It's easy to lose yourself trying to gain more popularity by doing the next big twist, a really cool fight, an overambitious arc, while losing sight of what you were trying to write in the first place. So many people have done a second couple on romance mangas to change perspective a bit, the big tournament arc on shounen that makes absolute no sense but they give their readers good battles, and also the sudden drop of a force for evil (be it in terms of blackmailing, sheer strength or something along these lines).
I really like "Takane no Hana wa Midaresaki" but I have no particular interest in BDSM, and it is a really good chunk of it, but I can't help but be amazed of how this manga just flows. This chapter is the usual thing? Good! It's well written, has good pace and the art is pretty nice. Oh, some things happened so we have to develop these characters feelings this chapter and maybe even a few more? Fine by me. The conflict does not need to be resolved in one chapter as the characters struggle to adjust to the new things in their relation. A little bit of side characters to break the monotony? It's fun getting to see they are just good people. They're fun to read through a chapter or another but they are not the focus of this story and never will be, so don't worry about them taking over the manga. The same emotional problems are being used as the theme for this chapter again? I like it. People do not get over things so damn fast as it is usually portrayed, they worry over an over again to a mortifying degree. And hey, I trust wholeheartedly that they will keep being developed, because that is how things have happened. Not through big emotional cries in the rain, or someone screaming at the top of their lungs, just they doing their usual thing, getting to know themselves better, and slowly but surely closing the gap.
I can always be disappointed at the end, because I can only infer what the mangaka wants to write, but sincerely, as I write this review, I've never read a manga so devoted to following it through with the vision of a mangaka while not being some overblown "let's save the universe" or "life sucks" thing. It is definitely an unusual relationship but also more human than any other. Fresh but not ground breaking. Paced more humanly, but not being boring.
I love this manga and it's probably the best thing I ever read. Do I recommend? No, because if you're not tired as I am of what manga is I don't know if you'll even want to keep reading, let alone like it.
Be my guest to come back and give it a try at a later time though, it will give you some hope for the future.
