ねずみの初恋(1)

If you've finished Happiness this might actually be a good next thing to jump to since it's fairly similar in tone and and language level. The dialogue is fairly quick and even spare in a lot of places, which kind of fits the classic hitman vibe, and similar to Happiness there's an intriguing romance between a normal person and someone who lives a bloody life of violence. In this case Nezumi, who's been raised since birth to be a brutal assassin, happens to attract the attentions of a very devoted simp who seems to get in way over his head but wants to make things work. This dude is either the most committed boyfriend ever or there's something else going on, but it's unhinged either way.

There are certainly a lot of twists and turns throughout this first volume and the story is definitely unpredictable. Some of the blood and gore is honestly a little too much for me and I'm usually not too bothered by violence, but the artist is a little too good at making blood look realistic and closeups of knives poking into flesh always get me quesy in ways a dude exploding into gibs never does so reader beware, but the romance between Nezumi and Ao is compelling and surprisingly quite funny at times. The language generally isn't too overwhelming though there are some unfamiliar dialects and "tough guy interjections" that I wasn't 100% familliar with but aren't super crucial to know. I finished the first volume pretty quickly and I imagine the rest will be about the same level.