Minamoto-kun Monogatari

tl;dr: An incredibly well written and illustrated manga about a series of relationships and the character arcs surrounding them, though one that feels unfinished. This manga is heavily based on the work of literature Genji no Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) which is a story written in early 11th century Japan that as far as I understand it is quite well renowned. I haven’t read it and I don’t believe that reading it is necessary for reading this manga, but I think a quick scan through the wikipedia page will definitely help. Genji no Monogatari is centered around the chronicle of fourteen relationships that a mannamed Genji had throughout his life. The basic premise of this manga is that an assistant literature professor, Kaoruko, makes her nephew, the protagonist Minamoto, basically speed run it by going through fourteen relationships similar to those experienced by Genji in order to help her research on it. This is also supposed help him get over his fear of women, which he’s had since middle school where he was bullied by girls due to being incredibly feminine looking. I believe this premise reflects the entirety of this manga quite well and you shouldn’t expect any sort of subversion or deconstruction of what seem like pretty typical tropes and archetypes. As should be clear from the premise, the protagonist is somewhat wimpy, and as he’s going through 14 relationships really quickly, though he never cheats, his relationships are never all that deep, long, or dramatic. If you think it’s impossible for you to enjoy such a manga, then this manga probably isn’t for you, because there’s no twist or anything like that that makes the manga grow into anything beyond that. However, if you think that it’s possible to enjoy such a manga, then you almost certainly will because this is for the most part this manga is incredibly well executed. Minamoto starts off really lame, and to be honest by the end he’s still kind of lame, but he’s significantly less lame than he was in the beginning, and his character growth in becoming so is incredibly clear and well done. He also doesn’t seem to have much agency a lot of the time, basically just going with the flow of the heroine’s stories, but within those bounds despite being pretty lame he’s a surprisingly likable character that managed to surprise me quite often. The heroines are also incredibly well done. There’s a tremendous amount of variety to them, in terms of backgrounds, personalities, and what kinds of plot threads they have centered on them. As there’s a lot of variety to the heroines, there’s a lot of variety to the relationships they have with Minamoto as well, but in general it manages to be really fluffy and cute. Some ultimately get focused on and thus fleshed out more than others, but none of them despite there being so many felt like flat characters. All of them have their own stories Minamoto gets involved with. They have their own goals and dreams that are easy to get invested in and to cheer them on in. Most of them also go through pretty solid character development alongside their relationship development with Minamoto which is also executed well. The focus on the heroines being just as strong as if not stronger than the focus on Minamoto really helps with that. Thus, Minamoto being kind of lame actually manages to work pretty well. Additionally, though each gets their own time in the focus, they all remain present to at least some degree after that, so seeing them pop up again with progress in their own plot threads and character arcs and sometimes even developing connections with the other heroines is also really interesting and spices things up beyond it simply being a series of disconnected stories. Additionally, it also felt mostly really well written. Despite him going through 14 relationships, the manga never feels all that heavy and it never gets all that melodramatic. This is in part because the writing manages to write around it getting that way quite well. It still gets kind of forced sometimes, but overall felt like it flowed pretty naturally. The other reason for this is the pacing. Chapters in this manga are really short, only about ten pages. This helps with pacing and allows itself to move really quickly when it needs to. But it also results in the plot being incredibly simplistic. Though there are a large number of plot threads, each individual chapter feels very focused on what plot thread it’s focusing on, and thus it’s an incredibly straight forward manga that’s really easy to follow. As a result of all this, the manga manages to keep a pretty lighthearted atmosphere throughout which the good parts of the manga, the fluffy and amusing parts, stand out without getting bogged down by the parts surrounding them. On top of that, the art is fantastic as well, fitting the atmosphere incredibly well, being of really high quality, having a good sense of design, and just in general being really pleasing to look at, especially when it matters most. I would especially like to highlight that the artist is really good with clothes, especially frilly clothes. The biggest problem with the manga is the ending, which unfortunately is rushed and pretty unfinished. There were certain events that it absolutely needed to do before ending and not doing them would be incredibly disappointing, and thankfully it managed to stuff in all of those. That’s the only positive I can give to the ending though. Though Minamoto does grow significantly over the course of the manga, his arc really doesn’t seem over at all. Really, no one’s arc seems completely over, and the attempt to quickly try to give all the characters some sort of an ending didn’t really work at all either. The point where most character’s arcs were when this was attempted wasn’t far enough along to even attempt to do so, so it obviously didn’t work. And, thus things felt really unfinished. There were some areas in the ending that it probably could have done well but it didn’t manage to do well either since the writing quality overall felt like it took a major drop due to how rushed things were. Thankfully, it’s still not a crippling sort of bad ending that does incredibly stupid things and it makes it feel like the whole manga’s pointless as sometimes turns out to be the case with axed manga. Rather, it’s the type of ending that makes it feel simply unfinished and like the story will simply continue past the ending. And this is a manga that even without managing to land a good ending, has a solid enough journey that I think it’s still pretty enjoyable and satisfying overall.

The story revolves Terumi Minamoto, a girly looking boy who suffered bullying and determined to change, until university life began and took a huge twist. He meets his aunt Kaoruko Fujiwara, a professor at Shiun University specializing in the Tale of Genji, Japan's prime novel of the Heian Period. Kaoruko plans to use Terumi as a guinea pig for the research. Fourteen women of differing calibers enter the door, and Terumi has to win their hearts, in differing, erotic, and often challenging ways. This also challenges his fear of women. This manga's story can be summarized as "The Tale of Genji, in symbolism and execution: erotic." Theart direction of the manga is sublime and worth looking, the erotic scenes create the impression of sometimes traditional and contemporary intercourse. As a result, it reinforces the motif, the Genji of the Heian modernized. (SPOILERS) Characters were crafted accordingly, oftentimes accurate to the original material (e.g. Rokujou's obsession, Shian's (Lady Murasaki) fledgling knowledge, Minamoto (disowned from the beginning of the tale), and Kaoruko herself (Fujitsubo, the mother that Genji never had). However, as the story progressed, the end suddenly drew close after Akashi (fortune teller), creating an immediate rush which downgraded the story. Immediately jumping to Kaoruko, the last challenge without some fillers or proper evaluation of Terumi by himself, of some sort. The ending is left to be desired, which ruins the overall vibe of the story. On the bright side, those who are interested in the traditional Japanese literature can find relatable stuff in this manga (even though it's not for educational purposes).

Surprisingly very Wholesome and Comfy reading, i don't read a lot of Erotica but this got me holding my breath, it doesn't require cheap spices to prolong the story. It ends where it should be, and that's just how i prefer it. Story are overall good, basing itself on classic literatures, noting some of the common psychological issues, but still entertaining. The Artworks are just beautiful, The Artists deserves more praises for their creation. However, I do wish for few more chapters for more rewarding closure. what can i say, for i am greedy. Edit: upon rereading this manga, as i have been awaken, i demand betterclosure than open ending, incest in this manga are just damn hotttt to waste it on vague ending.