Honeymoon Salad

tl;dr: A manga about relationships that despite being serious doesn't really have much development, but is still casually enjoyable.

This manga has an interesting concept for a love triangle in theory, but the characters and their stories didn't mesh as well as they needed to for it to work well in execution. The chemistry felt off and the arc of each individual character felt somewhat shallow. It starts off moving at reasonable pace, though feeling quite dreary while doing so, but then transitions to a much slower pace where it feels more relaxed in a melancholy sort of way. That's not a bad thing though, because it does the relaxed aspect pretty well and that's enough to keep the reader wanting more. The problem is that that carries through the ending. During this entire phase, the relationship between the three really isn't clear. There are times that it feels like progress is being made, but it is never committed to. This isn't particularly a problem except for the end, where it sort of hinted at the way things were were how they would stay, but at the same time they don't actually show this, so from an emotional point of view it ended in a kind of fuzzy way where the relationship still feels unclear in an unsatisfying way, when what it needed due to the rest of the manga leaving it unclear was a really definitive and impactful ending, so the final feeling it leaves is a bit hollow. The art is decent, where I like the framing but not really the style. 

Honeymoon Salad is a Seinen romantic drama about three broken people finding friendship and love in each other, and using those relationships to prop themselves up. It's pretty unique, avoiding both the prolonged melodrama of some seinen romances (e.g. Suzuka), but also not indulging in the comic relief or "light-hearted moments" that punctuate many others (e.g. Ai Yori Aoshi or Toshiue no Hito).

The result is serious, sometimes heavy-handed, and mostly realistic portrayal of these three characters (realistic except for the general lack of jealousy that one would usually expect, and also for the ending... for reasons that I won't go into here):

Minori, a young adult male who has been perpetually depressed since his first girlfriend broke up with him--for reasons that she never explained.

Youko, the girl who broke his heart all those years ago, but now finds herself homeless and regretful.

Ichika, a beautiful woman that Minori just met, but who has had terrible taste in men and is coming off an abusive relationship.

Over the course of the story those three meet, they live together, they fight, they drift apart, they drift back together, they become friends, and they become lovers.

There are hardly any side characters of note in the manga, at least none with a lot of screen time, so your opinion of Honeymoon Salad will entirely depend on your view of those three characters.

If you generally like all three of them, and want to root for them despite their flaws, then you'll probably think that Honeymoon Salad is a refreshingly different take on love and romance.

If, like me, you wanted to like all three characters, but found them all annoying at times... then you'll probably end up appreciating what the manga does, but wishing that it were just a bit better.

If those three characters sound like depressing jerks that you want nothing to do with, then go find a different manga.

As for other issues: the pacing of the story is pretty good; the artwork is fine, though I didn't find any of the characters especially attractive looking; the ending is a bit surprising, and a bit abrupt, but works well enough. And as for enjoyment... it's not a series that will make you laugh, and it will make you feel a bit uncomfortable at times. At it's best, it's a series that will make you think and feel--though how much will depend on your ability to relate to the three main characters.

While the story does support a poly relationship set up and it does seem like a threesome between the three main characters would happen, it doesn't. There are no threesomes.

That said, this story is more interested in talking about the introspective guilt and regret that we feel when in relationships. One girl regrets her past and how her relationship with Minori ended, while the other girl feels guilt about finding happiness in life. I think their characters are very interesting but are not allowed the time for them to fully blossom. However, that doesn't really matter because Minori is the fucking worst.

Minori is such a loud-mouthed idiot and the type of main character that I especially loathe. I can literally hear his constant screaming inside my head that it gives me migraines. He's also pretty awful to the women in his life, and I don't understand why they stay with him.

Overall, it took 40 chapters for the characters to realize something that should have happened 20 chapters ago and it ends fairly obviously, but annoyingly. I wished it was better because it had an interesting premise.

Is it harder to be the one getting dumped? Or is it harder to be the one whos dumping the other person.

These are the words our male protagonist Minori thinks about, but wishes to get out his head. After ending a relationship 10 years ago with the girl whom he sincerely loved he is working an average job, randomly one day he meets a girl accidentally and the girl rips his suit. She apologizes and soon enough they end up having sex, and he learns a bit about her past and how she got dumped as well, Minori soon comes to love this girl , and then suddenly his girlfriend from 10 years ago appears. Surprisingly enough... they all get along.

The artwork is nothing special, its just "Good" 7/10

I found none of the characters except the girl from 10 years ago who dumped Minori to have really good development. She always had these lingering emotions but yet was able to control them so well. 7/10

Enjoyment: I enjoyed this, and I was satisfied on how it ended and how no one was heartbroken :) 7/10

I recommend this to anyone who just wants to cheer up a bit, and whos looking for some nice romance and comedy, this story isnt anything special but it wont be a waste of your time.