lovers on the last train

Love is a young person’s game is a familiar sentiment that older people have when it comes to romance, and still love can bud later in life, long after the years of one’s youth.

For Harue Shindo, being 42 means long nights as a salaryman and very little time or energy for considering something like nurturing relationships not closely associated with his job as a chief engineer.

Unfortunately for him, Yoshitaka Fujishima is smitten with him and romance has found him when he has least expected it.

Let’s get into this week’s manga review

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In anime, I’ve seen a sort of romance renaissance, so it’s natural that my first manga I would review would also be in the romance genre.

Love is such a fun subject matter and in Lovers on the Last Train, it’s made clear that there is always time for a person who feels “lacking” and unsure to still love and be loved on.

Harue Shindo, works as a chief engineer for a company that has a dating proximity based dating application. I’m sure it’s common for engineers to download apps to make sure they’re functioning correcrtly, but Harue accidentally likes a person.

We’ve all done that, I’m sure, whether it’s Hinge or Tinder, we wait to see if there’s going to be a ping, a notification that interest is reciprocated. For Harue, he notices that this 41 year old hot bodied man hasn’t contacted him even after his mistake.

He deduces that it’s probably a catfish.

Anyone would with a profile like that. Faceless, expensive meals, and a photo of flowers? A real person? Yeah right.

Well, that’s what Harue thought until he went for a late night drink after dinner with his colleagues and the application, which pings when your match is nearby, goes off.

In front of him? A very hot man who wasn’t a catfish. A very hot man who said he was cute.

Harue finds out Fujishima-san isn’t bisexual, he’s gay, and a wedding planner.

And, instead of worrying about the clock, he finds himself immersed in conversation and feeling a spark, a connection with him. Hours later, the trains have stopped and they head to a love hotel.

Before anything can happen, Harue panicks.

Everything is going much too fast. He’d just met then man and now what? They were going to…to…what?

Hook up?

They don’t even get to kiss before Harue makes a halfhearted excuse about needing to freshen up. Naked, in the shower, the reality of the situation seems to slowly sink in.

The person he matched with is a real person, a person who is super hot and totally his type, and he thinks that he only matched with him to hook up.

He muses, “Passion is a foreign language and I don’t know any of the words.”

Something I find to be so endearing because passion and love are things that are both intuitive and also learned.

Ultimately, nothing happens between the two. Harue has a moment of vulnerability with Fujishima-san and tells him that he’s not sure if he’s ready for something like that. Of course, Fujishima thinks that’s the cutest thing in the world, and they sleep peacefully in the same bed.

The next morning, Fujishima is gone before Harue is even awake.

Seemingly that’s the end of their little romantic affair because there’s no word from Fujishima for over a week, and understandably, Harue is annoyed.

No text? No call? Just radio silence.

Then he sees him in the wild after a couple of girls comically run into Harue, spilling all over him. Fujishima offers Harue a spare shirt and tie that he happens to have on hand.

It’s such a tender moment and you kind of feel like holding your breath and also maybe feeling like you want to shake Fujishima for not reaching out.

Before you can even really get mad, Fujishima turns on that glittering charm again, making Harue blush like a young man. He then blurts out that he’s sorry for being awkward, but he saw a chance to interact with Harue again and took the chance.

Fujishima even asks him for his LIME, saying that he left his contact information on an OJ box that had been in the room, but he figured that Harue threw it out, and really love it if they would be able to text.

This is the start of a romance that has a bit of angst, warm ooey gooey feelings, and a plot twist.

This manga, is so incredibly sweet and really filled a void that I’ve been feeling with anime–a story about love that doesn’t center youth.

Both Harue and Fujishima are deeply loveable and relatable characters even though I’m over 10 years younger than each of them.

Harue is less confident about his ability to be someone that Fujishima would even be attracted to, and Fujishima is just a love sick puppy who just wants to give Harue the world.

I think what I really love about Lovers on the Last Train is that it’s not about sex. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good BL with all of the hot and heavy not safe for work content, but this short and sweet manga still offers intimacy that doesn’t require anyone to be naked.

If anything, the vulnerability between each of the characters more than makes up for lack of physical intimacy.

You’re left rooting for each person to work through their individual issues so that they can build the relationship they both seem to desire. And when they do, when they both decide that jumping feet first is the only option, fear, uncertainty, and all, you can’t help but celebrate this leap of courage.

Because isn’t that what love is? Taking a chance to see if someone could be the person you do life with?

I give Lovers on the Last Train a solid 4.5 out of 5 stars. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a quick read and loves to read about love.

Welcome back to 📖pages&pixels👾✨

I’m so happy to share my first manga review. I’m not sure if this is going to be the format going forward. It may change in the future to fit the medium, but I loved reviewing this manga.

Dayoo is a great mangaka and I’m looking forward to reading more of their work!

Have you read Lovers on the Last Train? What did you think of that plot twist???

Also!! Do you have any recommendations about how I can make it better? Is this ok? Let me know in the commends below! 💭

Thanks for being here this week! I hope you had a great time reading my manga review!!

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dani-chan 🌱

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