I Want to Be a Wall (わたしは壁になりたい Watashi wa Kabe ni Naritai) is a Slice of Life manga by Honami Shirono, which was serialized in B-Log's Cheek from 2019 to 2023. The manga follows the lavender marriage
of Gakurouta and Yuriko Hanazono, a gay man and an aromantic asexual woman, respectively. Despite the fact that they'll never fall in love, they still work to accommodate for their newlywed life along with Yuriko's love for Boys' Love and Gakurouta's hidden feelings for his childhood best friend.
This series is currently has two volumes published in English by Yen Press.
This manga contains the following tropes:
- Accidental Misnaming: The first two times Yuriko and Gakurouta met each other, she had called him "Gakutarou", with him correcting her both times. However, once they had gotten to know each other better, she ends up correcting her mother over the phone when she misnames him.
- The Beard: Gakurouta and Yuriko are mutual beards to one another, as Gakurouta isn't attracted to women while Yuriko isn't attracted to anyone.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Gakurouta has been in love with Sousuke ever since they met when they were kids. Unfortunately for Gakurouta, it's entirely one-sided since Sousuke is straight, and has had multiple girlfriends in the time they've known each other while Gakurouta remains silent about his own feelings.
- Hidden Depths: During their pilgrimage to Kochi for an event for one of Yuriko's favorite BL manga, she and Gakurouta end up learning more about each other, namely that the latter is a Camera Fiend who was in the photography club in high school while the former knows a bit of English after attending college in the States.
- Mistaken for Cheating: Sort of. Gakurouta starts getting nervous when Yuriko starts frequently hanging out with another man and has a nightmare where she runs off and marries the other guy. However, as it turns out said guy is Yuriko's friend from college, Momoya, who is engaged and had come to visit Yuriko both to plan his wedding and to collect some limited-edition file folders from a Prince of Table Tennis collaborative cafe event.
- Mistaken for Pedophile: After stumbling upon a lost little girl who can only speak English, Yuriko leaves her with Gakurouta while she searches for her guardian. The girl's father ends up finding the girl along with Gakurouta first and gets the wrong idea before Yuriko steps in to explain the situation.
- Platonic Life-Partners: While Yuriko and Gakurouta aren't attracted to each other, they still treat their marriage as a serious partnership and act as a support system to one another.
- Shipper on Deck: Subverted. At first, Yuriko ships Gakurouta with Sousuke once she notices how shy the former is around the latter. However, once it becomes clear that they'll never be together due to Incompatible Orientation, she instead accepts Gaku's request to be his shoulder to cry on whenever Sousuke eventually gets married to a woman.
- Yaoi Fangirl:
- Yuriko is introduced from the get-go as one of these. It's eventually explained that, as an aroace woman, she enjoys romances without women because she doesn't feel obligated to project herself onto any of the participants.
- A later chapter introduces Momoya, a bisexual Yaoi Fanboy, who ends up giving Gakurouta an in-depth explanation on why the genre appeals to certain kinds of people.
