Something I tend to do from time to time on redacted is go through its database entries at random be it by my searches or whatever pops up on its Latest Updates and Popular New Title banners and take a look at the authors page if I happened to be intrigued enough by them. This happened with Enma Akiyamahttps://twitter.com/akiyamabc whos newest work Noasenpai wa Tomodachi has led me to read and finish up their other works: oneshots Kyuuketsuki ni Shite yo and Ningen Maid Robot Meruru as well as the unfortunately cancelled Killing Me. Now all of those I enjoyed well enough albeit the latter being a bit of a lukewarm bythenumbers GL for my taste but those were all more focused on comedy than serious development unlike Killer In Love which was set to be my last venture. And... man its a confounding outlier in regards to their other works. No major spoilers and I wont show off any explicit images and panels but I will highlight a few key points to better state my disappointment. Now I will say that much like Enmas other works the artwork is fantastic. Theres a great mixture of the individuals being either cute stern intimidating and downright daunting throughout the issues and the way each panel is handled in regards text character movement/position and the varying screentones bolsters the draw towards the actions. Though theres a bit of a similarity in character builds rarely are they ever put together to create a confusing situation. Id even say that starting out the story kept me rather motivated to read on. The theming of abandonment and the forcefulness of presenting oneself as appropriate deemed by societys standards simply to avoid that nagging horrific feeling is explored and delved between male MC Ryuto Suzuki and female MC Kokoa Yoshizaki. The formers a loner that forcefully plants himself into outings in order to satiate the sense of belonging and the latters backstory is slowly unveiled as being on a similar path just with a bleaker and more brute route. Driving the plot by intentionally propping Kokoa as the metaphorical object of desire with Ryutos low connection to friendship let alone a romantic connection clouding and warping his mental state as to whats right and whats wrong makes for some suspenseful uncoverings in the first two volumes... yet by the end of it it ends up falling flat. Despite being a 5volume comic it feels like a truncation of one thats doubled or even tripled the length. A characters fate in the third volume is left purportedly ambiguous at absolute best one of those the character believes it but it isnt outright shown cases as to be the climactic wedge of Ryutos demise yet the falloff from this doesnt leave the same impact as the first twos. Theres a plot point about one of Kokoas past coupling that feels randomly inserted compared to the rest of her narrative roots. Disbeliefs I could suspend before are now bubbling up upon the surface as more events happen when even with calling the psychotic break the two are now suffering under feel too sudden. Its not like a bunch of stuff suddenly happens to create new conflicts but the constant push from one interaction to the next makes any potential circumstance and reflection evaporate. Reveals and new developments of things that should be delivered as emotional and shocking instead hit so tepidly since its hard to not ponder and question the confounding increase of the violences scale as one that feels unearned and distracting. Originally I thought this could be used as the point of it all but even then would that explain the constant use of selfreflection our two leads have? Would that explain how Ryutos slowly dehumanizing transmogrification of a stern loner to an inconsolable broken husk shoots itself down so quickly? Would that even explain the last few chapters now giving context as to why and how Kokoa ended up being the catalyst for all thats happened? Not really I believe. Again it hurts because the premise and a chunk of moments are genuinely super well done The excessive warped perception of a being in order to obtain that feeling of connection with someone only to realize the inner faults of yourself and decide its perhaps better to back away from it all to quell and outright stop the hurt the other will face is a powerful message thats barely able to be understood in the middle of the narrative. I dont want to do a grand statement as to how this couldve happened creating manga and trying to keep it serialized is a tough process and I do not know much as to what Enma was facing during this. That said I cant help but share the feeling that ValRy had developedhttps://anilist.co/review/20714 in that at some point the author had to rush towards the finish line due to being at or suffering from the risk of cancellation. That might not have happened at all and the truths potentially way simpler than that but its something I cant quite shake off regardless. I can recommend Enmas other works due to each containing something I feel people can be able to take away from as well as the fact that theyre all easily downed within an hour hour and a half. I can somewhat recommend KIL if what I said about its ideas or even its short length doesnt deter you but Id just tell you to find other recommendations Anilist has available.