TachibanaChiharu's Topics (176)

There's something about this comic that prevents me from getting thru it. This is the second time I've tried, and I'm at chapt 30 now and am just kind of exhausted by it.
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On the one hand, I do realize that these R19 comics are made specifically for showcasing the sex scenes, but on the other hand, I'm tired of seeing sex scene after sex scene with basically nothing else going on. There needs to be more story-presence here. Each new scene is basically the two main characters getting transported to a new location where they can bone, or the bottom getting into a situation (in the most trite of ways) where someone he doesn't want to tries to bone him against his will and Yujin has to swoop in for a rescue, and then they bone afterwards. (Also: There's something intensely creepy about them always boning after Shiwoo is almost or actually sexually assaulted.)

Also, I'm tired of reading about all these random thirsty tops, who all seem to be crazy enough to commit rape, who are after the bottom. Like, I get that Shiwoo is a really hot celebrity. But Yujin is appealing too, and there have even been other characters who have pointed this out, so it's not just the art style making him seem hot; Yujin is hot in-universe. And anyway, Shiwoo isn't the only bottom in existence. I would think by this point there would have been at least one other person introduced into the story who was sexually interested in Yujin, a development which would force Shiwoo to re-evaluate his feelings toward Yujin some. Unfortunately, Yujin just remains sadsack tryhard over in the corner that gets literally no love from anyone. And we're supposed to identify with this as a focus character?

Don't get me wrong, I do like Yujin. I like that he's younger and short. I like that he gets super angry and is easily capable of punching peoples' lights out. And while I don't strictly dislike Shiwoo either, I also don't like the things that the story puts him through in order to put Yujin into a position of savior over and over again. There needs to be more to their dynamic than just Yujin's feelings from childhood never going away and Shiwoo needing to be saved over and over because he's incapable of punching someone.

In terms of series trying to cram as much sex in as possible, Window to Window does it way better. ¯|_(ツ)_|¯

Whelp. I'm going to try to push forward. I don't expect it to get much better, but at least the sex is pretty good. Korean censoring laws make me sad.

This is a good example of a story of a main character who has a flat character arc. Basically, Jinwoo is as developed of a human at the beginning as he will be by the end of the story, and instead the arcs revolve around him enacting change upon the people and world around him.

The love-polygon was set up well, all of the main cast had good, strong build-ups, and pretty natural arcs for their character types. The numerous issues contributing to Woojung's state of mind were particularly well done to put him in a good position to challenge the main character. I liked that no plot occurrences felt like they came completely out of nowhere, even the tropey-things were sufficiently explained (rather than not-at-all like many comics of this nature). Misunderstandings that happened lasted at most a few panels (rather than for several chapters), although this is mostly the result of having a flat-arc protagonist.

Note: I did not get to read the R19 version of this so some of this may have been better addressed in the panels/sections that were cut.

Places where this story falls flat are largely in the progression of arcs for many of the side characters:
* Seohee receives next-to-no wrap-up
* Seohee lacks humanizing/sympathetic characterization from the start so it's no surprise when she devolves into a home-wrecking harpy (this feels half-arsed)

* Woojung receives next-to-no conclusion to his romance sub-arc with Seohee
* Woojung's homophobia receives an incredibly inadequate wrap-up (even in extra chapters) given it was the main source of drama throughout the story
* There should be a point, in the extra chapters or whatevs, where Woojung + dad meet with Sarang + mom to have a calm discussion about how they all f'd up so long ago.
* Mom and dad don't need to get back together or anything here, but it feels like them resolving their original problem as a group was sorely missing from the story.
* There is no way parents can separate like they did with kids involved and not be legally forced to talk at least a little over the years given the nature of parenting responsibility.

* Eungi's nearly non-existent wrap-up is the worst offender here for a number of reasons
* Eungi is a sexual predator that was never punished for his (probably numerous) assaults during his military service besides one vigilante fist-to-the-face
* Eungi should receive jail time if he were wrapped up properly
* That Jinwoo never tells Sarang about any of this seems like an oversight
* Eungi's' side-boy should eventually realize what a dick he is and dump him, leaving Eungi in the lowest state he's ever been in in his life (its what he deserves)
* Given his use in the story, Eungi should've received a few backstory chapters to give him a better build-up to form the basis of his antagonistic approach to life
* After Eungi realizes he loves Chamin I mean Sarang, there are a few panels implying he'll become a significant threat to their relationship going forward. But it never materializes. He should've had at least two full arcs after that where he forcibly attempts to break Jinwoo and Sarang up doing increasingly crazy, increasingly illegal things
* Then gets caught (where his assaults finally come to light), and goes to jail
* It's hard to believe Sarang ever loved Eungi since Eungi is never really shown being fully, selflessly nice to Sarang in the (non-R19) story.
* As well, the revelation that Eungi loves Sarang seemed out of nowhere since Eungi comes across as a narcissistic sociopath and aside from that, his love for Sarang lacked any sort of build-up (in the non-R19 version)

