Title: What Do You Call This Trash?
Author: Tetsukazu
Publisher: Yen Press
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 348
Genre: Slice-of-Life, Romance, Drama
Publication Date: September 23, 2025
The Story
What Do You Call This Trash? was a 2-volume series in Japan; however, Yen Press published all 30 chapters as a single-volume omnibus.
Yuuto and Kai are brothers; however, Kai’s ex-girlfriend, Akira, has a bit of a stalker issue. They broke up because she became way too clingy and obsessive to the point where it became uncomfortable. Despite the breakup, she couldn’t let Kai go. Knowing that Yuuto had a crush on her from the moment he saw her, she used that to her advantage, using him to gather information on Kai so that she could transform herself into something that he would want to be with forever. In exchange, she would pay any price. While Yuuto could have taken full advantage of that, he stuck to things like head pats, hand-holding, and touching her cheeks.
Eventually, Kai gets a new girlfriend named Shion. Even though the majority of his relationships only last around two months, Kai feels that he has truly found the one person he can be happy with long-term. Of course, Akira learns of this and becomes so obsessed that she tries to transform herself into Shion, but before she can take it too far, Kai learns of what’s been happening between Akira and Yuuto. Being Yuuto’s big brother and wanting to do everything he can to protect him, he makes a rather conflicting decision.
Will this decision lead to happiness for everyone?
The Characters
Starting with Yuuto, he has quite the yin-yang personality. On the surface, he has a big heart and always wants to help others out. He’s very caring and compassionate, but that’s just one side of a coin for him. On the other side, he knows full well that Akira was Kai’s girlfriend. He knows that falling in love with her is taboo, and then he lets that love blind him into becoming her informant, which is just dirty and deceitful in and of itself. To make matters worse, he’s fully aware that he’s trash for doing so, but he’s trash with morals. He never takes their arrangement beyond that line and keeps things as innocent as possible. In a way, he actually wants to help Akira, even if it’s completely wrong and invasive. He’s also doing this selfishly for himself, hoping that one day Akira will thank him by becoming his girlfriend. What’s even worse is that he still wants to date her even though he’s completely aware of how psychotic she truly is. One would think that he’s out of his mind, but I think that he’s just a confused virgin. There are a lot of layers to him as a character, but I can’t tell if he’s a sweet, innocent boy or some deranged psycho like Akira. He’s a little from column A, and a little from column B, for sure, though.
Next, we have Yuuto’s older brother Kai. Kai is very protective of Yuuto, but it wasn’t always like that. There are some spoilers attached to that statement, but I will say that we do get a deep dive into Kai’s past and how things were growing up between him and his parents. There is some parental resentment there that kind of spills over, but certain things happen that change Kai’s perspective. He vows to put Yuuto’s happiness at the forefront of everything, which is what led him to make that controversial decision with Akira after discovering what she and Yuuto were doing. There are both honorable and dishonorable traits about him, which is sort of a running theme in this series. Still, Kai has his heart in the right place, even if his actions seem contradictory to that. While he isn’t as layered as Yuuto, he still has some depth and was an enjoyable character.
Next, we have Akira, our little ball of crazy. We end up getting her full backstory that explains why she became so possessive of Kai, and as one would expect, it was your typical childhood drama background story that led her down that path. I’ll let you read to discover the exact details, but the gist is that she never felt wanted, and when Kai stepped in to save her in one of those moments, she became attached. It was the first time she ever felt seen, so, naturally, she didn’t want to let that go. Of course, we all know she took that too far to the point where she became a full-fledged stalker. The fact that she would use Yuuto’s infatuation with her to get what she wanted was the biggest red flag ever, but when you have a huge heart, even that wasn’t enough for Yuuto to say no. Sadly, I didn’t find her that complex as a character. Even with her backstory explained, it seemed as if the stalker-like person she became was a bit too extreme. I mean, I can understand why she would end up that way, but I don’t think the backstory was traumatic enough to point her in that direction. I think the ball was slightly dropped here, and could have used a dark, more dramatic story to set up this type of character archetype with her. I don’t know… maybe I’m wrong, but for me… it was a little too timid to justify everything.
Final Thoughts
Overall, for a short 2-volume series, this was quite enjoyable. I was surprised at the overall pacing, as I would have thought that with only 30 chapters, the story would have felt rushed. In a way, I think the final chapters were just slightly. I would have liked to see more of the aftermath with Shion and Kai once everything had been settled, but we did receive an epilogue chapter that explained some of those things. I think that I’m just a greedy reader and wanted a bit more in between those moments, as I felt things weren’t left as finished as they could have been. I also felt the resolution to Akira and Yuuto’s story arcs fell a bit flat as well. It went from one extreme to the next, and without going into too much detail, when Yuuto discovers something in Akira’s home, that messed-up side of him acts like it’s a big deal, then turns around and acts like it’s no big deal almost immediately after. It does play into his character archetype, but to swing that hard so quickly felt a bit rushed. I would have liked to see maybe one more chapter to allow him to think about things clearly, and to go through Akira’s thoughts as well.
Outside of these little qualms, this did tell a complete story from beginning to end. The pacing was well-done, the characters surprisingly had plenty of time to develop, the backstories didn’t overstay their welcomes and helped enhance the story that was being told, and the overall premise was a bit edgy and interesting at the same time. This is definitely one of the more unique romance stories that I’ve read, especially when it’s not every day that a main character gets played, is fully aware he’s getting played, and happily lets it happen while trying to maintain a certain innocence. That was a nice dynamic that I enjoyed.
Since it’s only a single-volume omnibus, it can be consumed rather comfortably, so if you have an hour or two to spare and want something that deals with possessive romance with a bit of a refreshing twist, then this is one that you should pick up!
Overall Score: 4/5
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