Alright I just finished Unrequited Love and it was a little disappointing. It had been on my backlog for a while and the premise (girl falls in love with sister in law) was pretty novel. This isn't to say it was terrible but I feel like it suffered from a lack of commitment, and didn't do more with its ideas. It had very consistent art and the characters were human(most of the time) and realistic enough. It was a little drawn out and the ending was extremely unsatisfying; the story almost concludes with Uta giving up on her "unrequited" love only for the very last page to suggest this was not the case—this destroys the one reason that might excuse the other flaws of the manga. The poor pacing was a result of the story juggling all these different character's relationships(which often went almost nowhere) and the protagonists beating around the bush about their own feelings for far too long. I am glad they didn't vilify Kaoru's husband (which often do to justify the removal of the male character from the equation). But despite the lack of yuri closure between Uta and Kaoru, Kaoru does indeed get divorced (the reason being was quite good and didn't make either of them the perpetrator), but this doesn't really serve any end besides its own as no real romance for either of them result from this. The general lack of yuri, despite all the build up would have been forgivable as part of the story's main themes (unrequited love) were it not for the tease at the end. Risako's story went no where, the waitress girl x rich girl went no where, the slutty girl's back story wasn't worth anything, Uta's parents didn't result in anything. Of course the stories of the supporting cast doesn't always have to be more than interesting or consolidating themes and messages either to us or the protagonist, but all these inconclusive stories drew things out far too much, making the ending that much more unrewarding. I feel like so much could have been done with such a premise: a pseudo incest cheating story, the familial aftermath of Uta dating Kaoru, Uta struggling with the immorality of wanting to/actually cucking her brother, feelings of jealousy. I think during the period where Uta suspected her husband of cheating, I thought it would have made for an interesting story if Uta and Kaoru's relationship had been initiated almost as a way of Kaoru getting revenge in secret, only to learn that her husband had never actually cheated. The story was drawn out, lacking in romance or closure, but not even committing to that much; the premise was poorly utilized and there were too many things that went nowhere. It's hard to recommend an almost 40 chapter romance with almost no romance.
