『放課後、ラブホで、先生と。』私にはおすすめ度は★★★★★です! みんな、ごめんなさい、私は日本語が苦手なので、以下のレビュー・感想を全て英語で書き込みする。(えっと...実は私は英語を母語とする人ではないけど...) (長文ごめん、1.3万文字数近い...)
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(I think actually this story is centered around Saitou-sensei rather than Kanna lol. Also I like how their relationship isn't discovered by others, no need lectures about oppositions of such romance lol)
I normally don't read shoujo manga, but I am interested in forbidden love genre like teacher-student romance because this requires authors to give convincing reasons why the teachers still risk to cross the border / moral bans to engage with students other than pedophilia the sex drives / excitement. So far, this manga is one of the very few which satisfies my requirements and required me to think about why they fell in love lol. Also, Saitou-sensei's heartbreaking realization of responsibility won me over. In addition, this manga stated the inequality toward teachers in such relationship lol.
Please, teachers are not emotionless marionettes / robots, as long as they don't have pedophilia not attracted to all minors, not affecting their professionalism in teaching (ie. to be fair to every students not biasing their lover when grading their work) and both really have romantic feelings for each other but not including threatening or cheating etc then I'm fine lol. (Well, I do agree it would be even better for teachers to apply for stop teaching the class where their lovers are in but to teaching other classes instead, or even switch to other school, or quit being a teacher)
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● Well, Saitou-sensei ranted the inequality in teacher-student romance — teachers need to be always careful hiding affection by facial and behavior and fair treatment to all students not biasing their lovers, while there are no consequences for students showing affection to teachers.
● I like how the ethics / rationality vs feelings been executed here. Actually Saitou-sensei can choose keeping both — minimum effort in teaching while dating Kanna, but… He realized that as a homeroom teacher substitute (since chapter 189, 1 year before kanna's graduation), having a trustworthy teacher is the most important thing for students preparing public exams which are important to their future so he asked kanna to keep distance from each other. Unlike being an undercover / lovers from enemy countries, which actually no need hesitation, for the former case there are law requiring undercover to sacrifice / cheat romance for justice, while the latter case it depends, if lovers would be sentenced to death once discovered / they are nationalists then of course they should choose rationality rather then love, but otherwise if they can flee + not that enthusiastic about nationalism like me they can choose love instead. ✴️ the most pitiful ML I've ever seen lol. Unlike other manga that they can choose go overseas physical separation to keep distance with their lovers for the sake of lovers' future (like "The spiral of love and lust") where they miss each other but no need to suppress their affection, he basically sees kanna every weekday yet he understands that he need to suppress both his affection at school & sex drive toward her.
➡️ what contributed to his decision? Summary: bus guide telling him most important is having trustworthy homeroom teachers than any advices (ch 202) + wardrobe kiss realizing sex desire reached critical point almost failed to suppress (ch 207) + pissed off by how inconsiderate kanna was after hearing she prayed for his rescue which was over reliance thought she attention seeking adding burden to his work along with wardrobe kiss (ch 213)
● for fictional stories about forbidden love there should be convincing reasons why those people risk their career to fall in love with forbidden targets, unlike normal romantic relationships people can fall in love for simple reasons such as the lovers are beautiful, with good personalities… for teacher-student romance it is necessary to prove the students are unique / great enough for the teachers risk their career not choosing adults over them as their lovers (for instance, not having bad parts of adults. And if too mature why not choose adults instead, but if also love bad sides of minors that would be really pedophilia…) . I think this manga gave convincing reasons. (Well, any stories providing family problems as the backgrounds of the characters automatically raise my impression about the stories, like "pretty rhythm rainbow live" and "the spiral of love and lust"…)
