Tei (1)

Picked this up from NetGalley because of the wonderful cover and title, and intriguing summary.

The art is very cute, and the story is nice, if a bit wonky at times. I think part of that is down to the at times awkward English translation. There's even a typo on one of the early pages. The awkwardness makes the dialogue stilted in places. Certain ideas also aren't developed the best (e.g., the protagonist's worry about two men being seen as a couple), but I wonder if part of that is again show more down to the awkward translation.

It also feels a little rushed, with the protagonist's fear of being left behind feeling a bit out of the blue. In "I Didn't Mean To Fall In Love" by Minta Suzumaru, which starts with the protagonist turning 30, there's a lot of focus on aging, time passing, and feeling like a clock is running out, as well as the protagonist comparing himself to people who are younger (namely, his love interest). In this, though, the protagonist gets to his birthday at the climax of the story, and it feels like the fear of being left behind due to age is just... suddenly there. I love the idea, it's one of the reasons Suzumaru's graphic novel is one of my favorites, and a big reason TEI's manhua appealed to me. There's a lot of fear once you're past your 20s that your time as a romantic prospect or at least to find a partner are over, and tackling that fear and how adults in their 30s in particular handle that space is a really good one. But it feels really underdeveloped here, so it's kind of a letdown.

I don't think it helps that there's a bit of weirdness with the bisexuality plotline and maybe, perhaps unintentionally, asexuality. There's a weirdness at times in boys love with handling bisexuality, with authors sometimes attempting to tackle biphobia, though it can be difficult to tell if the work in question is a critique of biphobia or kind of embracing it. "The Liar Beside Me" by Shina Suzuka had this issue, where bisexual men are considered to be faking it for the easier life of being with a woman when they please, abandoning male lovers as needed, until they admit they really want to be with men and were maybe just gay all along. The protagonist of Confessions, Jason, for some reason feels obligated to men who have confessed to him until he is "left" before he's even said yes to them, which is weirdly parasitic. He does however note that it is more "sensible" to be with a woman. This seems to be tackling the reality of passing as straight being just easier mentally and on the whole than dealing with homophobia on the day-to-day when appearing publicly queer. But it also squishes in a bit of "bi men are just faking it until they find a woman" or something. It's hard to tell. Decisions about partners aren't only going to ever be one thing, so the complexity feels realistic, but it's also confusing to read. The story does conclude with that very nice explanation by Frank (which is still confusing to read), which is reassuring, and at no point are we shown that Frank is just faking it until he found the right woman, but it again harkens back to: Jason's insecurity that bi (or potentially bi) men are going to abandon him before he's even in a relationship with them. It's odd.

The bisexuality plotline is overt, but there's also a heavy undercurrent that Jason is asexual, in his repeated remarks that he isn't looking for physicality in a relationship. Perhaps due to the translation, it's unclear if this in the sense that he's not using apps to pick up women for one-night stands, friends-with-benefits relationships, or generally flings, or if he genuinely isn't interested in physicality at all. It's a neat choice to have an asexual protagonist - even perhaps an unaware one - in a boys love manhua, since that's even more rare in my experience than older m/m couples (e.g., Scarlet Beriko's "Jealousy" series is wonderful in the way it handles a much older m/m couple, and "Monster and the Beast" by Renji is another story with an older male partner, though it might be that older m/m is a lot rarer in manhua than it is in manga, and the only kind of asexual m/m manga I can recall is "Twittering Birds Never Fly" by Kou Yoneda, which isn't precisely that). It's just handled a bit awkwardly. I'm also unfortunately curious if censorship had any hand in why the comic veers into the "I'm not in this for sex" angle more than wanting to tell a story about someone who may not even know they're ace. But I do like to think this might just be about a character who's ace, doesn't realize it, and is navigating a bunch of feelings he hasn't had to deal with for a good chunk of his life, and it's interesting in that respect. I also like the way it handles alternate forms of intimacy, including couples sharing chores, being communicative, and simply looking after each other outside of sex and kisses.

The office workplace stuff was neat, and I do like the way it touches on superiors needing to look out for their juniors. There's a nice pushback against corporate hierarchies and how workplace abuse causes harm.

All in all, it's a neat little manhua that tackles a lot of topics to varying degrees of success, with two nice leads. Well worth the time if you have a little to spare. If you liked it or perhaps want something that handles the topics here better, try, "I Didn't Mean to Fall in Love" by Minta Suzumaru. "His Quiet Agent" by Ada Maria Soto also handles workplace romance with asexual characters very well. show less

A slow-moving romance that is slightly redeemed by the last ~30 pages. The art is good, but the translation leaves something to be desired: whoever/whatever did the translation seems to have a poor grasp of subject-verb agreement.

Received via NetGalley.