I Want to be a Wall, Vol 3 (and thoughts on the whole series)

The 3rd and final volume of "I Want to be a Wall" dropped today, and I may have woken up early to go read it.

(I'm not the only one eager for new stuff for the fandom; I just got my 3rd comment for the tiny double drabble that I wrote earlier this year, and all of them have included a variation of "thank you for writing for this tiny manga".)

If you're not familiar, this is a slice of life manga about an aroace woman (who's into Boys Love) and a closeted gay man (who's in love with his childhood best friend) who get married and are trying to figure out a life together.

This series is generally pretty gentle and happy, but there's one instance of violence (someone gets stabbed, though it's more bloody than it appears), some stalking, and a fair amount of bias against nontraditional/childfree couples. Some might find Yuriko's Boys Love obsession offputting, but I found it quite mild and more used for comedic bits. There's some infidelity in one side character's backstory, and even a little bit of how more "exotic"-looking people (half-Japanese or people with partially Caucasian ancestry) can be idealized in the wrong way.

( Spoilers for the entire series, but mostly concentrating on the new volume )

I got IntoABar done again!

Someone to come home to (1395 words) by Estirose
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: わたしは壁になりたい | Watashi wa Kabe ni Naritai | I Want To Be a Wall (Manga), Boyfriend Dungeon (Video Game)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Hanazono Gakurouta & Hanazono Yuriko
Characters: Hanazono Yuriko, Leah (Boyfriend Dungeon)
Summary:

Yuriko's not good at relationship advice... but for a stranger she's met on the street, she'll try.

For Into A Bar 2024: Hanazono Yuriko meets... Leah (Boyfriend Dungeon)!

Set post-game for Boyfriend Dungeon and after the main story for I Want to be a Wall, so spoilers for both Leah's route in Boyfriend Dungeon and for bits of volume 3 for Yuriko.

I got super inspired by volume 3 of I Want to be a Wall and so this story just flowed. The two fandoms are definitely an odd mix but they worked out really well. It was a little bit of a struggle getting Noli (my current Boyfriend Dungeon character) to stop taking the limelight, though she still kinda showed up more than I wanted. Noli is actually nonbinary in the game and uses they/them - an option you can take - but explaining that took the focus away so they became a she for the story. Also, I kept wanting to write Leah/Noli but Leah had different ideas.

(And as a bit of trivia, Annie the shop owner was originally named Alice... and then I checked the tags and remembered that there was an already-deceased character by that name that was related to Rowan. Yeah, I just do not bother with Rowan a lot when I play unless I'm trying for an achievement, sorry!)