Josee, the Tiger and the Fish

I don't remember who recommended me this or how I got to it, but man, why did I decide to read a romance manga when I wasn't in the mood for romance manga in the slightest?

Actually, you know what, it seems like I'm never in the mood for romance manga. If you saw my backlog, my huge "reading" list, you'd notice the romance genre is incredibly over-represented. I find this weird because whenever a light romance subplot is inserted into a work, I don't mind it, in fact, I enjoy it! When characters in a work are already in a relationship, or the work is a regular slice of life or a coming of age story? I'll be going feral over the romances that may or may not happen. But when I read a work and the sole purpose of it is about how two characters met and are about to fall in love and then proceed to fall in love? I sleep. It just doesn't hold my attention, at all.

Maybe it's because it's so formulaic. Two characters meet, third character is there for the mandatory love triangle, one character keeps a secret from the other, the other finds out, things fizzle out, rival is there to aggravate the situation, another culmination happens, any misunderstandings get cleared, we have our kiss, the end!

Formulaic stories can be comforting, but this one type of formula will never grip me, it just isn't for me.

Anyway, I don't have much to say about the work itself. It's sweet, there's some cute moments, but that's about it. I didn't really care about any of the characters. Femc is a smol and tiny helpless being which is only made so much more literal because she's in a wheelchair... Male lead is just there... He likes fish and stuff. The work is too short to give these characters a proper arc, backstory and personality. Even the other girl that's in love with mc, while we can understand right away she has a thing for him, their relationship is non-existent and she only exists to basically be a rival for a few pages before fading into the background.

I think I'd call this fast food romance. You know what you're going to get the moment you read the premise. It's not horrible, it's definitely digestible, and you get your satisfaction fast if you're into romance. It has all the necessary elements.