TachibanaChiharu's Topics (173)

I may as well write something brief about this one since 8.9 is still a fairly respectable rating for a story with a totally problematic seme and a lame/tired rape-to-love plot.

(LOL @ what turns out to be my definition of "brief". Oh well, spoilers ahoy~)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

The seme is problematic throughout almost the entire story. Just because someone is being paid for sex doesn't mean they consent to the sex. Shouta may have agreed to it for the money, but he was very clearly saying "no" and begging architect-dude to stop when they did it for the first time in the bathroom. He didn't want it, but he felt he had to accept it because he's freaking poor, with no skills, and is trying to take care of a very young kid by himself (which is difficult and expensive and muchly glossed over by the author here).

Meanwhile Architect-dude is in a position of power over Shouta several times over: 1) his age (~19 vs 33), 2) being in an established career with tons of disposable income, and 3) being experienced at relationships, sex, and life in general. This is an abuse of power, and not the sort of thing to build a lasting relationship on. Also, he's a total pedophile, given his comments the first time they do it in the bath together; wowwwww.

It's worth mentioning here that at one point in the story architect dude "kinda" realized he was doing something bad and started treating Shouta with more care and consideration.... sorta. But this also feels kind of half-arsed because he is still a huge control freak and frequently ignores things Shouta tells him to do or does things Shouta tells him not to do. At one point in chapter 4, architect-dude picks Fuuta up from daycare (even though Shouta told him not to), and then Fuuta complains and fights him, but he picks Fuuta up and carries him off kicking and screaming, and he tells Fuuta (a 3 year old mind you) that Fuuta is "just mad because he's powerless" (wow, the victim-blaming rape metaphors never cease with this guy). In the end, I couldn't feel good about this relationship because Shouta is an innocent bonehead being forced into intimacy before he is ready by a power-abusive insane pedophilic control-freak that doesn't see an issue with any of it. Shouta never had a choice, and now he will never have another.

If you want a fairly well-written rape story, I just read this one:
http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/ore_no_kirai_na_tsugaisama/
Anthology chapters 1-2 of "Ore no Kirai na Tsugai-sama", aka "My Hated (Bonded) Partner" (omegaverse).

It's rated 7.7 (LOL), but it does it the right way. Both characters know it's rape, the rapist understands what he's doing and is completely unapologetic about it, the victim hates his guts, the author casts the whole situation in a disturbing light, and it's just a huge, glorious sh!t-show. There is no ambiguity about the fact that what is happening is an awful and terrible thing. (but the sex is still hot)

The fact that this story (Sado no Otoko) is rated 8.9 and that omegaverse story above is rated 7.7 shows how hard a time people have telling when a story has rape in it or in dealing with a rape story when it's cast in a more realistic light. Both of these two stories are in fact rape stories. Why are their scores so different? The writing in this one (Sado no Otoko) is significantly poorer (in many more ways than I've explained here, but I want to keep this screed at a manageable length) and should have a lower rating just based on that.

Needless to say, Rape-to-love is a very insidious way to tell a romance story, and it teaches bad lessons about how relationships are supposed to start and progress. It's getting to the point where it's irresponsible to tell a story like this any more, especially given the age of some of the people reading the stuff on this site.

And I mean, I'm not here to police what smut people like; like this story if you want. But it's worth understanding and admitting to yourself what problems do exist even in the properties a person does like in order to not be trapped into jumping on board the victim-blaming train or becoming a rapist apologist. There is no story in existence that does not have some aspect of it that could have been written better, even my own personal favorites.

(If you're looking for some well-written BL fluff, check out my "Great Fluff" list; it's a work in progress)

What sort of deranged mind came up with all the nuances of Micihiru's behavior in this manga? D:

This one started out with such an interesting/compelling premise, and then forced the characters back into the BL mold, losing track of all of its innovation. The whole inherited "love hotel" thing that the uke wants to run, and how he performs work around the hotel was interesting. The pr0n-industry seme seeming as if (to the uke) that he's after the uke's underage brother, when it's just the seme missing his own brother, was very compelling. Life completely dumping all over the uke and his family in the bridge section was a great bit of juicy plot maneuvering.

