Dear Mine

You might not think that such a large, awkward age gap manga isn't for you just like I did, but I think you'd like to know that I was sorely mistaken. It's about two people forced into a marriage, one with stronger feelings about it all than the other, and how their very different background and personalities work together and make their new life together work. The fact that Fuuma is ten is always in the back of my mind, but the fact that by halfway through this manga the reader tends to push that aside and focus on the character development and story tells methat the plot did its job and its focus is the dynamics of a relationship of opposites. That isn't to say that the gap isn't addressed. But the point is that Fuuma and Satoko and any feelings they have for each other and how the other reacts and how things happen would work out similarly in any other shoujo manga. Fuuma has moments where he realizes that despite his mental age, his physical age inhibits him at times, but they reflect on his mindset and who he is as a person rather than his age. Anyone who has read a "tall girl, short guy" manga trope will find similar problems. Age ends up being a minor obstacle in the grand scheme of things, but is shown throughout kind of as a distraction for the character building. That being said: I have minor issues with ART. There's a lot of dramatic expression drawing with chin-absorbing mouths and no noses and orbs and rivers for tears when I would have preferred it more seriously drawn. Satoko expresses things differently than your average heroine due to her droopy eyes. It takes a bit to get used to, but they help with her personality to contrast Fuuma's upward slanted eyes and his sharp features to show just how different these two are and how much they need to work together and overcome. CHARACTER is fine. Fuuma is the most developed, mentally and backstory. Some side characters are more mentally developed, others, their backstory. Satoko, is a mostly mental/emotionally developed character, so a lot of backstory is desired on her end and some supposedly "major" side characters get hardly anything. It didn't keep me from rating this story a 10 though.