Scan barcode
dee2799d's review
3.0
est em debuted in 2006 with Show ga Hanetara Aimashou and has since then gained many English-speaking fans who keep touting her work as 'more mature and tasteful than the usual BL'. 🙄
Let me get my review of this manga out of the way before I rant about fans, so anyone reading this can just read that and ignore my saltiness:
Happy End Apartment (yes I got it in Japanese) is about Luca, an aspiring novelist who is told by his editor to give his stories a happy ending. But having just broken up with his lover and kicked out of the flat, Luca's really not feeling any kind of happy ending. While on the lookout for a place to live in, he chances upon an ad for a flat in Calle Feliz and comes over to check the room out. Javi the landlord tells him there are some complications and the tenant who's supposed to move out is still there. Instead he invites Luca to stay over his place and wait for the flat to get vacant.
Attracted by the promise of free rent (Javi offered for them to split the bills on utilities), Luca decides to take Javi up on his offer. Javi finds out that Luca is trying to write a novel and suggests he write happy endings for the people who live in the apartment building.
I'm a curious fucker and I love finding things out about people and how they live, so I loved the structure of this manga. It's episodic and each chapter features the story of two or more of the tenants living there, with some extras for Luca and Javi.
The stories themselves are pretty short and require 'audience participation' (haha I saw a review somewhere that used that phrase and I loved it). By which I mean, est em paints a picture in broad strokes and you're meant to fill in the blanks with the characters' emotions as well as your own.
One review mentioned how they didn't like the story with the puppet master and the one with the twins, but that they were handled 'tastefully' LMAO. Come on, folks est em's pseudonym is literally S & M. What else do you want? The story with the twins is just about how twins Sou and Shuu keep falling in love with the same guy and those guys usually end up choosing one of them. Except for this dude Noe, who loves them both equally. So Noe ends up in a poly relationship with twins. What's wrong with that, pray tell?
The puppet master Pepeused to be in a relationship with an underaged kid, who asks him to make a puppet of him before he grows older and gets 'more manly'. Matthias, another kid who lives in the building, has started visiting Pepe and admits that he's scared his dead mother will hate him because his voice is changing and he can't go to choir practise any more. Pepe tries to comfort Matthias, but there's nothing untoward about his attentions at all. The story ends with Pepe's former lover--who is now all grown up--coming back. And also Matthias speaking again after a long silence. So I'm going to warn for a hebephiliac relationship and you might want to stay clear if you don't like that sort of thing, but going 'Oh est em is so good and her works contain none of the Bad BL tropes' and then throwing all this shit under the carpet is kinda... hypocritical don't you think? Just say you like est em's work and stop pontificating on whether it's Pure~ or not.
This is unfair and I know I can give this more than three stars: it's exactly what I like in my BL manga and the art is so delicate and pretty. But all these fans who keep talking about est em as if she invented 'serious' BL manga and how her work breaks all the BL tropes... has simply not read a lot of BL manga. It's not even that est em paved the way for this kind of BL stories: she debuted the same year as others who are also doing the same kind of work. What's up with that, y'all? At least I don't see this kind of holier than thou attitude from basso and isino aya fans.
So: recommended if you're in the mood for sweet and romantic stories with gay characters and don't necessarily want to see them have sex in every chapter. It goes without saying that not all BL manga has sex in every chapter. I have two shelves of BL manga and about half of them could be read by a grandma (granted she could read Japanese). Get over yourselves.
Let me get my review of this manga out of the way before I rant about fans, so anyone reading this can just read that and ignore my saltiness:
Happy End Apartment (yes I got it in Japanese) is about Luca, an aspiring novelist who is told by his editor to give his stories a happy ending. But having just broken up with his lover and kicked out of the flat, Luca's really not feeling any kind of happy ending. While on the lookout for a place to live in, he chances upon an ad for a flat in Calle Feliz and comes over to check the room out. Javi the landlord tells him there are some complications and the tenant who's supposed to move out is still there. Instead he invites Luca to stay over his place and wait for the flat to get vacant.
Attracted by the promise of free rent (Javi offered for them to split the bills on utilities), Luca decides to take Javi up on his offer. Javi finds out that Luca is trying to write a novel and suggests he write happy endings for the people who live in the apartment building.
I'm a curious fucker and I love finding things out about people and how they live, so I loved the structure of this manga. It's episodic and each chapter features the story of two or more of the tenants living there, with some extras for Luca and Javi.
The stories themselves are pretty short and require 'audience participation' (haha I saw a review somewhere that used that phrase and I loved it). By which I mean, est em paints a picture in broad strokes and you're meant to fill in the blanks with the characters' emotions as well as your own.
One review mentioned how they didn't like the story with the puppet master and the one with the twins, but that they were handled 'tastefully' LMAO. Come on, folks est em's pseudonym is literally S & M. What else do you want? The story with the twins is just about how twins Sou and Shuu keep falling in love with the same guy and those guys usually end up choosing one of them. Except for this dude Noe, who loves them both equally. So Noe ends up in a poly relationship with twins. What's wrong with that, pray tell?
The puppet master Pepe
This is unfair and I know I can give this more than three stars: it's exactly what I like in my BL manga and the art is so delicate and pretty. But all these fans who keep talking about est em as if she invented 'serious' BL manga and how her work breaks all the BL tropes... has simply not read a lot of BL manga. It's not even that est em paved the way for this kind of BL stories: she debuted the same year as others who are also doing the same kind of work. What's up with that, y'all? At least I don't see this kind of holier than thou attitude from basso and isino aya fans.
So: recommended if you're in the mood for sweet and romantic stories with gay characters and don't necessarily want to see them have sex in every chapter. It goes without saying that not all BL manga has sex in every chapter. I have two shelves of BL manga and about half of them could be read by a grandma (granted she could read Japanese). Get over yourselves.
More...