This was all such a great set up. But then it trips and falls on its face.

First of all, let's get the uke's behavior out of the way because I'm really going to rip the seme apart and I want to explain why none of this is the uke's fault. The uke is effectively the man of his family, even if he's only 17. His father died, his mother works but isn't in great health, it's his job to help out at the hotel while he can, manage his little brother, etc. All of this has to be worked around his duties as a student, which, being on scholarship, means he has to work even harder than most just to stay on top so he can even _continue_ going to school. The uke has A LOT on his plate before the seme even shows up, and the uke isn't even an adult yet.

So, when a crew comes in to film a porn at the hotel and the director seems to take a suspicious "liking" to the uke's little bro, the uke is completely justified in being concerned about it. If this was a real story taking place in the real world, no joke the director would be suspected of grooming/going-after the kid. Now, Yorozu's method for dealing with the potentially naughty director was a bit far-fetched, but it was certainly devious, and got the job done (although it relied on the seme's promises being trustworthy, which.... *shrug*). A more adult way to deal with it would've been to talk it out, but given the uke is only 17, I think it's excusable that he chose a derpy method instead.

That said, the entire plot could've been circumvented by the two having a conversation at the beginning, which is not good news for the quality of the plot.

Anyway, after this compelling intro, we then have a role-reversal between the uke and the seme about half-way through, where the uke starts having to be an adult even though he isn't ready, and the seme starts acting like a childish kid, even though he's old enough and mature enough to know better than to behave like that.

Togane's childishness makes the whole back-half of the manga frustrating to read. Even if Yorozu was intentionally deceiving Togane since the beginning, he didn't really deserve to be treated like a thrown-away piece of garbage by Togane. Yorozu is a vulnerable kid in an extremely bad situation, plus his concerns about his brother's well-being were legit. He needed support and all the help he could get, not abandonment without a word. Togane is the adult here. It is inexcusable that he didn't just sit Yorozu down and explain to him why they should break their relationship off. ESPECIALLY after learning about all the hardships Yorozu was having to go through. Closure would've been better for Yorozu than constant fretting over whether they were still a thing.

And also, come on. Togane basing his entire ditching of Yorozu on seeing Yorozu at the festival with a girl and then not talking to him about it is the sort of trashy, forced-separation trope based on illogical lack-of-communication that is inexcusable in a manga with this good of a setup. (or relying on the observations and judgement of a straight guy about some other guy's as-yet-undefined sexuality, wtf even. ASK him about it, Togane!)

Again, I should reiterate that Yorozu is in high school. He is still figuring himself out. If he finally decides he's gay or bi, that's completely his call to make. Togane trying to force straightness onto Yorozu is only there to generate/extend the drama. I can't stand reading this trope any number of times it comes up in various BL comics. The characters are the sexuality they believe themselves to be, not other peoples' judgements of them.

So needless to say it is immensely frustrating to watch Yorozu go meet Togane after he comes back from Kenya, because Togane and his childish behavior doesn't deserve Yorozu's devotion. Togane was the one who screwed up and screwed everything up, and should instead have to chase Yorozu to make up for it, not the other way around. Please stop forcing the uke to take on the burden of the seme's bad behavior!

Continuity at the start of the manga was a jumbled mess. Impossible to tell when/what was happening until the characters specifically said what they had done way later. This made it hard to grasp the situation from the start, and impossible to identify with either character, their feelings, and what they were going through when they ran into each other later at the kindergarten.

Directly after re-meeting, seme acts like a judgemental jerk, and then pure-hearted uke apologizes profusely for it (even though it's not his fault AT ALL), which is laaaaaame. Can this cultural/tropey thing please die already? Doesn't help that even though the seme had already written an apology in the diary, he stood there and let the uke embarrassingly humiliate himself verbally in front of him and everyone else when again, it wasn't even his fault.

Additionally, there is no chemistry between Raion and Kiri, which makes Raion's passionate dialogue in the later part of the manga super cringey. Raion in general seems to need a housekeeper more than a love interest, and since crybaby bottoms are often high-maintenance, may as well just hire someone instead.

