Right in the feelings

He's literally a child with brain damage that they physically altered and are marketing as a sex slave/ doll. He's not just a zombie and he isn't "innocent", he just had his mental capacity reduced because he is now mentally handicapped due to brain trauma. Its like taking a 12 year old that got into a bad car accident and then turning them into a sex slave. Its human trafficking. So not only is he an underaged child, he's is mentally challenged. These creeps are raping a mentally challenged child and acting as though he is a doll. Im sure back story will show that he was either dead or had severe brain trauma and they then turned him into this. Its so disgusting.

Yepp, all true and what makes it so interesting to me? Since these elements are not there as a cheap turn on, but are actually explored and make up the whole point of the story. And it is made very clear from the beginning, that what is happening to the boy is wrong. In my opinion the author does an incredible job of delving into these very complex and painful themes and comments on them in a very delicate and meaningful way.

For example the story is super dark, while using very simple and "cute" art/language to communicate it. I love the contrast of the normal office life on the surface (the way Shindou interacts with his colleagues etc.) and the actual matter of the work. E.g. what was discussed during the meeting was incredible disturbing and just plain cruel (wanting to make their "sex slave toy" to feel embarrassed as a turn on -> wanting to make him realize, that what is happening to him is wrong). But it was not portrayed in any other way than a "normal and fun" meeting discussion in other manga. It was later shown through Shindou how wrong that is (-> the whole "it would be better for him to stay stupid" bit), but first the readers have to think about it for themselves. There are no surface level indications during the meeting about how disturbing it actually is, so you really need to pay attention and think about the implications for yourself. I really like how this challenges the reader, especially since rape is such a common trope in Yaoi. But like I said earlier the story also makes it very clear that everything done to the little boy is very very wrong, through Shindou, but only after presenting it first as something "normal".

This little piece of the story alone is such great commentary on the commodification of the human body, rape culture, normalization of violence in a corporate setting, dehumanization of our society in the wake of scientific advancement, dehumanization of people with mental disabilities etc. etc. There is just so much there!

Eh anyway, enough with the ramble.

I get why you get uncomfortable with this story, it is meant to be uncomfortable, and you don´t have to read it if this is not for you. But maybe you can give it a second chance, because it is f*** good.

This is wonderful. You are wonderful.ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~

Hahaha sorry, it seems you misunderstood.... I'm also interested in this story. I didn't mean its disgusting that the story exists, I meant what has been done to the child in this story is disgusting. I've already read the raws and intend to read all the translated chapters too, so no need to give it a second chance. I just wanted to say what I did because I agree with you that the author is commenting on the stuff you also described in your comment and wanted to elaborate on the situation because some of the readers I see are leaving comments that are in direct contrast to what the author is trying to portray because they're kind of fetishizing it or normalizing it or talking about wanting to see the man and child have sex, etc etc. I'm somebody that watches a lot of documentaries and reads about personal stories of childhood sexual assault victims because its so awful to me and I want to be able to help children and identify abuse when I see it. I think its important to know this stuff does happen in the world instead of looking away from it because its too sad or scary. It just makes me upset that when manga artist try to comment on this stuff, even if they aren't doing a great job at it, that there are still people missing the artist's message and doing the exact opposite of what the manga is saying so I was just adding my piece to yours so that people would realize how serious it is because some readers are not taking it seriously.

Haha oops :D I was thrown off by another comment of yours, where you said you weren´t sure about the authors intentions.
Anyway, great we are on the same page! And I got an excuse to ramble about why I find this manga so interesting, which I always appreciate.
And I know what you mean with certain comments, even though I think for the most part, the comment section for this manga has been pretty solid so far and I don´t remember seeing especially bad ones. But yeah, the normalization of the sexualization of children is the biggest issue I have with anime/manga in general (among many other things -.-), and nothing gets me to drop a story faster than that.
....Another reason why I like this manga, because I think is does a good job illustrating the huge imbalance of power/knowledge/emotional maturity between a child and an adult. And I totally agree that a relationship between Shindou and the little boy would be very unhealthy at this point. But seeing how their relationship is portrayed so far gives me hope, that I will not be disappointed by the end (e.g. Shindou never being portrayed as getting turned on by him/ogling him in a pervy way, the only sex scene being purely the fantasy of the little boy). But I have not read the raws, so I hope comments like this will not come back to bite me in the butt ╮(￣▽￣)╭