Both Yuriko and Gakurouta are well-established in this. We are introduced to their circumstances, the reasons they both agreed to this arrangement, and how they are attempting to navigate the dynamic of being married to and coexisting with each other. (Unfortunately, neither can cook, so RIP to their kitchen and their stomach linings.) Gaku is pining for his (straight) childhood best friend, and Yuriko has been followed her whole adult life by people encouraging her to find a man... woman... anyone??? You can't really want to be alone forever, do you???

Yuriko is asexual. Gakuroura is gay. Naturally this means that they’ve just gotten married to camouflage their true natures behind the norms of society. Even with this marriage, however, they’ve got a lot to learn about one another and there’s still more than a little prejudice out there… Gakuroura’s story doesn’t land quite as strongly just because he’s certainly not the first nor last gay guy in manga by this point, whereas Yuriko represents a very underserved demographic, even if he also feels the weight of heteronormative society on him. He’s also a lot more taciturn than Yuriko is as a general rule. That said, I’m not entirely convinced at the strict heterosexuality of the other guy, given his incredibly rapid cycling of his girlfriends and some rather suggestive prose that crops up. It would be rather ironic if people who constantly get mislabeled accidentally did the same to him instead.This manga left me feeling torn. On the one hand, Yuriko and Gakurouta were a sweet pair, and I enjoyed watching them try their hardest to make their marriage work despite not having a clue what a marriage that doesn't include sex or romance should look like. On the other hand, I felt like the manga started at the wrong point, leaving me with all kinds of questions. Also, I wasn't entirely comfortable with how Yuriko's interest in Gakurouta's one-sided love for Sousuke was written. In a cute realization, Yuriko comments that “They say ‘like marries like’?”. I love this scene because the story allows Yuriko and Gaku time to see each other as similar through their mutual desire to care for one another without expectations beyond that. This idea of many ways to care is supported through Yuriko’s self-discovery story. Shirono explores Yuriko’s ace identity in a complex way that reminds allosexual and alloromantic folks that there are many ways to want to be around and care for people. Childhood Friend Romance: Gakurouta has been in love with Sousuke ever since they met when they were kids. Unfortunately for Gakurouta, it's entirely one-sided since Sousuke is straight, and has had multiple girlfriends in the time they've known each other while Gakurouta remains silent about his own feelings. Just as there are a plethora of different sexual orientations, there are also variety of different relationship dynamics that people can experience throughout their lives. Society very much establishes how certain relationships are supposed to have their importance informed, such as how marriage is seen to signify a union between partners that are romantically and physically committed to each other. Obviously that is not always the case, but I wasn't expecting to come across a book that would show how marriage itself doesn't define the strength of a relationship, rather it's in the specific pleasure that two people can foster between each other. This is a story about an asexual/aromantic person being married to a gay man yet finding complete satisfaction in that arrangement; in fact, it's probably one of the healthiest marriages I have seen in manga. There is no sexual or even romantic tension between our two leads, but there is a strong kinship that I would argue goes beyond what I think we typically expect from how friendship is portrayed in media. These two listen to each other's worries, try to do right by each other, and are very open about their doubts while trying to overcome them and do their absolute best to understand the hobbies of the other.

