The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

Cut-Over Criteria

What's It About? 

Haruma Seto tends to view the world as one big software program. So when his new subordinate at work — a young but talented man named Jin Hagiwara — suddenly confesses to him, Haruma's left thinking there must be some sort of "bug." If he just goes along with Jin's confession, it gives him a chance to test for it. He's a successful systems engineer, after all, and this is just a test... right?

Cut-Over Criteria has story and art by Koala Omugi, with English translation by Christine Dashiell and lettered by Vibrraant Publishing Studio. Tokyopop will release its first volume physically on April 25.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

In some ways, Cut-Over Criteria feels like the warmer version of the manhwa Semantic Error. This boils down to both stories featuring characters who are in computer science and view their lives as code; when love comes along, it's framed as a bug, disrupting the way things are supposed to be. While I can't say that it's a particularly appealing viewpoint for me personally, it does work in the context of the story. Protagonist Haruma Seto is approaching 30 and just never really thought about how his life could be disrupted, so when the new hire Jin Hagiwara shows up and immediately makes his romantic interest in Haruma known, it's understandable that he might freak out a little, because hey, disruptions to routine can wake the Anxiety Monster like nothing else.

The most likely sticking point for some readers is the fact that Haruma is Jin's superior at work. While Jin doesn't care and is the more aggressive partner romantically, it's also kind of uncomfortable if you think about it, and Haruma's definitely aware of that fact. He spends most of the volume growing into the realization that he returns Jin's feelings and dealing with his own discomfort at having his cozy routine disrupted. For Haruma, order is comfort, and until he gets used to Jin being there, that's going to make him more anxious in general. The book generally does a good job of showing us that it isn't Jin or romance (same-sex or otherwise) that's the problem, it's just that it takes Haruma time to adjust to new situations and people.

Overall, both characters do show pretty solid growth over the course of the volume. For his part, Jin has to learn to work with Haruma's issues rather than just charging ahead full steam. Significantly, he does make the effort and keeps Haruma's emotional comfort (mostly) in mind. There are sex scenes, which err on the side of graphic while still being pretty middle-of-the-road, and the art is decent enough, even if there's something kind of off about the three-quarter and full profiles. If I sound lukewarm about this book, that's because it's that kind of story—pleasant enough, but mostly just a nice diversion between other things. That's not a bad thing.

Christopher Farris

Rating:

I've heard of gay coding…but this is ridiculous! I had to make that joke because Cut-Over Criteria doesn't, even though it's a boys' love manga that frames itself in coding terminology. Theoretically, anyway. In practice, much of the technical metaphors that Seto deploys as he narrates his newly developing love life with Jin come off as simply bolted-on. There isn't a lot of effort to engage with the idea of Seto's feelings being a "bug" that has to be "tested." Even the few instances of genuine conflict in the two's dating life come about as a result of some simple confidence and communication issues, rather than anything to do with Seto's supposed technical-minded approach to the relationship.

That's not necessarily a deal-breaker, especially for those who might not really care about the coding terminology and are just here to see a couple of cute guys utilizing some plug-and-play technology, as it were. But it means that Cut-Over Criteria doesn't really have a ton else distinguishing it from other BL stories. The age gap between Seto and Jin is probably the only other unique factor. The story notably doesn't really lean into any taboo aspects of that, content to simply revel in the fantasy of getting together with your hot junior and/or senior at work. That's fine by me, as escapist fluff. I can certainly appreciate the allusions Seto makes regarding aging into the soreness and inconveniences of hitting your thirties. The idea of him shifting his life on account of finally getting a taste of true love at his age is probably the closest this manga gets to any really resonant theming in its simple romantic arc.

Predicating that story on freshly awakened passions also means allocating plenty of space for boy-on-boy bang times across its pages. The sequences can get sketchier in Koala Omugi's renditions of the dudes than I think some might like, but it's only here that the art feels dedicated to drawing the dudes as properly hot. So much of the rest of the manga is populated by people as blobby talking heads, crammed into panels surrounded by an overt amount of word bubbles. Occasionally, you settle into a show of intimacy via hands, or a decent pullback to showcase something like Seto's minimalist apartment setup indicative of his sparse approach to life at that point. But while some of these instances can make the relationship between the guys cute, it mostly serves as a functional filler between the pedestrian relationship epiphanies and the sex that follows.

Being "functional" really is the most distinguishing compliment I can give Cut-Over Criteria, and in that respect, maybe it really is akin to some efficiently written computer code.

MrAJCosplay

Rating:

Dating your coworker isn't always a good idea, so I'm surprised Cut-Over Criteria did kind of win me over. This is a story about a young programmer named Seto, who initially tries to deal with the frustrating awkwardness that comes with a new coworker confessing his feelings to him. Not only does the manga get past that emotional hurdle with swift believability, the relationship becomes even more interesting because of how it interacts with the rather difficult and unflattering work environment they find themselves in.

Being left in the throes of a young blossoming romance can be difficult when you can hardly spend time together or you have to juggle different types of relationship dynamics. Sometimes you just wanna lay down and cuddle after a long day of work, and I think this manga does a good job of highlighting those little moments. This is definitely helped by the art style, which does have a fluctuating quality to it. Some pages and designs can feel very bland, but I do like the moments where the book will use a sort of simplistic super-deformed style for the sake of levity and comedy. This definitely isn't complicated, but if you're looking for a very low-key gay romance, then this is definitely worth putting on your list.