How big are the age gaps?
Probably not that big. MC is in college right? Maybe second year (since he doesn't seem like a freshman). While the little bro is in second year of high school. I'd say around four years haha
I remember it being stated in a chapter that our MC is 20. I guess Hatano would be in 2nd year or 3rd (I remember ayato was in 2nd year in the cousin's wedding chapter). So the age gap is reasonable enough somewhere between 2 to 4 years
I’m mostly talking abt the chapter with like a literal six yo being paired up with a college student??.. And even if MC and Hatano don’t have a very big age difference (akschually according to the jp system it can be anywhere from 1 to 7 years), Hatano is still a minor and even mentions that MC can go to jail for dating him in that old extra. But at least he DID mention it in the extra and said he’d come back in… 3 years?? which makes me think Hatano is like, 15 and a sophomore . Still, an adult drawing a literal 6 yo falling in love with an adult is fucking weird. Age gaps are absolutely fine but when it’s two developed adult people falling in love. I mean, even my own parents have a huge age gap of 14 yrs but they’ve met when both of them were over 30.
According to the jp system Hatano could be anywhere from 15 to 18 BUT him mentioning that he’s a minor and that he would come back in 3 years makes me think that he’s 15. Even if he’s 16-17, he’s still a child and MC is a full grown adult. I kind of ignored it in the old extra because at least he mentioned it himself and said they shouldn’t date and he’d come back in a few years but now in - what I assume to be - the official chapter he’s just like “Think about it k bye” which makes me go
I agree with the 6 year old one, that was weird asf. but for hanato not so much, especially because mc is not interested in him so it's not like it's that reciprocated ts.
I think it’s just hella weird to create as an author and to have a mindset to draw it. Like, if they just wanted to create a childhood friend LI they could make a character of the same age like they did before?? Hatano could be someone in MC’s friend group or college, for example. Also given the context of Hatano being a recurring character I’m kind of sussing the MC might reciprocate it one day or smthng. It’s all fun and games but I think in the end it just normalises these types of relationships (speaking from experience)
understandable with the hanato take. yeah the child one still irks me, like even if they wanted to include q child think at least make it another little boy so they're the same age. like damn
but it's a little odd to me cus in the live action it was mc with someone in the same year of uni as him so idk
yerppppp….(╯°Д °)╯╧╧
haven’t watched the live action yet. I think it’s because people in the anime&manga community, esp BL, arent very concerned about weirdly placed age gaps and such, unfortunately. I think the live action makers probably also thought it was weird (and problematic? i don’t know the plot of the live action drama) and changed it.
Some minors end up liking people older than them, that's normal and minors shouldn't be shamed for it or feel weird. What's weird and gross is when adults like minors, which MC has constantly rebuffed Hatano. I don't think it's weird for the author to write something that happens naturally to minors, it's weirder to condemn it like minors should feel shameful for a very natural part of growing up which is a confusing, messy and weird process. If the author makes it so that MC starts having relations with Hatano then yes that's weird.
no i mean it's weird that they're pairing them up in a bl world. idc that the child likes him. it's the fact that we know 100% that that college student will get with him. it would be much better if they had just shown a child around that child's age helping him out rather than someone over 10 years older than them.
I’ve never shamed minors though. I’m shaming the adult author for drawing these types of relationships while essentially trivialising them. MC never goes “holy shit, that’s a child, I should get away from them”, but actually considers this relationship in his own way (rejecting Hatano but NOT because he’s a child). I wholeheartedly agree that adults should take responsibility, but neither the adult author nor the adult characters are taking any in this case. I mean, even people in the comments above all go “Well, it’s not a big age difference, it’s not that serious” because it’s already so trivialised in this community
Well this story is literally the author making fun of all the weird BL tropes that exist so I don't think they intended it to be romantic or anything
true
I think if they made an accent on how weird and nasty it was, I’d agree, but they don’t. If that was their intention, the point doesn’t really get across. Anywayz, I just at least hope Hatano repeats his “I’ll come back in 3 years because I’m still a minor k bye” speech and that will be it o7 (and that they never pair up children with adults again)
My two cents. And ofc I am not saying that I don't think it is gross for adults to be attracted to minors/children. Not everything has to be spelled out for it to be understood or felt. Nor everything questionable turned into an explicit statement. The manga does a good job of doing what it set out to do, as Lizz said. The mc lives in a world full of hazards, where everything could possibly be material for a BL, and not always a good one. Bumping into someone in the streets, being too quiet, being too popular, reading BL, and even talking to a kid. His perspective as someone not participating in the weird logic (like us readers) lets us join in on laughing at these popular BL dynamics and character types. I'm rambling rn, but my point is the manga is less concerned about outright criticizing certain BL relationships than laughing about the whole genre. It's not like "they paired up children with adults" but that it happens in the genre and so it is included in the manga. I don't think it romanticizes anything, nor should we underestimate readers' ability to form their own judgments.
Oh god bless, he said the lines, at the very least
nawh cuz what are these age gaps …