Kajitsu – Hachita Abe

Kyouichi and Shouma meet again on the beaches of Okinawa after parting nearly a year ago when their relationship as step-brothers ceased to be. Before their parent’s divorce, Kyouichi kept his feelings secret all this time for the sake of their family, but can he keep them hidden when he’s pushed to the edge under the sweltering summer sun.

Kajitsu has three meanings in the story. It means fruit, summer day and another day.

This manga is a very slow-burning and angsty step-brothers to lovers story of Kyouichi and Shouma. It is set in summer. Their parents married then divorced but the two maintained their close relationship.

Shouma is oblivious to the fact Kyouichi had long ago developed more than brotherly feelings towards him. Even after Kyouichi confessed, Shouma declared he wanted them to stay as brothers.

I love brotherly love stories and this one did a good job showing the conflicting feelings and Kyouichi’s longing for his stepbrother. However, it had a lot of unnecessary drama, making it longer than it should have been.

The story didn’t really bring anything new to the table. I felt things could have been resolved sooner had the two not been too stubborn. Also, the manga pretty much glossed over the parents so there wasn’t a strong sense that their relationship was forbidden. I didn’t see what was really stopping these two.

There was another boy in the picture, Hanashiro, who was rumored to have dated Kyouichi in middle school. I preferred him to Shouma because he treated Kyouichi better. Shouma was being an ass for some time while he was coming to terms with his feelings.

As for the art, the colored illustrations are pretty. The rest of the drawings were okay. The characters looked liked ordinary boys which gave the manga a more realistic feel.