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I just read the few reviews of this on NovelUpdates and....
. Sorry I don't know how to hide spoilers other than putting them way down in the message.
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ML is apparently revealed as quite black-bellied...
. One reviewer suggested this artist improved Omega Complex (in which Dohyun originally appeared) so it may not be as big a shock and let down as some found the novel.
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. Blackbellied as in, seems like a green flag and then turns out to have been all kind of selfish manipulative from the start in a distasteful way for many.
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Oops haha sorry. Here is the NU page with the reviews so anyone who wants some spoilers can read for themselves.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/alpha-trauma/
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So far it seems like it might be one of those "superficial guy learns to consider things a bit more deeply once he meets a girl he truly likes who he can't get as easily as his previous girlfriends" and so he will, presumably, improve a lot as a character over the course of the story.
I dunno. I just don't want it to be that though. I don't mind if getting to know her better means he has to learn a different way of interacting and so he grows as a person...but I don't really want him to be ML.
Like, this is just speculation and I'm not going to judge it yet or anything. This is just how it's feeling for me so far.
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Which is why this one seems so amazing in comparison. He has so so many good traits and moments, but I'm not loving him so far. I wish he'd properly showed appreciation for how she humilated herself to save him from the being accused of treason. I wish he wouldn't demand she tells him everything but not once (up to the chapter 28) tells her that he actually likes and cares about her for herself. There have been other moments I can't remember right now where I've already felt a bit uncomfortable and bitter about his behaviour. Because she's an extremely traumatised, inexperienced and insecure female lead and a lot of this might be fine for a mentally healthy and confident MC in a position of equality but is a bit worrying for her.
I totally acknowledge how many ways he's really good and trying really hard to figure out how to make the best choices in a complicated situation, I really do. I just still often feel uncomfortable with his behaviour.
Anyway, I know a lot of people love him and that's fine, please carry on enjoying him!
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Idk I feel like Erik is amazing but like you said he isn't perfect which makes him more likable, if he became any more perfect he wouldn't seem human. And I generally feel like he's doing the best he can when it comes to her trauma, like getting to know her, asking what she likes and more importantly what she dislikes. He also tells her he'll be careful on reducing the things he does unintentionally that makes her uncomfortable.
But most importantly, you gotta take into account the first time he learned that Miesa was acting, he didn't know what to say because he couldn't fathom what she has been through.
From the jump, he didn't know how to comfort her, but him trying to know her and her finding herself again is a way of them both growing.
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Hm. I was hoping this would be an intelligent story about career, craftsmanship and growing up, with an appealing ensemble cast etc. So far, it's more at the level of an Adachi manga, but not set in high school and without the strong core of a sport/passion to carry it nor Adachi's self-aware satirical moments.
I'm not interested in watching some bland main character we barely know anything about already get torn between the sweet younger girlfriend in his hometown and the confident older girl at work. It definitely could improve, but there have already been too many predictably cringeworthy scenes so far to give me hope it will become the interesting and nuanced story it could have been.
This manga is not for me.
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Can someone explain to me a little bit about this automatically uploading thing? I had thought that chapters were just uploaded by individuals who had mangago accounts...so what happens when mangago automatically uploads a chapter and how is that different from the person who left the place holder uploading?
Thanks if you can explain that!
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Well I don't know ether but for what I know it can mess up the order of the chapter example ch 99 was uploaded by the automatic mangago uploder and the upload another chapter and then the og uploder come back to upload the chp 99 it will end up messing the other and it can be really annoying to well that how I understand it hope you understand my explanation hahahhahaha
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the automatic uploads are basically mangago bots ripping chapters from scanlation groups' sites and other aggregation sites. I think in recent years (this is genuinely just what I've theorized, this is NOT founded on actual knowledge lol) it's become more common that 1) really bad MTL chapters are uploaded here as they get released much earlier than actual scanlation groups that put effort into their work, which usually means they're much less readable and much more difficult to understand (and honestly appreciate the good writing of the original author/artist) and 2) scanlation groups/other websites employ anti-ripping measures. The latter one usually results in only half of the chapter being uploaded, the quality being really bad, or everything being oversaturated with watermarks.
Hmm. Both of these stories felt too short.
The first one, in particular, ended up feeling slightly uncomfortable for me in two ways:
- Although Aki indicated that he liked Kei and Kei reflected that he'd never felt cared for like that, in fact during their first sex it felt like Kei was just super anxious please Aki and so did everything. It would have been OK if it was something the story subsequently worked on and resolved, but instead it felt like what it was trying to convey didn't match what was actually drawn.
- In the final chapter, I don't have an issue with Aki acknowledging that he was still in love with his wife, but I was expecting him to convey that he also loved Kei. Instead, the conversation seemed to switch their relationship from "I'm so into you," to "Do you mind if I take advantage of you and depend on you?" and that felt a bit unpleasant. I'm not sure if there was some nuance in Japanese that was difficult to understand or translate, but it was a slightly bitter note to end on compared to how sweet the two of them had seemed.
Overall, it felt like them getting together in the end was just too rushed, and if more time had been taken, maybe some of these issues could have been straightened out or the actual intention conveyed a bit better. Or, the creator was genuinely going for something a bit more realistic and not fully ideal, and that might be a reasonable choice, but I would be disappointed if that's how their relationship really is now.