Sweet or Bitter Love
Story and Art: Kon-ro
Publisher: TOKYOPOP (Print & Digital)
Imprint: LoveLove
Translation: Jacqueline Fung
Typesetting: Vibrant Publishing Studio
Publication Date: June 10, 2025
Rating: Mature 18+
Genre: Boys Love, Romance
Ichigi, a young office worker known as a “single, lonely guy who no one wants to marry,” has been alone for as long as he can remember. He’s got a gloomy air about him until he meets his coworker Odajima, a long-unrequited crush who is the bright star in his life. Surprising situations like an unexpected blind date bring them together, while an extreme plot point brought about by a misunderstanding tears them apart. Will these two total opposites ever find the love (and marriage) they’ve been looking for?
This one-shot is a fun BL romp, but there’s a little bit of work the reader has to do in order to fully enjoy the story, and that is to give the plot some grace and suspend disbelief. If you don’t take this manga too seriously, you’ll enjoy yourself.
Sweet or Bitter Love is set in a time not unlike our own, except gay marriage has been legalized for ten years in Japan and same-sex couples are openly welcomed in society, even in professional matchmaking. A matchmaker’s blind date setup unites Ichigi and Odajima outside of work, where Odajima proposes a one-year roommate trial while also nonchalantly dropping that he would like to marry Ichigi at some point.
This is Ichigi’s dream, but he just can’t bring himself to fully trust in Odajima’s feelings. He finds himself agreeing to move in, but decides he has to hide his true emotions from Odajima as much as possible while they live together.
That was my first eyebrow raise. Odajima clearly is into Ichigi, so I didn’t see why Ichigi was hiding his feelings. As I kept reading, however, I came to understand that Ichigi’s loneliness and self-loathing have completely warped him as a person, and he misses out on a lot and puts himself through some unnecessary suffering. Trauma can go deep and completely interfere with decision-making and rationalization. As soon as I got that through my head, I could follow the story along better.
It’s not long before Ichigi and Odajima’s bond becomes sexual, with Odajima taking the lead on nearly every romantic aspect of their relationship. Ichigi is living a dream come true, but is still fearful of coming out with his feelings. Then he eavesdrops on a phone call Odajima takes at work and misunderstands it completely, thinking everything was a lie or a game. On impulse, Ichigi runs away in the most extreme manner possible—he takes a promotion and a year-long solo job transfer to a remote Japanese island—and doesn’t tell Odajima. He just packs his things and goes, heartbroken.
This was the other moment in the manga where I had to pause and just accept the plot. I’m not a fan of misunderstandings, especially when they come from eavesdropping and the inability to simply talk things through…so this plot point was a bit of a struggle for me. But I had to keep coming back to the fact that Ichigi is a pretty messed up character, and look at his behavior to try and rectify it with the wonky decision he made to ghost Odajima in the most extreme manner possible.
This could be a breaking point for readers, but I encourage you to sojourn on. This is a romance, after all, and what is a romance without an HEA?
I’ll not say anything else about the story beyond that, except that I was happy with how it resolved, and that I had fun with this manga.
The art kept me on my toes because of how it changes throughout the story. For the most part, Ichigi is depicted with deep bags under his eyes and with glasses, giving him a despondent, geeky look, and Odajima is a typical, well-kempt, handsome businessman. Odajima’s appearance stays lovely throughout the comic, but Ichigi is given some of the funniest facial expressions that shake things up.
While “beautiful” doesn’t have to be a requirement of BL manga, many BLs I’ve read make every man an ikemen and depict humans as exquisitely gorgeous beings. I don’t think the characters in Sweet and Bitter Love fall under this description. The beauty of the men in Kon-ro’s manga is dynamic—they don’t always look the best, but the more in love they fall, the more beautiful they become.
Sweet or Bitter Love is an entertaining romance BL that requires you to grant some leeway to characters like Ichigi, who make some eyebrow-raising choices that move the plot along. A brisk story that dances with implausibility as well as sweet romance, I would say this one isn’t for everyone, but worth it for die-hard romance lovers of BL who love to consume as many iterations of the genre as possible (I am one of them). You’ll either sympathize with the lead or grow impatient with him (or both), but even so, I’m glad I had a chance to read it and I hope you give this one a try.
Sweet and Bitter Love is a one-shot BL manga available from TOKYOPOP’s store as well as a variety of booksellers online in digital and print.