Nov 25 i☆Ris the Movie - Full Energy!! - Anime Film Teaser Visual Revealed at i☆Ris Live Stage in Anime NYC & i☆Ris First Performance in New York Successfully Completed What's It About? Yuriko, an asexual woman, agrees to take a husband to satisfy her parents—which is how she finds herself tying the knot with Gakurouta, a gay man in love with his childhood friend with his own complicated family circumstances. And so begins the tale of their marriage of convenience. Yuriko is an asexual woman who loves reading about fictional characters' romances, particularly in "boys' love" (BL, m/m) manga and novels, but who has spent a large portion of her life feeling like she doesn't really fit in because she's never been in love and doesn't even really want it to happen to her. Platonic Life-Partners: While Yuriko and Gakurouta aren't attracted to each other, they still treat their marriage as a serious partnership and act as a support system to one another. I am absolutely in love with this relationship! A pair of friends, an ace/aro woman who only enjoys the concept of sex and love in her BL (boys' love) books and a gay man in love with his straight childhood friend, have a marriage of convenience and they're SO GOOD to each other. I can see this going many ways with this plot setup, but this is a strong start. There's finally a respectful representation of ace/aro people in manga! However, she's a fujoshi and I can see how her love of yaoi might skirt into the "women fetishizing gay men" territory for some readers. It's not nearly as bad as others, like Wotakoi and Princess Jellyfish, and some might find her reasons for enjoying yaoi justified (she doesn't have to see women/herself represented). It really depends on the reader's comfort level. I personally enjoyed this; my demi heart felt very validated. I Want to be a Wall is fresh and fluffy and I'm looking forward to future volume(s)!I felt like there was more depth and sensitivity to the way Yuriko was written than the way Gakurouta was written, and I wasn't entirely comfortable with the way Yuriko hovered around Sousuke and Gakurouta like she was witness to some kind of lovely BL tragedy. She genuinely felt for Gakurouta's sadness over his love being one-sided, but still...Gakurouta wasn't some fictional character in a story, he was a person, and it didn't always feel like Yuriko really understood that. That’s the meat of the story, which has precious little to do with the marriage side of things, really, although once the jokes are out of the way, there’s some warmth to be found in the story of these two friends in a marriage of convenience learning to come together and be a little closer, even if not do much in the romantic sense. As a very specific gender identity, asexuality feels like the one where people are most likely to offer the most useless advice from either well-meaning ignorance or regular old jerk ignorance. Yuriko has to deal with a lot of ‘you could land a man if you tried harder’ or ‘you haven’t met the right person yet’ that simply ignores her preferences in favour of trying to force her into a specific box. The Beard: Gakurouta and Yuriko are mutual beards to one another, as Gakurouta isn't attracted to women while Yuriko isn't attracted to anyone. I gave this 3.5 stars on LibraryThing. I started off rounding it up to 4 stars on GR, then rounding it down to 3 stars, and finally settling on 4 stars again. Its issues bugged me, but there were also quite a few scenes I loved enough to reread.

Anyway, I am really happy with this set up and really optimistic about its handling of aspec identity which is so, so nice since there aren't many honest explorations of those experiences. And I want to establish - the English translation does simply refer to Yuriko as "asexual," though it is established through conversation that she experiences neither romantic nor sexual attraction. I've been informed that this is likely a translation thing that they don't seperate aromanticism and asexuality, but Yuriko IS aroace, there is no denying it. The premise for I Want to Be a Wall is too great to not garner attention. An asexual, aromantic boys love (BL) fan marries a gay man still in love with his childhood best friend. The first volume of this quirky manga is a sweet slice of life story about a married couple who will never be attracted to each other. The jokier aspects of this story tend to fall flatter than a possum on the interstate during Labour Day weekend, however. Comedy about people being awful at cooking is incredibly played out in manga, but especially when trying to tell a more serious story. Yeah, it’s cute that they both end up terrible at it, but so, so corny. Yuriko is the strongest element of the book, honestly, and the portrayal her aromantic nature seems about right, but what I think the book does especially well is portraying the ‘death by a thousand cuts’ nature of others talking to those identifying as ace, which I’m going to wager is still pretty prevalent.

Nov 24 Another Eden: The Cat Beyond Time and Space Releases an Update Featuring a New Episode 'The Cliffs of Wyrmrest (Wryz Saga I)' on November 24

Ditto watching Yuriko fret about Gakuroura learning more about her BL collection (based on this book and my own friends who are ace, it does seem like they all get issued massive book collections). The guy’s gay and interested, Yuriko, don’t shame him or yourself! Yuriko and Gakurouta know the sides of each other that won't allow them to fit in with regular society, but otherwise they know very little about each other. This first volume shows them gradually adjusting to their new married life and figuring out what that relationship means for them.When I heard about this manga I was surprised, because I heard that it was about an aroace woman and a gay man. I have seen aroace representation in manga once before, and I thought that was the only piece I would get. I am so happy that there seems to be more aroace characters being created, and the sexuality is beginning to be understood! The Mary Sue has a strict comment policythat forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.— Yukiko discovering the word “asexual” puts things into perspective for her. Even if the people around her don’t get it, it comforts her, and that’s what matters. She now knows that there’s an explanation for how she feels, and as we see her relationship develop with Gakutouta, she suddenly has someone who is supportive of her identity. Gakutouta is in a similar situation himself, as we get to see him growing up and wondering “what’s wrong with me” when he realizes he’s in love with his childhood friend, Sousuke. He’s been watching Sousuke from the sidelines, keeping his feelings to himself as he watches him enter into new relationships. He hasn’t had anyone to confide in until Yukiko, so the two have settled into a relationship where they support each other. Instead, our married protags dedicate themselves to a caring partnership just because they want to. Yuriko decides, after a bad attempt at cooking breakfast by Gaku, to make dinner for them. She decides to “channel her OTP” and make some “Croquettes of Love”. In her own determination panel, fist clenched around her phone and a determined, though more fanatical, look on her face, Yuriko buys the ingredients. Only to get home and realize that Gaku did the same thing.