It took me ages to realize that "you" wasn't the name of the lawyer and that harujion wasn't the full name of the other character. (They meant you, as in not me, and harujion is a flower.) I mention this because it pretty much covers the way I felt about the manga: I didn't really get it.

Haru's dad just died. His mom died when he was a little kid, so he's now a 17-year-old orphan. Some skeezy mafia-type guys(?) swing by trying to take what's left of Haru's dad's stuff when Lawyer-san-- I mean, Senoh --shows up and scares them off. They must have been pretty small-fry loan sharks; they show up once more and guess who pops up again to tell them to hightail it? LAME, yakuza.

Anyway, Haru's a bit skeezed out by the lawyer too, 'cause he claims to be a friend of Haru's but Haru doesn't know him at all. The fact that the guy keeps showing up at his house to check in on him seems to make him feel LESS concerned. Yeah, okay.

The audience learns about halfway through that when Senoh was a high schooler, he hurt his leg and spent some time at the hospital. During that time he met and befriended a little kid who keeps visiting his sick mum: Haru. Haru gives Senoh the will to live, or something.

Aaand now that Haru is 17, Senoh wants to help him with his legal/financial troubles. Haru doesn't appear to actually know this connection, but he decides to go ahead and move in with Senoh anyway. From there, it's all downhill, with Senoh's dirty-minded match-making pal joining for the ride.



I can't tell if this manga was too short or too long. It feels like there was no real build-up to the romance or sexual tension. It was just sort of there from the start, with no apparent rhyme or reason, and they don't even really fight it much. Haru's problems are minimized-- they almost vanish once Haru moves in with Senoh, except that the younger boy is concerned about whether he'll be able to afford to go to college.

So let's recap: there are minimal internal forces preventing them from being together. There are minimal external forces preventing it too. So where's the story? The conflict? It's very flat.

The art is really nice at times-- vaguely reminiscent of the Honey and Clover art (ANN profile). Other times, it seems like some of the proportions are off. I struggled with the stupid heavy-stock paper and my scanner, too. Why does Juné use that on some of its titles, like this and Lost Boys and Same Cell Organism? I don't get it.

There is no smex, which is a good thing. No, seriously-- these two act their respective and very different ages, so them having sex would skeeze me out in ways that other older&younger pairings often don't.

Overall, I'd say it's a pretty weak title. It does, however, have one strength: the relationships between the characters do feel very real, especially that of Senoh and his co-worker, Nagano. Haru's and Senoh's feels fairly real, it just feels like it got to the point it did with no impetus.

But you know, I've never been into slice-of-life stuff. And while the plot isn't slice-of-life, the characters are, 100%. So if you're into that, you might still like this title.

Mangaka: You & Harujion
Censorship: N/A
Warnings: Weak plot, possible SKEEZITUDE.