Back to olioli16's Profile olioli16's Profile

Truly a great manga that leaves you with a tight feeling in your chest.

It starts of almost typically, two characters different from each other, both almost stereotypically so, fall in love. But nothing about the rest of the story follows that path and the characters and their interactions feel so human, to the point of heartbreak.

Rei is the 'bad boy' of the manga. All other mangakas probably wish for a character like him. The badboyisms are strong - he is drawn insanely hot, can beat up people to the point of death, rides a motorcycle and has a complicated past. He is just such ... a vivid character. The empathy you feel for Rei is not mandated for him to be enjoyable (you don't have to constantly forgive his faults bc he is traumatised), he is an enjoyable character AND you feel empathy for him. The growth he has through Kira is realistic and makes you root for them as a couple even more. I also have to compliment the author for being able to make the aging visible in the art, he feels more mature, bulkier in the end.

I wasn't sure i would like Kira, she is quite the crybaby, with time she was able to grow into a beautiful character. The storyline feels almost like peeling of layers, with Rei its the reasons for his traumas connected with various deaths form his family and knowing more and more about them. With Kira its more like peeling of the layers of trauma to get to know her better and for her to be able to be more of a person she really is. The manga makes it very clear - the rapes she went through shut her off compleately and through Rei shes able to let it out. She takes on more and more personality, responsibility, confidence and also the aspect of friends isn't skipped. You see her open up more and it feels like your real friend is slowly progressing and healing. When the fact that she is a survivor of rape got revealed she became more real. It was like it felt for the first volumes that there is something limiting her, making her unreadable to the reader and the reveal made you feel like 'yes, i knew something was hidden, weird, not full about this character'. The panel when Kira sees her step-father in their flat is just so terrifyingly raw, it really is amazing.

The characters and the story feel real and natural. Their pasts don't feel like plot devices (even Rei's more outrageous one) but just like something that they go through together. I also like how the good ending, Rei being able to race, is not forced upon us - the father doesn't seem like a bad character from the beginning and him letting Rai ride again feels like something he would do.

I need to point out the usage of comedy, humour. This is a psychological drama but the characters are teenagers and humour is a natural part of real lifes. The small humoristic moments felt like a breath of fresh air and made the characters feel so real and their love for each other as well. Making a stupid joke bc you're embarrassed is such a normal thing for a human to do and im so glad it was so well utilized is this manga.

The second half of the manga gave me a certain feeling of similarity to Monster. Some comparisons a maybe a little obvious. The twins, the element of psychology, especially on the psychoanalysis side and (maybe less obvious?) themes: the root of evil in humans, determinism and approach to life. A manga can have all of this and still not feel similar to Monster though, when im talking about Mars's similarity im really more talking about the feeling that i got and the ability of both authors to storytell in a very effective way. Discovering Rei's past, how his twin and mother actually were like gave me the same satisfaction as getting to know any information about Johan. Just a small vibe comparison though.

sucks that the girl that paint only painted 1 painting throughout the whole story but ok

??????? so confunding so weird so amazing. i had to pace around the room for a second while scratching my head after finishing it (its 10 chapters not 43 btw).

at first it kinda starts out in a normal, expected tone and the first jokes you might brush off as scanlation additions but soon the jokes are also in the drawings and then you know oh this manhwa just has this weird, random type of humour that really clashes wonderfully with the expectations you (or maybe it was just me) have about a historical shoujo manhwa. like oh ok ig antonio baderas is suddenly referenced now ... sure whatever.

the art is what drew me in inicially but its actually a little bit dissapointing - the colored pages are pretty but for example the side profiles make the characters look a bit chopped.

please read this manhwa and let it surprise you

Never read this before but its giving ME nostalgia goggles. This manga feels like being 15 and reading shoujo manga at 2 am. It feels like imagining your crush do all the romantic scenes. walking home from school and at the same time reading manga on your phone.