Meanwhile, Kiri generates drama in chapter 5 for no reason whatsoever. This whole thing is just completely _forced_, and I could only shake my head while reading it. If Kiri is just going to run away from someone when they start to get serious for once, which is what he's always wanted if I'm not mistaken, then why bother dating at all? Nothing makes sense.

Ex-wife at the end comes to talk to Kiri, but states the situation change in such a vague way that Kiri gets the wrong idea. No one would talk like that in real life, and no one would be that intentionally ambiguous. Doubly so if she knew she was talking to her ex's new love interest, given she was more than ready to leave the situation.

To be honest, Taiga was a much better match for Kiri, and I found myself wishing chapter 6 was a fast forward to 15 years later where Kiri and Taiga are in a loving relationship, with Taiga's dad standing awkwardly over to the side rubbing the bridge of his nose with vexation since they both tapped that azz.

The first half of this manga had a good setup/premise. But when the Kyo arc starts, it all falls apart and gets weird and strange. That said, I would read the sequel regardless; it was compelling enough to at least admit that. Also, I like that time passes in this and that the characters actually look different after time passes (I'm a big sucker for hairstyle changes).

Now to some head-scratchers.

Isn't Kyo in England? But his roommate is half-Japanese, half-American? And they act like Rin flew to England but it looks/seems like the US? Ugh also, can we stop with the kiss-to-greet crap? Neither Americans nor English do that. Japanese must be shocked when they actually visit these places and that never happens.

Also, you don't start a brand new romantic relationship and then disappear for 6 years and refuse to return. That's just rude and inconsiderate. Normally you'd break up in that circumstance in order to not tie the other person down. Instead, why don't you have a conversation with your partner about the fact that you wanna violate his yaoi hole super bad? At least then, if he's not down with that, you can settle on mutual handjobs or blowjobs or something else satisfying but a little less invasive. >:/

Also please give Rin something to be good at instead of just being cute/innocent and useless. This is bad yaoi trope that needs to go away. Hopefully the sequel fixes this, but I guess we'll never know.

The color job on this manhwa was spectacular. The back-lighting, light diffusal, and haloing effects are used for great effect to create mood for the scenes. The scene composition and blurring/censoring also are used creatively to enhance the emotion, especially in the sex scenes. Sometimes cutting out information enhances the viewing experience, letting your imagination run wild. This is a great example of how great/creative art contributes sooooo much to the reading experience in this medium (comics).

Seems like the description made a mistake. Either they met 8 years ago in >middle school<, or they met fewer years ago in high school. It would be weird for both of them to have met in high school (3 years) and then both still be in (4-year) college 8 years later. If it were middle school, it would all make a lot more sense.

Time for another BL dissertation for my BL PhD!

This one was so close to hitting the mark that it pains me to leave it off my "Quality Omegaverse" list, but I can't in good conscience have it on the list when I feel I would have to change some obvious story elements to make it consistent.

As for what it did well; it has a really solid premise. I like the non-standard relationship. The twists and turns of the story take good advantage of the Omegaverse setting, even though I would have them play out slightly differently. I like the Beta in general, and I like the Alpha's variant life philosophy (having a harem of Omegas), and his business-like approach to how he runs his personal life. I do generally like the flawed Omega too, although I'd probably have him be less bratty, ideally.

As for what I would change to improve everything overall...
(spoilers)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

List time! I have written a walkthru below for how to implement these items in the plot afterwards.

* Make the Omega less bratty. This sort of behavior makes him less sympathetic and there is no reason for it tbh.

* Drop the "abused omega at work" subplot. It is introduced first, at the beginning of the story, so you think the story is going to be about this initially, then it simply _isn't_ at all, and then later that whole plotline is completely dropped in favor of the love triangle plot. Why would a (bratty) Omega want to continue to work after being pair-bonded to a rich Alpha if the Omega's abused at work? This doesn't make sense. Instead, make his work life not only pretty normal, but that he and his boss and coworkers have a good relationship.

