息できないのは君のせい

underrated BL

I don't necessarily feel this way, but a common sentiment I hear from manga readers is something like "why is everything about high school? Why aren't there more stories about adults??" Well, if that's you, then this is the manga for you. Behind the wonderful art and humor, this is a sincere and fairly grounded look into a relationship between two adults. The main couple have jobs and they have sex (nothing explicit is shown, though). As the story goes on they start to grapple with their insecurities and their past as their relationship develops and gets serious.

I didn't say much about the premise, but it was the main thing that drew me in. This is a romance between two "sex friends" in a wind ensemble that start to catch feelings. If you play music, you might enjoy the depiction of it, as it seems to me that the mangaka did their homework about the subject. This does, however mean that there's a fair bit of technical music vocabulary. If you don't want to learn that stuff, I'd say maybe stay away -- but I plan on reading a bunch of music-related manga anyway so it ended up being helpful. The stories are more or less slice of life other than that, though. There's a lot of everyday vocab and modern slang, too, which I found useful to learn as well.

Overall, this is a gem of a manga that may even surprise you with where the story and characters go. If you're interested in a gay romance and/or music, check it out.