Beat & Motion

Despite the character design making them look rather young even as adults, I think we get to see some of the more proper adult characters in the shonen jump space, though they do suffer from being a lil delulu, childish, and struggling (that's a neutral statement, many artists struggle). We have a musician wishing to make it big despite having a former superstar musician mom, she's trying to escape the nepobaby curse, which, good on you, girliepop. Then we have an artist who aims to make his animations into films at some point, but he always had a love for the musician's music so hewants to animate a music video for her. Great, the characters intermingle, the goals are set, there's some setbacks, some drama, some growth, and overall just a solid time, if a little boring and with typical usage of cliffhanger endings due to weekly chapter drops. I read somewhere that this was not intended to be a super long running manga, which is great to see from time to time, if anything, its rambling, uneven attention to detail or plot may be due to extending something beyond its intended ending point. And that's honestly a good problem to have instead of the opposite where your wings are cut before you get to fly. There's kind of a sweet spot that this manga hits between realism and the contrived, messy plot creations of shonen manga. The characters don't express their feelings and bottle it up until it explodes or causes a problem, another manga might have this go on for entire arcs, this one solves it in a couple chapters. A different musician is later introduced and she has a major problem with main protag musician Kashiwagi, and the first time they interact while alone, we see the problem directly, they yell, they air out their grievances, and then they become closer, then another issue arises and since they aired out a previous grievance, they are at a better, healthier place to discuss a new one. Similarly, the main protagonists don't stay in the will they won't they stage for too long, and once the reveal is made the couple moves with certainty. Main dramatic moments are solved relatively quickly with a conversation and a rant and things get better. Main themes include music and animation industry woes, relationship mismatches due to business, creative differences, and success and failure in creative endeavors. This is decent read for anyone who wishes to see how creatives deal with their problems in a productive way, and while the beginning of this manga really focuses on the intensely driven drunken but ambitious waifu-bait, I think that changes and improves enough to keep things interesting. Our main guy is kind of boring the whole way though he is hardworking and resilient, and the moments where the mangaka's art vastly shines are in those contemplative moments where the main man questions why he is even an artist, or those moments of realization that he's not alone anymore or he's improved in quality. Things got a little rushed towards the end but that's fine, author probably wanted to end things semi-ambiguously because the story should have been relatively short. It's not a remarkably amazing manga but I hold a sweet spot for its short, self-contained story with an endless possibility for what happens after the curtains fall. I wanted our cast to succeed and I think I was left satisfied with how things ended up. Side characters were not the most fleshed out but they contained a lil bit of growth in their interaction with the two protags.

God, I'm so fucking sad this series ended so soon. One of the freshest, sweetest romcoms I've read. It was incredibly refreshing to read a story about love that wasn't set in high school! They're adults!! Thank god!! Both Tatsuhiko and Nico were incredibly charming, and had fantastic chemistry together. Rooted for their romance so fuckin hard!!! The art and character design were both super cute, it had a really unique style, especially all the facial expressions. Usually in romcoms I get a little impatient whenever it focuses on things other than the romcom elements, but here I was really invested in both. Tatsuhikos strugglesand insecurities about getting into the animation industry were really compelling reads, and Nico's slow rise to stardom and drama due to her mother's identity was super good. I'm really glad we got what we did of the series, but I'm so sad it had to end so abruptly and un-satisfyingly. It is getting an anime luckily, and I really hope that will drum up more interest, and we may potentially see a revival. Please, if you like romance, or manga about art or music, or whatever, read it!!! Please!!! And watch the anime when it comes out!!!