* Introduce the backstory of the Omega/Beta sooner (right after the first time the Beta and Omega have sexy time), so that we completely understand the quandary that the Omega is in from the beginning. This will serve two purposes: 1) make the thrust of the story more clear, that it is the Omega struggling to do what he wants (the Beta) versus what he thinks he wants (an Alpha), and 2) it'll make successive plot developments even more poignant and sad because of this added info from the beginning.

* Have the Alpha's bite be the Omega's choice rather than random happenstance of the Alpha showing up and pheromone-induced violence enacted by the Alpha right after that.

* Have the Beta finding out that the Alpha isn't managing the Omega's heat properly be less of "haha, I'm a moustache-twirling villain", and more of a "this is a flaw in my worldview and life philosophy that is adversely affecting the protag Omega right at this particular moment". It makes the story so much stronger if the Alpha isn't specifically a bad person, he's just overwhelmed by his lifestyle choices and the protag suffers because of it.

* Show more of the struggle the Beta/Omega couple has to go through to have sex after Omega has been bitten; this should be way more difficult and traumatic than the story showed. If you're going to go with a plot development this dark, you have to be willing to go all-in and show it in all of its ugly, miserable, awful glory. Channel Harada-sensei if you have to. *shudder*


Those are the general changes. The writing in the story has solid ideas/concepts behind it, but the author simply fails to execute everything properly, which is probably why people (or me, at least) feel, upon completion of the story, as if it all somehow fell flat without being precisely able to put their finger on why. I had to sleep on it, then ponder it for about 30min after I got up before I could figure out what didn't sit right with me.

In general, it really bugs me that with all the juicy setting stuff provided by Omegaverse, so many authors fail to really capitalize on it. To use it to its full potential. Even though there are Omegaverse stories I do really like, no one has really managed to explore what a society would truly be like if humanity had grown up from the beginning of time having a secondary gender (caveat: the furries omegaverse stories come closest, but I just... furries just aren't my thing, I've only read like two of them, and tbh, even these stories don't go far enough). A more realistic society would look like none of these stories. Tangent: There is no way the Alphas of society would allow the Omegas to go completely uncontrolled and unmonitored among the populace. Thus there would be no way the Alphas would allow for a situation where Omegas would be randomly going into heat all the time (the drugs would be effective and free, Omegas would be tracked and monitored closely, and emergency heat suppressors would be commonplace, like fire extinguishers or garbage cans). So I can appreciate that this author thought to introduce the "Alphas have harems" thing here, because this would definitely have been a thing that happened (likely in the past). It's just too bad she couldn't bring the story together around it.

Anyway, tangent aside. This story doesn't need to fully explore a realistic Omegaverse setting in order for me to rank it highly, it just needs to pick a concept and execute it well, without having any pointless nonsense crowding up screen time. Unfortunately, it has some of these problems, so, in order to repair the story and trim out some of the fat, here is a plot rework proposal:

- In the beginning, introduce the Omega working at a pharmaceutical company that makes Omega drugs. Opening scene would be boss walking by Omega's desk, casually chatting with him about how Omega is off next week for his "heat week" (or whatever they call it). Have the boss be perfectly kind about it, like they have a good relationship, this has been happening for a while, and everyone's fine with the arrangement. Convo between boss and Omega here should introduce the sub-plot of the protag Omega's heat not responding to drugs, and that the boss hopes that someday, if they keep adjusting the formula, there will come a day where protag Omega _DOES_ respond to the drugs (as in, they want to help him).

- Have the Omega head home and give his Beta friend a call to chat with him about the date the Omega has set up with a promising Alpha tonight. Have this convo introduce the main plot of the story -- make it clear in this conversation that 1) the Omega's heat can't be controlled by drugs (reinforce this idea here), 2) thus, the Beta has been sexing him up for years to help control his heats instead, 3) bring up Omega's beliefs that he desperately needs an Alpha mate to truly gain control of his heats, hence the date, and 4) make it clear Omega is looking for an exclusive, idealistic, lovey-dovey type relationship with some imagined future Alpha in a pair bond with him.

