By Courtney
Is there a series you constantly hear creators mentioning, see merch of on people’s bookshelves, and come across memes of? For me, the manga series this applies to is Therapy Game by Meguru Hinohara. So many manga recommendation accounts would reference this as an all-time favorite, and I always saw the series jumping out at me on the shelves of Barnes & Noble. I didn’t know anything about the story, but I knew that one day I would have to collect it if only to understand what all the hype was about!
When making the book club calendar, I decided we had to tackle it. Now that I’ve read the first volume, I am so excited to backtrack to the original one-shot it was derived from, Secret XXX, and the follow-up series Therapy Game Restart. The author packed this story with gorgeous characters and relatable angst that was enough to keep the tension high without annoying the reader.
The story employs one of my favorite tropes: a black cat and golden retriever couple. Our main character, Minato, is a grumpy and stand-offish beauty who works at a drag club as a photographer and has a penchant for seducing men but not getting any closer to them than that. Shizuma, the love interest, is a previously straight man enrolled in a veterinarian school who is honest and trusting to a fault.
The two meet one drunken night, and the next morning, we begin our story. The book begins with Shizuma waking up next to Minato, having blacked out the entire evening before and calling him by his ex-girlfriend’s name. This is the start of Minato’s frustration. So begins the revenge plot to get Shizuma to fall in love with him, with the intention to dump him and make him feel the same sting of rejection.
The revenge plot thickens as Minato makes a bet at work with the drag queens that he can seduce Shizuma despite him being straight and commits fully to making a fool of him. The revenge plot falls apart as soon as Minato spends a weekend with Shizuma and finds that he may be planning to hurt a really good guy who is developing real feelings that seem to be mutual. I love how the author depicts hurt, regret, and remorse on both character’s sides. The drama was believable because we’ve all felt the sting of rejection and the desire to turn the tables.
Once we know Minato better, we see that he is afraid of getting close to anyone for fear of them abandoning him. We also see that Shizuma is brave enough to trust and love again, even after being hurt. This makes them the perfect match for each other if only they could see how complimentary their opposite traits can be when put together.
I am hopeful that this couple will work through their misunderstandings. I love a long series, and between this and Therapy Game Restart, six physical volumes are available, with another being published this July. I am going to collect them all! If you love this series, go to the discussion forum and tell me when you found it and why it stands out to you!
Thank you so much for reading along with the book club and following the blog. The podcast episode for this manga will be released on March 5th, and I hope you will subscribe! All episodes are available to listen to here on the website under the DBBC Podcast tab, if you don’t listen on any of the apps. You can now also watch the podcast on YouTube if you prefer a visual format. Until next time, remember, sometimes the delusion is the solution!
Yours in Deep Delusion,
Courtney