The author in one of the notes that she had a storyline for the characters but they took a mind of their own and after some time with the them she knew that it didnt suit them. It really shows the commitment and understading of the characters to me. The characters act and make mistakes in a very ... realistic way. Their internal conflicts are very understandable for their characters and they commit mistakes in a way that makes them feel real. Characters might be a little too mature in their words but not in their actions - they will do stupid stuff but later talk it out almost like adults. I think the manga touches upon topics and qualms important for teenagers and does it without lecturing but with a lot of care.

I really enjoyed this group of friends that the manga established. I like that there werent even number of pairs and i like that it showed a normal group friend dynamic. People hanging out all together but also forming smaller bonds. In general everyone of them had a very compelling storyline and evolution. Everyone changed as an individual but it also changed the whole group.

I think some people are judging a little too harshly the male lead. the manga spells it out - his words may be unkind but his actions arent. And i know that its a little bit tropy but when its not a demon king from hell but a depressed teenager i buy it a lot more. I think its well established that he is changing, becoming better but still at moments weighted down by his past.

The protagonist is also a very human character. her relationship with the second lead is kinda all of her in a bottle - using someone to move on, wanting desperately to change and be better for him while also being lowkey used by him. The author maybe a little bit accidentaly show this pushing onto a girl while discrediting her feelings, putting your own on top and disregarding the consequences on how it actually makes her feel (interestingly enough kinda the opposite of what the male lead was going through at the same time). Maybe its just me but im interpreting the second lead as a little bit of a sleazy guy - one that thinks his actions are good and gentlemanly but they actually just burden and pressure the girl.

the art in the comic portion is good but the covers and anything that has that watercolor effect is gorgeous. very romantic scene, especially hugs, are drawn very imtimately.

yes the review is just after 4 chapters out of like 30 but its just too boring. the gags are not funny at all, the story just seems kinda stupid and the ml is unfortunately not very pretty :/ his mouth is too long..... also the gender roles in this are a little bit weird. i did not enjoy any part of this and i feel like i wasted some time reading this.

i can get tempted by a romance synopsis that seems a little stereotypical and im usually searching for somethis that will be an easy 5/6 out of ten but this manga did ... nothing for me. the female lead feels like an agentless being that will be swayed anywhere the male lead want her to go. i found there to be nothing interesting about his or her and the author did not manage to convince me that i should care about these characters.

the artstyle also doesnt lift it up in any meaningful way. the expressions are bland. the fl is fine ig but but the male is really a miss for me. hes getting into that yaoi men territory, with a big ass head and beign app 50 cm taller than the fl.

the bigget sin is being boring and this manga commited it

Tamon's B-side really works for me as a rom-com. Its definitively more of a com than a rom and i dig that.

I see some similarity to ouran highschool host club (not too much now, i treat ohshc in a similar way that utage treats tamon) - they both work on that shoujo, or in this case idol, stereotype. They are also both hilarious and work on insane exaggerations of characters and situations.

The premise is very simple, so simple that you might think it will be formulaic and similar to many idol/fan manhwas but its really not! The author takes this idea to its ... maximum and wrings out as much of it as its possible.Tamon's other side is not just a normal guy that is kinda mean while his image is kind and cute - his other personality would be strange even if he wasnt an idol with a sexy and wild persona. Utage also isnt just a fan that enjoys their music and thats it, noooo she is obsessed with tamon (its still very sweet).

The author knows the charcaters very well and really believes in her vision of them. I think that formulaic storylines like a beach episode or like someone ruining female lead's dress are fine in shoujo when the author can really imagine their characters in these positions and make them behave like themselves and not like the preconcieved notion of how a romance character should react in these situations. In tamon's b-side you really buy the characters and their actions and you can tell that they are fully fleshed out in the author's mind and i really appriciate that.

I wanted to make these two points to kinda defend this manga from sloppy manhwa accusations lol i think it reads very differently from manhwas and the artstyle doesnt have a lot of manhwa influence (not saying non but you really cant catch it a lot), its actually very pretty and really lends itself to the comedic scenes, often just the drawing and not the situation or text would make me laugh.

Tamon's b-side is a fun, light read while still being well written and thought out. Its very self-assured in its identity and im happy stuff like this is being written.