- Keep everything the same about the date, the aftermath, meeting up with the Beta, and the Beta sex0ring up the Omega for heat control. The key point of this part is that the Alpha is very business-like about the transaction; he's offering the Omega anything he could ever want but love.

- Move the flashback-to-childhood scenes that depict how the Beta/Omega met to immediately after the first Beta/Omega sexy time. The readers will now know early-on that the Omega loves the Beta, but feels like a burden to the Beta, and that as an Omega with uncontrollable heats, he feels he _neeeeeeeds_ an Alpha in his life to manage his heats better so he will no longer cause trouble for the Beta. The Omega will expresses the wish that the Beta were an Alpha for the first time here. Have the Beta remain a Cipher, so the reader doesn't know precisely what the Beta thinks of the arrangement the two have until where it is revealed in the actual story.

- Cut the scenes of the Alpha bursting in at the Omega's workplace and humiliating the Omega's boss. Instead just have the Alpha pursue the Omega hotly in the usual BL ways, but never crossing the line to jerk territory.

- Intersperse with these scenes more scenes of the Beta and Omega hanging out together (like are in the original story) and scenes of Omega at work interacting with people normally/pleasantly. Show a handful of instances of Omega's boss worrying about him.

- Instead of his normal heat, have the Omega go into an out-of-cycle heat that's pretty bad. Have him ponder whether to text his Beta friend or the Alpha. He chooses to text the Alpha. Alpha shows up, goes into rut. Have the Omega regret his choice immediately as soon as he opens the door to let the Alpha in, but it's too late. Have things play out about as they do in the story from here.

- Have the Omega feel intense shame at what he's done, which now becomes the reason that prompts the Omega to ask the Alpha to move him to a new apartment and all that, so he can hide from the Beta and wallow in self-pity.

- Slightly change the scene in the story where the Beta witnesses the Alpha mackin' on some other guy. The Alpha says "[This other Omega] is my mate too", but add ", and I am managing his heat right now. I can get to protag Omega by the end of the week". Beta still gets mad, saying that's not soon enough, since the heat suppressors don't work on protag Omega and make him sick. Skip the crap about the kneeling stuff; there is no reason to make the Alpha villainous here. Have the Alpha just give up the Omega's new address and tell the Beta it would be super helpful if he could go by to check on the Omega and get the Omega's heat under control, if possible. Alpha may or may not believe the Beta can do this, but have him genuinely care about the protag Omega's well-being and accept any help the Beta can give to the protag Omega. This is a key point -- the Alpha should be defeated by his business-like life philosophy rather than by simply being a jerk. He doesn't actually have the time to manage all his Omegas even if truly intended to. The moral of the story is to follow your heart, rather than to do the logical things people pressure you into in your life.

- Have the Beta arrive at the Omega's new crib in about the same manner as in the story. Add a little dialogue to the scene here where the Omega tells the Beta he's been hiding from him because he made a terrible choice and completely regrets it but that it's not Beta's fault at all, it was his own stupid fault, etc etc. Have the scene basically play out the same way, but with the added sense that the Omega feels shame for his stupid decision to invite the Alpha over instead of the Beta.

- This may be hard to watch, and likely why the manga did not fully depict this, but: show more of their sex scene where the Beta has to completely tie up the Omega in order to have sex with him. Have it be traumatic, like a brutal rape, even though we know its just a physiological reaction of the Omega's body and the bite. Omega should devolve into growls and screams, like he can't talk anymore; he's reduced to animal-brain reactions. Have it stress the Beta out mentally, but the Beta, being great, is up to the task and is able to handle it.

- The rest of the story can play out as it does, with the heartfelt confessions, marriage, the kid, etc.

- Add to the post-credit scenes, this one: Omega is inspired to work with his company to develop a Bonded Pair blocker for Omegas. Have protag Omega suggest the idea, help with the development, and perform the trials with the company's scientists. Have his company be the first to release such a drug to the market. Have it be very successful in the marketplace, and work really well on protag Omega, since it was developed specifically to help him. Have protag Omega be promoted grandly to product manager or something. Show Omega and Beta are now able to have normal sex again after this drug is released. This would be an amazing payoff to 1) the uncomfortable sex between the Beta/Omega after the bite bond, 2) the "Omega's career" subplot that lurked in the background of the story throughout, and 3) turning a difficult, heart-wrenching story into a happy ending all-around by the end.

