Tsubakikan no Utsukushi Sugiru Garçon

Hmm, how can I say this? I am disappointed. Tsubakikan almost has what it takes to be a decent, if not good, manga. The premise is interesting and the plot is, well, it’s a shoujo manga so there’s not much to innovate, but that’s part of the charm, though I think it went a bit too fast in the last few chapters. The characters, however, were a disappointment. Take Yufuin, for example. From the very beginning we learn he can’t look into girls’ eyes or he’ll faint, and we learn it’s because of a girl-related trauma he had during college, but other than some flashbacks (which seemedlike they were done in a hurry, just for the sake of being there), we get nothing about it. There it was, an opportunity to expand and develop a flat character, and the mangaka wasted it, just like that. So unsatisfying. Oh yeah, Yufuin himself was unexplainably weird, or shall I say bipolar? He was usually a caring, but incredibly shy guy, but occasionally it was like he snapped and started acting like any other princely and audacious shoujo heartthrob, but he somehow forgot all about it afterwards. I mean, how does that work? I wouldn’t know, since the mangaka ended up treating it as if it never happened. And the girl, Otome. You know, actually I don’t have much to complain about Otome. She’s strong and strict, but also kind (and she also had her blushy moments too) so I liked her. BUT. There was this teeny tiny romantic side plot that was poorly handled, and that is her crush/not-a-crush on Miki-san. Maybe the mangaka was trying to pull a fast one on the readers because all we get is a line from Miki (it’s not even Otome who says it!) offhandedly explaining their relationship. Side characters are just there to fill the panels, mostly. Ugh. I was wondering is the manga was cancelled or something, because it was so rushed, but apparently nope. This manga has no excuse for its sloppiness. The art is nice, though. Tl;dr: mangaka was defo cutting corners when she wrote this