Look man this isn’t my bag or something I enjoy but seriously if you don’t like it don’t read it and seriously chill. If it makes you uncomfortable just put the fucking book down. The amount of “I read the whole thing I was uncomfortable the entire time what did I just read???” shit is like. Insane to me. Like wow did you know you have agency to stop reading something instead of running to the comments and talking about how you read and consumed the whole thing but in the “right way”? “Eww this is icky nasty but I read all 8 chapters” like dude. Be so fr. Like be so fucking fr right now.
It’s fiction, it’s fantasy, and if it squicks you out like it did for me, just walk away. The comments for this manga in particular are just filled with this behavior and it’s childish. You aren’t beholden to commenting, interacting with, or reading something if you don’t like it. So leave people be y’all and mind your business.
It's been years and still think about that scene where the butler kisses the front of the guy's leg while in the hallway. Old yaoi had such like...an eroticism or sensuality to it? that a lot of contemporary ones miss the mark on. Sometimes the sex in newer BL can be pretty formulaic, so stories like these are refreshing.
I am continually humbled by the fact that I used to look at a lot of older yaoi and immediately dismiss it as being bad simply for the time it was written or the retro art style—and this story is another reminder of how stupid I was to think and do that. The comments praising it are what got me to read it and really they’re warranted.
It really is so good, the development from enemies to lovers was just deliciously angsty, with a lot more nuance than I expected going in. I’d tried to read it a couple of times over the years but just assumed it would be shallow slave story like I’ve seen before and dropped it. I’m glad I continued this time, it was dynamic and well planned, and the characters revealed themselves to be equally sympathetic. Shitty seme trope felt actually justified—especially when you came to understand how the seme’s worldview was shaped. And a lot of people don’t like the uke but I actually found him to be super endearing. He’s sensitive and kind, above all, and this has been taken advantage of by others. And I always eat up a good story about the conflicts between love and duty to your countrymen or family ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭
Look I get that people don't like rape in fiction, but aside from this being very explicitly tagged from the get-go which means you probably shouldn't read it if you're sensitive to that sort of subject, I've gotta argue in favor of this manga and its portrayal of SA since I've seen a lot of negativity about it online and on social media.
I was actually pretty impressed with this story and the way it went about addressing the subject. I think it's an interesting, realistic, and non-romanticized thought piece and exploration of how, if ever, a relationship can develop or become balanced after something as horrific as assault like that. The author used this story as a sandbox to explore just how far one would have to go to seek redemption and equality after a rape, which is the most debasing acts that can happen to another person. It never once seeks to justify the main characters' actions--they're always shown as they are, something that's not good, pleasurable, or a solid foundation for a healthy relationship. They're both very, very damaged people with a lot of instability, and the story did a really good job of making sure the reader understood that instability. It constantly frames their actions as, like, a question: when can rape be moved on from between them, and when is balance restored to proceed with a healthier (not healthy) dynamic? Does the MC having been black out drunk alleviate some his blame? Does the ML raping him back restore balance at all? Does the MC saving the ML from being raped by others restore blance? Does saving his his life restore balance? It's a really interesting a complicated set of questions that there isn't any clear answer to.
Also...media literacy y'all! Just because there's portrayal of a serious or bad subject in fiction does NOT mean it's endorsed, or shown as a positive thing. It's pretty clear that the author isn't showing that rape is good, just because the main characters work it out in the end doesn't mean it wasn't treated with the gravitas it deserves.
I agree with your analysis. I also want to add that people react differently to things, so we can’t paint everyone with the same brush. Just because we think or expect someone to react a certain way to a certain situation, when it doesn’t happen that way, we can’t go around b*tching about it. We are not them.
At this point, my own personal stance with toxicity in my BL is dependent on the characters. If one is total a-hole and the other one a complete doormat, then I have no interest, but a lot of times, either the characters are aware of the situation, and even if not explicitly confirmed, the relationship is not completely one sided.
For example this story.
Both have hurt each other, they’re not going into this relationship with rose-colored glasses, yet they decided to go for it.
I do believe toxic relationships can “work” if both parties are aware of the toxicity because sometimes only 2 broken people can truly understand each other.
I was as equally invested in the bingus storyline as I was with the main couples’ lmao