おとなの時間 1

CW: age gap, teacher/student relationship

2.5 stars???

This is what I get for picking up a book on a whim based on the cute art, huh? x'D I bought this several years ago from Book Off back when I could barely read Japanese, and am just now getting around to reading it and...well...it is...a book.

I suppose the plot isn't that outlandish if you're familiar with common Japanese tropes in fiction, but it was still quite uncomfortable for me to read. I wouldn't have otherwise read it if I didn't already have it, and, well, still Japanese practice I guess.

Tachibana is a high school girl with bad luck in boyfriends. Even though she gets asked out, she constantly gets dumped. One such event is witnessed by one of her high school teachers, who proceeds to tease and joke with her, and then...be an absolute creep, to say the least. 😬

Spoiler tag for gross stuff: Turns out he's an erotic novelist on the side, and wants to interview Tachibana to help him for material for his book. Which he explains to her, at a LOVE HOTEL that he took her to, and even asked her to take off her clothes, only to walk it back like it was nothinggggg. He continues a push/pull flirtation, which obviously confuses Tachibana, because duh, she's a teenager. He eventually does the right thing and makes explicit their teacher-student relationship boundary, but Tachibana ends up telling him she likes him anyway. And he kisses her oh booyyyyy 😬😬😬😬

All the while, Tachibana seems to be in the phase where she's trying to understand herself and figure herself out, you know, like what all teenagers do, because they are children, not adults. (Though this plot line is quickly dropped in favor of her obsessing over whether or not her teacher likes her.)

Most of the book is Tachibana dealing with teenage feelings and angst, having fallen for her teacher, and worried he may not like her back. (And the teacher in general is not really great to her? Lots of hot/cold, push/pull, tease/tender. Doesn't communicate. Kisses her during a test in the middle of class??? :|||| Like the author tries to make him empathetic, and show he knows this is wrong/inappropriate, but...he's still doing it all anyway???)

Aaaand massive spoiler: so...they uh...do um...have sex, at the very end.

Man, idk how to even rate this book. Like the art is cute, but everything about the teacher, not only not discouraging anything, but also actively encouraging, has me like, no thanks. (There is even a joke acknowledgement between chapters about how this is a crime lmao. Like the author was def aware what they were writing.) I know it's all fiction/fantasy, and it was a wild ride explaining the plot to my partner, but...let's just say I won't be reading volume two lol.

There is also a bonus story irrelevant to the main plot, which was a student-student relationship of kids the same age, and much cuter of a story x'D rip

For Japanese Learners: It's N3 I guess, has furigana. I mean, there are so many other books you could read instead of this one ^^; There are quite a few places with hand written text, slang, etc., which would make this very difficult for a first manga read.

If you want cute romance of a non-problematic nature that's also probably the easiest manga I've ever read, check out 地球のおわりは恋のはじまり