* Jinwoo's mother's hospitalization is extremely tropey and comes across as lame compared to other peoples' much more realistic problems in the same story.
* Having her be depressed and eventually collapse because no one will pay attention to her and then be hospitalized as if vegetative feels a little dishonest to people with actual depression.
* Srsly, just have her collapse, taken to the hospital only to find out she has some-incurable-terminal-disease instead.
* Or, if you want her to be in the hospital vegetative, have her collapse be the result of an aneurysm that puts her into a coma instead.
* Or, you could run with what was actually in the story, but give it waaaaay more build-up than it got. This sort of nuanced mental issue needs lots of continual background work because the things that contribute to psychoses of this nature often take time or are the result of lots of little bad things rather than one or two major events. See Skylar's mom in "My Starry Sky" for an example of this done really, really well.
* Any of these would've seemed less ridiculous than the story actually chosen for her and most of them don't need any additional work or build-up, just different text.

Hmph, but anyway, I did like Jinwoo a lot. Flat-arc protags are a lot of fun to cheer for because you know going into every situation that they will do the right thing so you don't have to get indigestion over every kink thrown into their relationship. ^_^

All in all, this a pretty standard story with some really great sex scenes. The story follows some pretty typical beats, and the characters fit into pretty standard archetypes with some appreciable modifications to them -- a hyper-possessive top (although he restrains himself way more than most), and a ditzy and cute bottom who is insecure and cries over the dumbest of things. I don't usually like morons in stories like these, but turns out Jin is the sort of idiot that amuses me more than he annoys me. I guess I'm just like Se-jin, and just want to see him cry.

Honestly I really don't mind the misunderstanding nonsense that happens in this one because it doesn't last for more than a chapter before it's resolved (usually by the D~~~). Also Jin is characterized from the beginning of the story as being a loner, so it's excusable that he doesn't know how to behave sensibly in any sort of relationship. The author also allows him to want sex by the end, so that's kind of a nice departure from the typical yaoi bottom who is always screaming "no stop" during sex when he actually wants it.

Also, Myung-Han is like, wow, crazy. I kinda feel bad that marshmallow Soo-Young's first experiences are going to be with such a kinky psycho. Myung-Han would definitely have pink hair if this were in color, ha ha.

Regarding Soo-Young's mistake about Se-Jin -- To be fair, I had to reread chapter 5 a couple times before I could get all the characters in it straight. I thought Se-Jin was a boy in that chapter too (ofc, I think some of the pronouns used were wrong). Also, Se-oh's name was never mentioned in that chapter so I just had to guess that it was him from the context. (also, somewhere around this point, Se-Jin's name started being spelled differently, which didn't help either)

Of course this just makes me wonder -- Se-Oh is in high school in chapter 5 (clarified by 16.1) while Jin appears to be grade school aged (unclear)? Yet in present-day, they're in college together (Jin = freshman?, Se-oh = senior?). What is the age difference here exactly? I guess in 16.3 it's clarified that Se-Oh already did his military service, so that would add 2 years on top of their senior/freshman gap, so... 5-6 year gap seems most reasonable given the circumstances ?

LOL
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http://www.mangago.zone/read-manga/youjin/uu/youjin-chapter-9/9/

"Jin, we started dating very naturally"

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

Someone let me know if I should continue with this one. I'm at chapt 70, and...
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mask guy has shown back up and has threatened Chu. It's clearly something Chu should talk to Ziming about since it affects him more than anyone, and at present, Chu seems to want to keep the whole thing to himself like a typical BL protagonist.

These sorts of self-inflicted misunderstanding tropey plot arcs are the worst. How many chapters before this gets resolved? Is the conclusion satisfying enough to suffer through the misunderstanding parts?

Okay, so, I see people complaining that the R19 scenes were cut and people telling them to STFU and deal because it's free. (meanwhile you can go look at all the R19 raws for free w/o an account on toonkor, you just don't get the txlation)

Having only consumed this censored version of it, this comic just feels like a tragically flawed and frankly confusing mess. I spent a lot of time on my initial read-through trying to figure out if they'd had sex at various points in the story because (it wasn't clear without the R19 scenes and) certain things that happened would've made more sense if they had. Going over to toonkor to look at the raws after reading through all these chapters clears that confusion up instantly, which automatically makes the R19 version the better version even from just a story/plot perspective.

But honestly? This series has nothing going for it besides the R19 scenes. There's some intrigue, sure. But, like, the main character "Felix" is sooooo not interested in Giovanni (whyyyyy) that the whole thing just comes off as creepy and abusive. I can't really like either version of it, but at least the R19 version is less confusing. Hopefully somewhere soon beyond chapter 25 Felix starts to develop feelings for Giovanni, but tbh, it's really too late at this point to save it because by this time that's at least 3 (soon to be 4) scenes of forced sex which is not fun to watch even if both guys are super hot and just in the context of the R19 scenes appear to both be consensual (let's be honest here, Felix does not consent any of the times it happens, even during the hospital scene; choosing between death and your butthole's dignity isn't really a choice).