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Bittersweet Café

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Description

From Nakama: 1o4p30

One day, Katsuragi Megumi, a café manager, came across a deeply wounded patissier, Honda Yuuji. Since then, Honda has helped out at Megumi's café. Even though Megumi is much older and a bit clumsy, his cuteness truly touched Honda. One night, Honda sees Megumi screaming some man's name while masturbating. Seeing such an obscene Megumi, Honda realizes that he actually loves Megumi.

Note about the chronology: "Bittersweet Cafe" was written before "Love or pride" but the events in "Love or pride" took place years before those in "Bittersweet Cafe".

Type

Manga

Related Series

Love or Pride (Sequel)

Associated Names

Bitter Sweet Cafe

Bittersweet Cafe

Горько-сладкое кафе

ビタースイートカフェ

浓情咖啡屋 (かんべあきら)

濃情咖啡屋 (かんべあきら)

비터 스위트 카페

Groups Scanlating

Nakama

Latest Release(s)

v.1 c.1-5+omake(end) by Nakama 18 years ago

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Status in Country of Origin

1 Volume (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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Rating

Average: 7.8 / 10.0 (289 votes)

Bayesian Average: 7.66 / 10.0

16%

28%

22%

Last Updated

June 29th, 2020 12:08am PDT - 5 years ago

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Genre

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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Matsu no Ma

After Midnight Skin

Shoujo Nostalgica

Sensei, Ecchi Shiyo?

Majime desu ga, Nani ka?

Recommendations

N/A

Author(s)

Kanbe Akira

Artist(s)

KANBE Akira

Year

2005

Original Publisher

Frontier Works

Serialized In (magazine)

N/A

Licensed (in English)

English Publisher

N/A

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

(-24)

(-166)

(-1132)

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(-1441)

List Stats

On 110 reading lists

On 118 wish lists

On 1168 completed lists

On 14 unfinished lists

On 231 custom lists

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Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Legal e um pouco de enrolaçao

by Kirishima💝Takafumi
4 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

Gostei um pouco foi ate bem desenvolvido mas achei muita enrolaçao em algumas cenas
Nada que estraga se mas podia ser melhor sem isso.

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Literally sweet

by WhiteIsBlack
6 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Such a sweet couple and the most innocent story of the trilogy. This must be the only one about pastries while the other two involve dangerous groups

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Not my cup of tea

by kurosu_yuuki
9 years ago

Rating: N/A

Ok, so let me start by saying I read everything in the wrong order. I read Blind Love 5 years ago. Recently, I came across Love Or Pride. So after finishing it, I read Blind Love again. And now I just finished Bittersweet Cafe. This makes virtually no difference in the story, as opposed to reading Blind Love first. If you read Blind Love before Love Or Pride, it makes a big difference. But reading Love Or Pride before Bittersweet Cafe didn't make a difference in this series or its sequel.
In my opinion, Blind Love was ok and Love Or Pride was really bad. This was...bad too.

The first chapter had me thinking "oh! Maybe it's not as bad after all". It was a normal story. Not very original, but just cute enough to get me going.
However, it quickly escalated from "not-amazing-but-ok" to "full-of-cliches-really-bad".

First of all, it is not a requirement in for yaoi to have someone realize they are gay. The author can either ignore that completely, treat as a non-issue (like, the characters are so modern that it's not a concern) or have the characters already be gay from the start. This was not the case. But if you are even going to lightly mention that aspect, the damage is already done and you have to go further into it. She didn't. While Honda realized he "never felt that way about a man before", he didn't seem to care about something that would make anyone else at least a little bit confused. He accepted right away that he loved Megumi.
Then come Megumi's feelings. Very boring. "How could I not realize that I was feeling this?". Pretty obvious. Again, I'd understand it if there was any kind of real conflict, like him being confused because he'd never liked a boy before - oh, by the way, nowhere does it say Megumi already was gay or realized it afterwards either - or because he was into Yukiya.

As for the story line, like I said before, it starts cute. But it goes from that to a little off, to blatantly absurd. I'd understand the "sempai" being upset because of his coffee shop, but people don't turn into murderers just like that. It was way too quick for him to take brutal actions. So when the climax was reached, with all that action going on and knives and stuff, I was on the verge of laughing, instead of on the verge of tears, which I believe was the opposite of what the mangaka desired.
And then there is that awful part about Megumi's past. It seemed like he was abandoned throughout the entire manga, but that would make no sense because Yukiya was around. Then, when it's finally revealed, it's rushed, without emotion and just as out of the blue as everything else. There is absolutely no conflict for Yukiya - which, big surprise, is no different in Love Or Pride either! - even though he has to take a child in and he himself was apparently very young.
To make it even worse, the story was left with a bunch of loose ends. Megumi wanted to open his own coffee shop because the one he owned was Yukiya's. The manga reaches its end and nothing of the sort happens - not even in Love Or Pride. Megumi wanted the perfect cake to go along with his tea. Well, the tea wasn't even introduced in the coffee shop's menu when this reached its end.
And who the hell is Sakiko? No backstory about her, not even a simple explanation. She is an editor? How is that relevant to the story?

