The Little Bird Sleeps by the Sea - Yuu Minaduki - ★.½

AUTHOR: Yuu Minaduki

GENRE: Manga

PUBLICATION DATE: April 15, 2025

RATING: 1.5 stars.

In a Nutshell: A yaoi manga about trauma and grief and hope and moving on. Tremendous promise, tremendous disappointment. Lacklustre in almost every way. This is an outlier review.

Plot Preview:

After the sudden death of his parents and his sister in an accident, Yuichi finds himself the sole guardian of his seven-year-old nephew Ayumu. Seeking a fresh start, the two move into a new neighbourhood with the ocean nearby. Yuichi hopes that the serenity of the location will help them both find peace and bonding. As Yuichi’s skills in the kitchen are less than ideal, the two frequent the neighbourhood deli, run by Ryo. Yuichi and Ryo soon become close, but it is clear that their individual pasts still hold much trauma.

Bookish Yays:

🌊 Ayumu. 66.67% of my star rating is for him.

🌊 It’s standalone, unlike most manga.

🌊 The artwork. Quite good. Probably the saving grace for those who enjoy manga-style artwork. (I actually don’t, but that’s not the book’s fault.)

Bookish Nays:

💧 The lack of originality. Everything offers a feeling of déjà vu.

💧 The ad hoc plot development, with no rhyme or rhythm to what’s happening or why. Subplots are thrown in at random and abandoned equally suddenly.

💧 Ryo and Yuichi, who seem to introspect more than needed and communicate less than needed.

💧 The romance. Way too manipulative! Yaoi anyway is darker and more ‘fetishised’ than regular BL romance, but this one is toxic for all the wrong reasons.

💧 The poor character detailing. Ayumu and the female secondary character in a minor role (forgot her name; too bored to go back and check) are okay, but Ryo and Yuichi are too flat. (And sometimes, even weird.) No other character has a strong presence in the plot.

💧 The forced found-family vibes. Given the cover, I expected this to be handled better. But this was almost insta.

💧 The haphazard pacing, where things either zoom or drag.

💧 The half-baked execution of the main themes of grief and childhood trauma.

💧 The ending. Seriously?

💧 The cover promised a wholesome story, so I didn’t expect to see this go into rape territory with non-consensual relations and even pseudo-incest.

Basically, I completed this only because I had to complete it. I am utterly disappointed because I had expected a lot more from this manga based on the blurb.

I want to make it very clear that my issues with the book aren’t with the boys love theme or the slightly explicit scenes, as these are characteristic of yaoi manga anyway. The plot and character development, though – Ugh! I can’t tell you how much I was complaining and eye-rolling during this read. Then again, a majority of the readers (who seem to be half my age) are gushing over the emotions in this book. So it is quite likely that middle-age has turned my heart to stone. (That said, I am slightly relieved that my manga-aficionado teenaged daughter, who accompanied me on this reading journey and bore the brunt of my constant grumbling, was almost equally bored by this book.)

I cannot recommend this, sorry. But perhaps if you are a teen with a focus only on “boy love” and absolutely no other aspect of storytelling, you might gush as much as the others are over this manga.

My thanks to Tokyopop for providing the DRC of “The Little Bird Sleeps by the Sea” via Edelweiss+. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book. Sorry this didn’t work out better.