Koi wa Misoji wo Sugite kara

So first off this turned out to be WAYYY more porny than I was expecting. This is not necessarily a problem, it just wasn't what I was expecting nor what I picked up this manga for. Oh well. Anyway, that aside, this one is a case of "it should have worked for me but it doesn't". And I think I know why--it's boring. The art is actually solid to quite good; our female lead's expressive faces are especially well-done; and the character they are expressing is reasonably well-sketched and engaging (if somewhat boneheaded and contrary sometimes). She seems real, to the point that she's sometimesunlikable, and sometimes self-sabotaging, if far too often self-deceptive. But the story just doesn't seem to go anywhere. (Also the ending is just... awful.) I went in hoping I would finally get an engaging story about adult life (getting a little tired of protagonists in high school or below) but instead it just largely seemed to echo the repetitiveness of real life in a corporate workplace, complete with its arbitrary injustices, dangerous social politics, and awkward secrets. With cuts to lots and lots of (apparently good) sex. Between not actually getting to enjoy the (apparently good) sex myself through the medium of print, but also not wanting to go back to the exhausting corporate minefield, I was left with nowhere really to go, and no real excitement to look forward to. For a work that engages with similar themes but through much more compelling character moments and a more developed plot, consider Dame na watashi ni koishite kudasai/Please Love the Useless Me.