Midnight Rain – CTK

A man with a 10-year history of debt x A lone wolf who likes to fight.

Just like a cat has wandered into his life of paying back debt…?

In a deserted coin laundry, Ethan asks the name of a man with an unpleasant look in his eyes.

The man named Mike once again shows up before him, covered in wounds this time.

A dramatic BL featuring these cool but somehow cute men!

Midnight Rain is a moving take on the cat/dog personality dynamics against a backdrop of a poor city district and nightly rain. It’s set in a western city with western characters in a style reminiscent of some TogaQ and Kikuchi Neko works.

Ethan is a sunshiny man who was inexplicably drawn to a younger man with a hard look in his eye and numerous injuries from street fights. He tried to strike a conversation with him in a laundromat by asking how he does his bloodstained laundry. The younger man, Mike, wasn’t that communicative. But later on, while Ethan was in despair about his life and was contemplating ending it, Mike appeared at his door, bleeding, and Ethan just had to take him in.

Ethan’s the kind of guy who’ll smile and say everything’s fine when everything is falling apart. He was super caring of Mike, feeding and clothing the younger man while he bitches and smacks the handsy Ethan. Mike is blunt and abrasive, frequently rubbing people the wrong way. He wants nothing AND everything to do with Ethan. This push and pull create conflict that drives the story.

As advertised, this delivers a fabulous mix of drama, heat, and fluff drawn in an eye-catching style. I loved the interplay of strong and vulnerable, rough and tender, violence and care, and how they underscore Ethan’s and Mike’s opposite personalities.

I’m not a fan of facial hair in manga, but I liked how it was rendered here. Ethan looks like a more attractive Tony Stark. And I loved Mike’s no-eyebrows-because-he’s-badass face. His eyes are sharp, but they could be pretty expressive.

All in all, a poignant tale of men with little left to lose finding more reasons to live.

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