➡️ Why Saitou-sensei loves Kanna? ① She is so considerate to others, always prioritizes worrying about others' feelings than her own feelings (especially right before confession, which I would discuss about that later), sympathy, blames herself even when she was not the one at fault, also innocence + sincerity unlike some adults who are selfish + inconsiderate (chapter 79 Saitou-sensei compared intern teacher iwasaki with kanna, he always turn down confessions to prevent complicating things and feels headache whenever girls confess to him), while she doesn't have bad side of minors (although at first she always yearn for intimacy because of loneliness, but after his explanation she was grateful for him sacrificing his current happiness for her future and agreed to keep distance from each other. Not aggressive, emotionally demanding lovers, childish or pushy.). ② he sympathized her situation, both of them have parents died when they were still in high-school but he never liked his tiger parents that much while kanna working so hard to cherish her parents' memory and become so happy when the hotel was praised as if her own joy and always want to make others happy which are dazzling to him. (Examples for point 1 are chapter 24 & 75 & 79 & 87 & 108 & 35 · 131 & 152 & 168 & 183 & 213 & 221. Side notes he didn't witness but also 20 & 29 & 51 & 77 & 135. For point 2 that would be 104 & 107 & 171→132 & 224)
➡️ Why Kanna loves Saitou-sensei? ① High-school students are legally banned from working in such workplaces (although moral for cherish memories of parents), not only he turned a blind eye to that but even risked his license to help her, she compared him with her childhood friends who left her because of discrimination of her connection to the love hotel. ② she love how he always care about her future like his realization of responsibility, also he often give advices about management issue of hotel + future career plan, examples are chapter 25 & 49 & 61 & 66 & 111 & 188 & 201. ③ He hit the nail about kanna never thought about what her dream truly is because she was so selfless and at first she didn't planned to go to university but he told her not to limit her possibility not bad to gain some life experiences before coming back to the hotel (chapter 106), which was a huge turning point of her life lol, just like a life mentor. ✴️ Originally had secret crush toward him and she saw much more private sides of him casually chatted outside of school unlike other students so she accidentally kissed him when she was sleepy…
● I feel like this story actually centered around Saitou-sensei instead of kanna lol (I like it, especially cool MLs), while shoujo manga mostly center around fl for self insertion purpose. He originally tried his best to avoid falling in love with students by claiming that he is nice to all students to stop misunderstandings and helped kanna just for improving her grades under Takeuchi sensei's pressure + sympathised her because similar to his childhood that both of them have parents died when they're in high-school ➡️ but then he didn't want to act / suppress his true personality after school in his voluntary work at the love hotel showed more private sides & she kissed him while he was sleeping he mistaken that was dream caused him paying more attention to her ➡️ then he discovered her nice points then confess to her and wanted to quit school because he irresistibly loves her (also he became teacher because of parents also teachers, it's not like it's his dream job huge sense of commitment etc so it's understandable that before that he wanted to quit several times) ➡️ then finally he asked her to keep distance from each other avoid private meeting prevent being alone with each other until graduation because of his realization of responsibility as a teacher the increased burden at work as a homeroom teacher substitute (also because he was alerted about his increasing sex desire towards kanna yet he knew he shouldn't have sex with her before her graduation, ie. confession successfully suppress→white day licked her neck→colleagues forced him to drink alcohol then hiding in wardrobe being drunk he put his hand inside her clothes touched her bare skin of her back right before being kicked out) (Symbolized by his reaction to love fortune sheet — at first he thought she cute enlightened him ch. 201, during their confrontation he scolded her with emphasis of "I don't need it")… meanwhile, kanna doesn't have as drastic growth as him, from the very beginning (first 12 chapters) she already had romantic feelings for him & always yearn for intimacy because of loneliness, only very recently she learned to show care and love verbally instead of physical intimacy as their connection and no longer feel lonely because she thought they work towards the same goal together.✴️ by the way, reasonable for people carrying drunk people to love hotels for safety, also sensible that he asked about why she was so dedicated to part-time after she always looked exhausted even collapsed, plus it's quite convincing that he decided to volunteer because not every teacher would help keeping such illegal thing as secret + need someone to do the work for her immediately to ensure she won't overwork herself. kanna also probably guessed saitou-sensei didn't report her matter to school meant he isn't that strictly stick to rules but allow gray area so she dare to tell the truth to him. Their romance aren't started by pure coincidence like Kawahara's.
● I like how this manga combine 2 things that are moral / can be sympathised yet illegal / rule breaking lol, like minors are not allowed to work in love hotel especially that is midnight shift, and also teachers would be fired once they are found dating with students lol.
