLACE. Shut up and eat your mixed grill set. Kenji’s love for Ritsu is so pure and true.
● The development of Rintarou and Ritsu’s relationship. I really like that they didn’t like, fall in love with each other right away? That there was some time before they saw each other as, you know, boyf potential. With the slow development, you can see why Rintarou likes Ritsu and vice versa and you can believe it.
But also, you could practically see Rintarou’s thirst and the way he keeps dropping hints for Ritsu like, “oh, yeah, I haven’t had a boyfriend for a long time, I am absolutely 100% free,” and Ritsu takes note but he thinks Rintaro’s just, like, answering his question, and he’s all, “Oh, Kenji will be happy to know that you didn’t have to break up with a boyfriend to take care of him!”
The fact that Rin fell for Ritsu first is so 💯 and honestly delicious. As a reader you could almost see the glowing neon sign above Rin’s head: “I like you LOTS do you like me too check yes or no”.
● Ritsu finally standing up to his mom in the end. That was such a relief, honestly.
● Rintarou and Kenji’s mended relationship. They were a little bit mad at each other in the beginning. Kenji thought that Rin didn’t want to be back in their dinky little hometown taking care of him, or that he was being a burden or like a drag on Rin’s awesome party life, and Rin thought that Kenji resented him for not coming home more times or only showing up now that their mom was gone. Ritsu did a lot to mend their relationship, which was kinda sweet.
● This book was so easy to read? Language-wise, I mean. I didn’t have to like, constantly re-read a sentence two or three times just to understand what was going on. It was almost as easy to read as Solitary Castle in the Mirror was.
What I didn’t like
● The female representation is bleh: Ritsu’s mom is the biggest female character in the book, and she’s such a ridiculous human being (in a negative way) that she becomes this, like, caricature of a human being. She was just so ridiculous and had no redeeming features. However, even after Ritsu’s acknowledged that his mom is ridiculous and that she’s poisoning his life, he still sends her the money she was asking for. I mean, I’m hoping that that’s like the end of it? And that he’ll stop giving in to her ridiculous demands and just sets like a 50k limit or whatever? HONESTLY, she was complaining that 10,000 yen “isn’t even enough for lunch”. LADY HOW MUCH FUCKING LUNCH DO YOU EAT?
● Reading through the abuse that Ritsu’s gone through, again and again — like literally he keeps thinking about it — was fucking hard. I had to just skim some parts just so I could get through ’em, because I really wanted to reach into the book and strangle his mother. LADY SOMEONE COULD REPORT YOU AND SOMEONE SHOULD.
A solid 3/3.5. Just that if Tsujimura could maybe next time put in other female characters and not have just one female character who’s a ridiculously ridiculous human being, that would be great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 of 1 review