at the risk of sounding pretentious there needs to be a cultural shift to the way people see kimi ni todoke because i really don't think most people engage with it in good faith-if anything they treat is as a very superficial story because of its simplicity and miss the point
@toyotayou: Thank you to everyone who was concerned about Fujisaki-san's safety and Toyokawa's stock price…! I guess Adachi had the first experience of waking up to the smell of coffee in Kurosawa's house ☕
These are the bonus artworks included in the special edition of Volume 7! Find them under the cut!
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I've been thinking that for a while now, but Adachi's sleeping face looks really vulnerable...
He feels younger than usual, or rather like a child. I've always wanted to see it, but we’re almost at our stop. I might get in trouble if I don't wake him up…
Huh? I-Is Adachi maybe secretly taking a picture of me?
No, I’m completely fine with it and really happy. What would he do if I took one of him in return? I so wanna ask him that… I’ll pretend to sleep a little longer.
That I’d get to wear matching yukata on our date! It’s like I’m dreaming…
Since Adachi’s skin is fair, getting a dark colored yukata was definitely the right call!
I thought wearing a yukata at a summer festival and frolicking around would be weird for my age. I really doubted this idea but it is actually not that bad.
Most importantly, Minato looks like he is having fun. More than usual, even. That is… it kind of… feels like we’re closer somehow.
Today is our Christmas date. I also look forward to waiting for Adachi at our meeting place. That moment when Adachi sees me from afar and comes running towards me is so cute. Aah, it’s no good. I can’t remember any of the content in this book at all.
Mugs and a pair of glasses, let’s just buy both.
I’m really happy to see more and more matching items in our home.
A present prepared for this day.
Before we started dating, I had fantasized many times about giving Adachi a present, but I never thought that the day would come when he would actually accept it and prepare one for me in return…
My heart can’t be racing this fast even before handing it over.
This is bad, I'm so happy to be lying down on Adachi's lap, I feel like I'm going to die.
It's perfectly fine if you laugh at me and think I'm a spoiled child.
I’ll fall in love with that smile again and again.
In the Taisho era, if I were a police officer and Adachi was working for a publishing company…
I'm sure Adachi would still be kind, so if I'm having trouble investigating a case, he'd probably help me.
That kindness of his, I really love it.
getting emotional rewatching the kimi ni todoke recap because even though in the main story ayane was the one who wanted to spill everything about kurumi's actions to kazehaya and was only stopped by sawako, in this short, she makes kazehaya get out before mentioning the fact showing how she's grown to respect sawako's decision to not humiliate kurumi to someone she love(d) 😭
How Cherry Magic avoids romanticising self-sacrifice
Alright strap in boys, this is gonna be a long one.
Spoilers for the manga (mostly the english volumes but I will include a bit from vol 12. I'll mark it tho so yall may skip it if you don't want to be spoilered).
So in this one I want to examine how cherry magic does a great job at portraying self-sacrifice in a relationship as an actual flaw rather than a romantic ideal to aspire to.
Very often you'll see characters in media putting their own needs aside for their lover. A lot of people will swoon at that because it is usually presented as proof of how dedicated they are to their partner and their wellbeing. (See... well the thai adaptation actually).
But what has pleasantly surprised me is how Toyota handles this in her manga.
Starting from the beginning, we all know the millions of things Kurosawa did for Adachi to get closer to him. After all, that is what's usually expected of him if we talk traditional gender roles. But one of the reasons Adachi even starts falling for Kurosawa is because of how he was for once able to do something for him.
For someone with very low self-esteem, being able to help this super-capable perfect man is a big boost in confidence and also raises his own selfworth.
So now let's look at a few instances of selfless action and the consequences resulting from them.
First one is the disaster-date in volume 4
Kurosawa does his very best to choose activities that he thinks Adachi will enjoy. That is his primary concern.
The effect this has on Adachi though is that the gap between them feels impossibly wide, only worseing his already low opinion of himself.
Whenever Kurosawa does something big, it makes Adachi feel that much smaller. That's why he'd rather them be equals in everything instead of one giving more than the other.
Next is the argument they have in volume 8
Kurosawa attempts to, very selflessly, protect Adachi from his lowkey homophobic parents. He doesn't want them and their opinions to hurt Adachi personally, so he ends up lying to him to keep the peace.
The effect this has on Adachi though is disastrous.
At first he's just generally worried about why Kurosawa would even lie to him in the first place, but then they have that fight in their living room and you really get a good look at how negatively this affects Adachi.
The very first conclusion he jumps to is that he's not doing good enough for Kurosawa to feel secure with him.
The next one is even worse, where he thinks he's not good enough in general. Both of these show how when pressed, he will default to blaming himself, believing that he is the problem first and foremost.
