Hello Tumblr! Today I'd like to go on a little love tangent about one of my favorite shojo manga: So Cute it Hurts, or otherwise known as Kobayashi ga Kawai Sugite Tsurai!!
This manga so charming and underrated. I absolutely adore it. It's about the Kobayashi twins, Megumu and Mitsuru who go to two different schools. Mitsuru is failing his history class and has to take make-ups. Megumu, is an absolute history buff, so he asks her to switch places with him for a week so he can ace those classes. (I say "ask" but he didn't really give her a choice)
While they switch for a week, the twins end up falling in love. The rest of the story follows their love lives. This set up probably sounds boring and predicable. But let me explain my favorite part of this series... I thing I love about it most. The disability representation.
Due to PTSD regarding women, the male love interest, Aoi, has an "attack" whenever a women gets closer than 2 feet from him. Usually involving, heart racing, dizziness, and fainting. The way the story and the female main character handle this is just... so mature and amazing. Like, she can't fix things for him. He has to work through that himself, but she's still there for him. Supporting him with just so much open-mindedness and patience. It's so sweet to watch this romance develop.
But that is not all. The Aoi's sister? She's deaf. And it impacts so much of the story. I can't explain how without spoiling at least the first three volumes. So read the rest at your own discretion. But I seriously love and recommend this series!
First off, while going to Megumu's school, Mitsuru actually does end up meeting Aoi's half sister, Shino. In fact, they become really fast friends. (And a bit more that I won't spoil). Anyway, Mitsuru ends up helping her out with some bullies, but not knowing she was deaf, ending up being a bit inconsiderate. Shino can sign and lip read, but she can't talk. So he was kind of like: "Why don't you just say no to them? Stand up for yourself?" and stuff like that. Not realizing that the reason she didn't was because she couldn't. Once he learns this, he actually learning sign language, first to apologize, but then they actually become friends, so he wants to communicate with her better. Since he's disguised as his sister, Megumu decides that she should learn it to, to keep the crossdressing for a week thing a secret. Leading to THIS adorable scene.
Okay... I love this. I love that sign language became a way for these twins to start bonding and really talking to each other once again like when they were kids. They weren't on bad terms or anything, they just... grew distant as they grew up.
Now here's where all of this becomes important. Since Shino is Aoi's sister he ALSO knows sign. (BTW the sign in this manga is JSL. Just getting this out of the way now). Remember how Aoi can't get close to women? This leads into one of the most adorable love confession scenes I think I will EVER see.
So context: Megumu (nickname: Mego) was standing on a bridge. They couldn't hear each other because of the traffic. So... instead of using words...
She used sign (dies inside). This scene is also just hilarious. She keeps thinking she's signing wrong and this poor dude is getting so flustered. Oh my god I CAN'T with this manga.
I'd love to go on and on forever but... I only own the first three volumes and I don't want to talk about this series and it's scenes purely from memory and with no pics (I took these pics from my physical copies with my phone). I'm planning on collecting the whole series, so maybe I'll have more scenes to gush about. Till then, if I only got one person to read this wonderful manga. Good. See ya!
Look at this happy little face. Look at it!!! 🤣🤣😍🤣🤣 #baby #babygirl #cute #dieofcuteness #socuteithurts #babiesofinstagram #bonds #bondsbaby https://www.instagram.com/p/ByOw0-JAs6I/?igshid=1jzi4m0lebb3d
Why don't they have this vest in my size? @target Was absolutely elated by the Beatles clothes in the little girl's section! 😄😄😄 #thebeatles #target #socuteithurts (at Kingston, Massachusetts)