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● Congrats to Saitou-sensei successfully suppressed his sex drive before kanna's graduation lol, because he was depicted as smart & careful & very decent teachers with considerations of teacher's responsibility. Aside from teacher's ethic of protecting the sexuality of minors, if Kanna gets pregnant before graduation would be a solid proof of exposing their relationships & invalidate all his past endeavours of hiding signs of affections & suppressing sex desire and vastly interferes her career planning, so he's a smart guy, also it seems that Kanna doesn't have much sex desire (she thought many people would have sex after confession she's OK with that but mostly view as a way of intimacy, not that she wants that badly biologically). Plus, I'm not sure are there any law banning manga depicting sex with minors so don't expect hot smut scene before kanna's graduation…
● I feel bad for Saitou-sensei lol he knew he shouldn't have sex with her before her graduation so he basically suppressed his sex desire multiple times (backward yukata & confession & white day & wardrobe drunk & go to rival love hotel for investigation and heard some erotic sound of foreplay can't wait) what a mental torture to his sanity, luckily kanna is such a cockblock. (Btw, I as a girl can relate his situation much, know how harsh to suppress both emotions and sex desire… well it's because I had sex drive since high-school too no private room + no $ to use sex toy + bad masturbation skills, and I need to act cool at school too)
● Side notes, this is not the case of this manga, but my opinions are, although adults having sex with minors are banned morally, but if both lovers have serious sex drive then the moral ban is too cruel (well, can't help, in reality use sex toys as substitutes instead). IMO, any relationship where both have mature mind + really love each other + ✗involve threatening or cheating the minors shouldn't be banned, even if incest. By mature mindsets I mean high-school students with precocious mind do exist lol, if they know about consequences of teen pregnancy, what romantic love is and the meaning of sex in a relationship…Those romances aren't the problem, but teen pregnancy is. But even so they can choose go back to school once the babies are born and leave the child for parents to take care of until graduated from university, not necessarily ruins the life of the teenager completely like what "Ichigo no gakkou" has stated. P.S. I was also a precocious teenager, during high-school, I already supported antinatalism (mainly because of multiple social issues) with 2000+ words analysis and I supported abortion too base on my thoughts of what defines respectable human socially.
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Some analysis of key parts of the plot…
● kanna not dare to confess to saitou-sensei, I guess the reason is she sensed he meant to be teacher not lover, also she sympathised people who has their confession turned down by others, and he is too good in suppressing his affection (facial and behavior) lol.
● realization of responsibility: ① To stop kanna from creating opportunities / enticing him to have intimacy with him. ② kanna must agree keeping distance from each other to match her usual personality of being considerate as usual — that's what exactly he loves her for even risk losing his license & he suggested that for the sake of all students & she should sympathise how harsh for him to suppress his feelings. ③ Saitou-sensei did a good job in explaining about that, especially he told kanna about he still loves her, as she yearn for intimacy because of loneliness and insecurity about their relationship. Also it is kanna who relies sensei too much, unlike "the spiral of love and lust" in which ml was both the one who relied on his lover too much and the one who has realization of responsibility. So saitou-sensei must communicate with kanna well. ④ He shouldn't suggest break up because that would hurt her emotionally and even affects her grades, like yurika the bus guide has shared to him about the teacher she loved had tossed her aside sighed "not all teachers are dependable", also in chapter 177 he didn't want to break up even though their relationship was exposed to her besties, plus he wants to protect her pureness.
● right before confession: Kanna was too considerate. She always prioritizes others' feelings then her own ones, but this time Saitou-sensei abused that for selfish reasons and it is the first time that she hurt herself by considering others' feelings. Saitou-sensei meant to be teacher but want intimacy like lovers, she was angry and confused that he claimed himself as her teacher yet kissed her, that it was completely reasonable for her to want more special treatments that she perceived him having feelings for her, yet she decided to act like she didn't mind about that even blame her own feelings as selfish and apologize to him acting as "purely grateful student" that he wanted, said she should be grateful for the reward and that was enough she knew he cared for her and had mental conflicts.
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For those who didn't read this manga, some key info:
- Saitou-sensei originally just a maths teacher, only after their original homeroom teacher was injured due to accidents he was temporary appointed as homeroom teacher substitute.
- during the school trip, he and Kanna hid in a wardrobe together because another teacher was chasing after suspicious Kanna who wanted to study and make some notes about inn but accidentally ran to the teacher's dormitories and he helped her. No sex but just some hot kiss scene, she kicked him out of the wardrobe right after he put his hand inside her clothes touched the skin of her back because she put escapement to sneak back to her room as first priority than intimacy.
(Even support Google play payment, the only eBook service that is friendly to overseas manga fans lol)
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P.S. shoujo manga mostly not the right place to search for works with meaningful & provoking messages / humanity conflicts (which I love), but for romance stories, I am interested in forbidden love genre which includes some mental conflicts. I seldom read shoujo manga because I don't need self insertion into fl for fantasies lol actually I hate that very much, I can't vibe with those detailed description of romantic thoughts and I prefer cold rational characters (eg. Homura Akemi)…
Side notes, like this manga, "the spiral of love and lust" ("Ai to Yokubou no Rasen", not shoujo manga actually but teen's love) also actually centered around ml instead of fl despite detailed description of romantic thoughts of the fl. Basically about how ml became lifeless bad person because of guilt about mistakened himself killed his mother who threatened ml to involve into incest with her and how he later been rescued by fl who wanted to be strongly needed and sympathise + accepted his past (so she forgave ml who at first r@ped her and even influenced ml to forgive his mother, convincing reason. She later fell in love with ml), and the last chapter literally has ml reflected his doing in detail, and fl felt jealous about how ml originally want to protect his twins brother who later betrayed him.