And then, if all of that wasn't bad enough, this happens next:
He's actually being self-deprecating again, something he hadn't done ever since Kurosawa told him not to in volume 5.
And yes you can actually go back and check for yourself. Whenever he has negative thoughts after this point he's always pushing back.
So there's an escalation happening here, one that is entirely caused by Kurosawa not sharing his burdens with him, by making their relationship unequal.
I think it also hurts him extra bad because they've had this argument before, just with their roles switched.
So to him it must feel like Kurosawa is betraying the important lesson Adachi learned from that argument, which is that communicating with your partner is important, even when you feel like it might hurt them.
There's also something to be said about how most people would've probably stopped prodding when someone says "it's something I can't tell you", but Adachi knows that Kurosawa has a pattern of hiding his issues from him thanks to the mind reading, which is the whole reason they had that argument in vol 6 in the first place.
So, to summarize: Whenever Kurosawa acts selfless it takes a toll on Adachi's mental health. Because of his low self-esteem he needs to feel on equal terms with Kurosawa to be able to see himself as worthwhile. (And obviously he also loves Kurosawa and doesn't want to see him in pain just in general.)
So after all that, surely Kurosawa would have learned his lesson, right?
Surely he wouldn't just do it again, right?
...
Spoilers for volume 12 start here ✨
So volume 12 is all about Kurosawa overworking himself because he's been assigned this big project by their chief to oversee their company's spot at a stationery convention. (I didn't look up whether or not that's a real thing but it is in the manga universe I guess lmao.)
Adachi tries to help alleviate his burdens with mixed success.
(On the left he feeds Kurosawa because he needs to finish his work and doesn't have time to eat. On the right he tries to take a phonecall for Kurosawa but gets told that Kurosawa needs to hear it personally so relaying a message won't do.)
Then Adachi muses to himself how Kurosawa was always helping him out in the past and how Adachi can't do anything for him in return, especially since they're in different departments. He feels very useless, which is once again bad for his mental health.
Later at home, he offers to at least take over the chores for the time being, but gets told that Kurosawa actually enjoys doing chores so there's no need for him to help.
Kurosawa tells him that all he needs is Adachi to be close to him, while making out with him on the sofa. And right here we see how he only got half the lesson he was supposed to have learned in volume 8:
In their fight Adachi told him that they should both be happy and he should share "all the hurt" with him, too. Well, the simple solution to that is not to see all his burdens as burdens, then he's not hurting and Adachi doesn't need to bother fussing over him!
Win-win. Epic mind gymnastics 😎
(To be honest, I feel like this is actually very relatable to people that tend to give more than they take. We get so used to the weight of the burden that we don't notice it slowly pulling us down.)
So Adachi obviously notices what's going on and berates him about not having understood anything he said from that fight.
Throughout the volume Kurosawa gets more and more overworked, makes mistakes and is confronted with unexpected complications.
He's very adamant about not asking anyone for help though, stating that he "can't be bothering his senpais any more than he already has" and that he's "doing this all for the sake of his future with Adachi".
He also still has some hangups about people seeing him as just a pretty face, as you can see in that flashback in the second page.
He constantly feels the need to prove himself to others, which prevents him from ever seeking out help.
So when he inevitably reaches his limit, Adachi is finally able to be there for him, being the only one that sees through his facade.
(That hand kiss is so precious 😭)
Also, on that first page Adachi asks him whether or not he's fine, which reminds me of this panel from volume 6:
He really knows him so well.
Emboldened by his husband, Kurosawa finally does ask for help and is, of course, met with understanding and sympathy.
...
Spoilers for volume 12 end here ✨
So all this to say: Sometimes, when we try our best to be selfless and to protect the people close to us, we do more harm than good. Sometimes we cause harm to others (see volumes 4 and 8) and sometimes we cause harm to ourselves (see volume 12).
It is of course a noble cause but it's not something to strive for at all times and can sometimes be actually counterproductive to what we wanted to achieve in the first place.
As someone who breaks themselves apart to help all the people around them, this aspect of the manga resonated very strongly with me and is probably the biggest reason I got so obsessed with this silly little BL romcom.
I know that this manga is not like, the best in quality. I know it's super niche and silly and cannot compare to the big popular mainstream manga with lots of depth and thought put into it, BUT.
A piece of art doesn't need to be "good" in order to resonate with people. You don't need to paint the mona lisa to reach someone and make them feel seen. You just need some sort of medium and a will to communicate something to the viewer. (Something an AI could never replicate but that is a whole other discussion.)
This manga reached me when I needed it and it communicated a message that resonated with me and that is all it needed to do for me to love it to the point of obsession. 💖
Finally I'm done with this essay it is so long oh my god.
If you reached the end of this, I'm so sorry. I hope you enjoyed it tho.
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