It just jumped in the middle of Kouki's internal conflict and the execution muddled the set up of the "family".
It must have been better to start with the remarrying and being abandoned backstory, then showing how Kouki is distant with his new family. Then turning to photography to cope with it, like wanting to understand why his father could just leave. His feelings for Yuuri could've developed while taking photos of him during adolescence (like, the shot where Yuuri was with the birds could have been his trigger, the actual moment of realization that he has fallen in love with his younger stepbro). I mean, Yuuri had an arc of recognizing his feelings while Kouki just seemed to have felt romantically interested with his younger stepbro and we're given this "caight redhanded" by the older sister.
I just feel like the execution is muddled and takes too much brainpower and stitching to fully appreciate the intensity of their feelings. I can't relate to them because their feelings are just synthetic and dramatic. I couldn't connect because they're just pining for each other without really showing that they were brothers first. It just jumped the gun. Boom, they're in love. Stepbros with an unrealistically supportive family. The mom just seemed uncaring even if she's drawn to be "understanding". The sister showed more reluctance and acceptance, she's a solid character in the least.
It just jumped in the middle of Kouki's internal conflict and the execution muddled the set up of the "family".
It must have been better to start with the remarrying and being abandoned backstory, then showing how Kouki is distant with his new family. Then turning to photography to cope with it, like wanting to understand why his father could just leave. His feelings for Yuuri could've developed while taking photos of him during adolescence (like, the shot where Yuuri was with the birds could have been his trigger, the actual moment of realization that he has fallen in love with his younger stepbro). I mean, Yuuri had an arc of recognizing his feelings while Kouki just seemed to have felt romantically interested with his younger stepbro and we're given this "caight redhanded" by the older sister.
I just feel like the execution is muddled and takes too much brainpower and stitching to fully appreciate the intensity of their feelings. I can't relate to them because their feelings are just synthetic and dramatic. I couldn't connect because they're just pining for each other without really showing that they were brothers first. It just jumped the gun. Boom, they're in love. Stepbros with an unrealistically supportive family. The mom just seemed uncaring even if she's drawn to be "understanding". The sister showed more reluctance and acceptance, she's a solid character in the least.