Then comes Yukiya and Taiki. Like I stated before, I read this in reverse, so Love Or Pride was my first idea of them. So I know the author must have thought of them for Bittersweet Cafe first then followed up with Love Or Pride. But they are just too different. It's almost like she used the same characters and backstory, but changed their personalities completely. They are both mean gangsters with cold hearts and snarky remarks. And they don't live together, after so many years of being in a relationship! Which completely messes up Love Or Pride, as they had in fact moved in together, all too soon. In fact, they don't even seem to be together at all, because it looks like Yukiya didn't confess - which he did in Love Or Pride, which, chronologically, comes before this. It seems like Taiki is still pursuing Yukiya.

Last thing to comment is the characters themselves.
Honda is just a normal guy. Nothing special about him. He can be pretty sassy sometimes, and, in fact, one of the best scenes in the entire manga was the last sex scene, when he goes "tell me if you want me". That was one of the sexiest scenes ever.
Megumi, on the other hand...whiny, childish, boring, baby-like...not at all my type. He's the crybaby uke, and I really don't like those.

The cherry on the cake is the stuff they say to each other. "Promise me you will never leave me". What? They basically just met, and nothing major happened for them to be saying stuff like that so seriously. All of the catchphrases were pretty awful like that.

The only redeeming quality about this is the art, which is not even amazing, but nice looking.

... Last updated 9 years ago

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Sweet

by Namiya
11 years ago

Rating: 7.0 / 10.0

It's not a bad manga, the art is first class, there's a bit of story, likable sweet characters... it's shallow and pure sugar-shock though. The characters were too goody-goody for me personally, lacking any faults.
If you're up for something purely sweet though, give it a read~

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by varianthart
14 years ago

Rating: 7.5 / 10.0

This is simply fluff. It's not bad fluff though. The story has ok flow, with some silliness(in the non comedic kind of way) thrown in here or there. I didn't hate it, it was definitely better than the prequel(love or pride) for me because it felt less forced and rushed. The art is ok, but nothing amazing. Overall just average fluffiness so don't expect too much from it.

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Adoreable

by Sasageru
14 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Well, i decided to read the whole 'series', prequel and side story included and i have to say i'm in love XD I loved all the stories but this one especially. Maybe its because i've been missing sweet fluffy type manga's for a while, but i fell in love with this. I hope the second volume is released soon happy face

First of all i really need to comment on the art. Its beautiful. Stunning. Its adorably clean, nicely spaced out, not too detailed but not lacking in detail either and the characters are all drawn so well. The story itself is adorable. Its full of fluff and love and pastry XD its amazingly cute even with the added elements of Yukiya's moodyness and an angsty sempai. I'd really recommend this to anyone looking for a nice light romance to read, its interesting, its amusing and the characters have a surprising amount of character and depth given the shortness of the series.

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Sweet and fluffy...~

by Sakura_Hikizaki
15 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Bitter sweet Cafe is for you if you are looking for a sweet, fluffy, and a feel good happy ending. As the reviewers before me said it is sweet all over. But at the same time you will fall in love with it. I personally enjoyed from page one to the last. I was curious to know what happens to Megumi and it was nice to see that there was story following him.

I think that if you are reading the prequels, that you can't miss this one.

... Last updated 14 years ago

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Beware of sugar!

by Bastet The Cat
17 years ago

Rating: 6.0 / 10.0

Totally agree with the fellow reviewers: this manga is all sugar so you may as well keep some bacon flavored chips or salted nuts handy while reading - as an antidote. 🙂

On a more serious note: the artwork is beautiful but the story is cliché-ridden and pedestrian at its best. It's unlikely to stir deep feelings - or any feelings whatsoever. It can only serve as your BL manga fix, nothing more, nothing less.

And call me picky but the uke (Megumi) annoyed the hell out of me. Seriously folks, a cafe owner who keeps acting like a five year old all the time?! That's way too overboard IMO...

... Last updated 17 years ago

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lacked excitement

by cut
18 years ago

Rating: N/A

I really wanted to love this manga too but...it was mediocre to me. Yes the manga was sweet but I could not feel much sincerity or depth from the sweetness & it turned out to be just nice fluff more on the shallow side. The drawings were okay (except for the cakes- those looked yummy! xD). & I felt the seme & uke were too much in their separate roles so it disappointed me a little because they kept repeating similar actions in multiple scenes (one protects & the other cries).

This manga is definitely one that some might love for its sweetness however it was all sugar & no richness for my taste buds.

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Bitter Sweet Cafe

by angelkurisutin
18 years ago

Rating: 8.0 / 10.0

This manga was very sweet. I loved Megumi, and I could see how everyone was so protective over him. ^_^ The art was also pretty; I liked Honda and Yukiya's character designs.

... Last updated 17 years ago

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