Meguru Hinohara

Therapy Game 01

セラピーゲーム[Therapy Game 1]

Taelyr Vecchione

I felt like this moved way too quickly. It was hard to feel interested in the characters or feel any connection to them in this volume.

Ley Stanton

This was not what I was expecting but in the best way!
Both the characters are so far off the mark about each other. That makes every conversation between them slightly off. Neither of them know what the other one really wants. But it makes the story so good because both are trying to figure the other one out, while also dealing with their own baggage. I really loved both of the characters, and the fact that neither of them is perfect. They both make mistakes and don't give the other a chance. I was expecting this to be far more trope-filled than it was. But I found the way their relationship forms to be surprising. Really looking forward to the rest of this series, I'm glad I picked this up.
Thank you to Edeleweiss and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this, I was happy to get an early look at it!

Sparks fly in this spinoff of Secret XXX featuring Shouhei’s older brother Shizuma and Mito’s younger brother Minato after a drunken fling! Shizuma only drank that night to forget his heartbreak. He didn’t intend to also forget Minato, the one-night stand who soothed his broken heart. And since Minato’s not one to be forgotten, he hatches a plan of seduction…and revenge! Recently dumped and very straight, Shizuma tries to drink his sorrow away, only to wake up being spooned by a man! When he explains to Minato, his drunken fling, that he doesn’t remember a thing about their night together, Minato secretly vows to seduce him again—and then dump him as revenge! But even the best-laid plans can go awry when Cupid has his way.

Therapy Game, Vol. 1

Katerina Thorson

4/5
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**I use the CAWPILE rating system created by BookRoast to do my reviews

Character - 9/10
Okay so right now I am thinking that Minato and Shizuma are going to be taking spot number one next to Kurose and Shirotani on the whole BL couples scale. I just loved them together and when they were apart. You can tell that Shizuma is a very serious character and thinks in the long term of things and that Minato is the complete opposite of that. These were very clashing characters that kinda just fit. I also loved that Shizuma was very honest about his feelings and not only that he did not put up with any homophobia bullshit. 

Atmosphere - 8/10
I just feel like there was just so much more that was going on that I loved. I felt like I was there with our characters when they were in the bar, or the school, or when Minato visits the bunny shop (ughhh Shohei I can't get enough of him). I think it was just perfect. You definitely felt when there was a shift in emotions and the surrounding area on the page got dark. It was just so lovely!

Writing/Art Style- 9/10
I don't know about you but I think the writing and art style in this manga was 10x better than what it was in シークレット××× Secret XXX . Everything was so much clearer. There wasn't a bunch of stuff clogging up the panels. I loved how everything just flowed together so perfectly. It was wonderful and it definitely made me fall in love with the mangaka's work even more.

I loved how you knew when there was a "past tense" coming on. The mangaka fills in the page black and I think that's wonderful. At least I know I am in a different time frame. I sometimes would get confused with this in other manga's.

Plot- 8.5/10
I definitely loved the idea of revenge to lover type trope. I think it's cute. Especially with Minato's personality. However, many times (even if I loved this manga so much) I was like "this is kinda cliche" or "this reads too familiar". The idea was wonderful but I think I have read too many of the whole "revenge to lovers" type of tropes. 

Intrigue- 9/10
You bet your sweet butt I couldn't put this manga down for one second. Page after page I was drug in. I wanted to know more about Minato as a person. I wanted to see Shizuma come into his sexuality. I just loved every moment of it all. 

Logic - 8/10
I definitely noticed more of a plot to this manga over シークレット××× Secret XXX  and I really enjoyed it. I loved that I knew that the book was progressing into something other than nonsense. I am also glad that there was more focus on the relationship rather than sex or otherwise. The one thing that made me pause was the beginning. I mean I understand why Minato was angry and wanted revenge....but come on the guy was drunk. You should never trust a drunk guy even if it's the most truthful drunk person. So I found the beginning kinda of silly. If it was something more serious maybe it would have been believable. 

Enjoyment- 10/10
I absolutely loved this manga from the beginning to the end. There were so many funny moments and so many times I wanted to just hug these characters. I absolutely love Meguru's way of bringing in "her" (is it a her) readers and wrapping them all around the characters fingers. Just wow.

Therapy Game 01

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