Even though there are many things that this book does that I don’t normally like — miscommunication, cliffhangers, multi volume work where I don’t know the ending so now I’m locked into potentially buying several more volumes, putting a child into emotionally fraught situations I don’t think she should be in — Tsurukame has done such a good job here and made such an enjoyable group of characters that I was won over despite myself and will pick up the second book whenever it appears. I think I saw this recommended somewhere and unfortunately can’t remember where, so I got it based off that half-remembered positive review and the fact that I liked the cover. The basic plot is that both Sentaro (hard working, upright music composer) and Touma (dissipated, blunt, seemingly some sort of street thug) slept with Ririko, who has just died and left behind a six year old, Meguru. Either of them could be her father and Ririko’s last wish was for them to live with Meguru for three months, at which time she will pick one of them as her dad. They get emotionally blackmailed into this and end up all living together in Sentaro’s apartment. The big issue for Sentaro is his secret unrequited crush on Touma, who is completely oblivious to it.
I think a big part of the reason why this worked so much for me is that each character feels fully alive and complex, and they each have their own storyline going on outside of the romance plot. Sentaro has been secretly ghostwriting a popular composer’s music and has low self-esteem around his own works. Touma has his yakuza-affiliated crimes and his issues around that. And Meguru is extremely mature for her age but struggles to fit in at school. Both men offer her different aspects of potential fathering and the three of them start forming into a somewhat dysfunctional family in this volume. There are some big developments at the end that left it on a cliffhanger and I’m interested to see what will happen next volume.
I will tentatively recommend this for now because it’s very make or break based on the next volume. The art is stellar and there’s a great sense of humor throughout, I just want there to be a satisfying ending.