It is good to read this for historical reasons, especially if you like omegaverse, but understand that there are a lot of problems present in this series. As an alternative, the anime is a good, concise, and cleaned-up (as in, the problematic issues are lessened) version of primarily the shiro x yonekuni arc, and watching that is better than nothing, if you don't want to tackle the manga.

Issues are many -- Riddled with tropes (but this is an older manga, so it's expected). The meandering plot between tangent couples, norio and kunimasa's plot being dragged out forever (despite them being an incredibly boring couple to read about). Hopping over to couples and folks who have nothing to do with the main characters (norio, et al). The entirely incredibly problematic bear-faction. My favorite, yonekuni x shiro get no screen time after their initial run (which becomes unresolved in a later norio x kuni arc where it says shiro and yonekuni haven't had 'relations' since that last time when shiro's curse was lifted, and that things have become awkward between them, and then nothing is ever re-resolved about it).

Also be forewarned that the manga has no end; the final volume (9) has been translated and released in English by Sublime (it wasn't posted here yet when I read this months ago, but I did read the official english release at that time), but the plot dead-ends in the middle of a really interesting side couple (dog teacher being hotly pursued by snake student) and I am bummed I'll never get to read the conclusion of that storyline, since it was actually really good. The author seems to have given up on working on this, or is otherwise releasing it at such a slow pace that I'll be 6 ft under by the time vol 10 is finally out.

Despite the low rating, this was pretty good! I get the impression that even though this is a website full of extremely kinky smut (as well as other stuff), that there is still a lot of prudishness going around about characters' choices about who they have sex with, leading to arbitrarily low ratings on certain titles. While this comic isn't particularly top-shelf stuff, it is pretty good and worth a read, and IMO, warrants a better rating than its current 8.3 (probably more like an 8.8).

Anyway, back to this comic.

The story is pretty good as it is. Both characters are kinda jerks in general, no one really becomes a better person by the end, but we have kind of a situation where two crazy, manipulative guys shuffle the deck chairs of their relationship around by the end of the story.

With about 3 changes, this manga could've been way better, something really outstanding (omg llists! and spoilers):

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Recommended changes to improve this story overall:

* An actual character arc for Naru. Naru, the main-character, is a selfish, bossy brat and extremely inconsiderate of Kei at the beginning of the manga. Have him learn a lesson about treating people you care about well by the end of the story.

* Crank the rabbit-holes up a notch. Once Kei initiates a relationship with surrogate-bottom, have Naru have his growth moment then decide to be the bigger man about it and let Kei go, since Kei'd always had the choice to approach Naru, yet chose the surrogate-bottom instead, making it seem like he hadn't necessarily liked Naru from the beginning. After Kei pretends to be sick and screws surrogate-bottom in their room while Naru looks on, have Naru leave and go immediately to apply for a room transfer. Later, Kei returns to find all of Naru's things gone and just a note saying that Naru had asked that surrogate bottom not be allowed in the room, Kei had not complied with this request, so Naru's leaving. Then the plot can be branched out any number of interesting places from here (new roommate becomes a new love interest for Naru, Naru starts becoming friends with people in his class, Kei flails, going a little more crazy trying to find a way to salvage the sitch, etc...). This is the sort of plot twist that makes BJ Alex so dang satisfying to read and there's soooo much you can do with it.

* Really truly explore the S&M angle this manga only lightly touches upon. At the beginning of the story, Naru acts like a dom, and Kei sits in the role of a sub, but both are play-acting without realizing the other is doing so. Once they split up, and then later get back together, have it be revealed that Kei was always secretly an obsessive psycho dom (kinda hinted at in the story, but not taken far enough), and have Naru realize that he (Naru) really gets off by being humiliated and dominated by Kei. Have them both not only mutually enjoy this new arrangement, but both find it way more fulfilling than their play-acting at the beginning of the story.