TachibanaChiharu's Topics (173)

The second story was kind of confusing, but I think I have a handle on who is who from the past, and who loved who.

In 1978, Daigo (the married one in present day) has short straight black hair, Masaki (the blond in present day) was the pretty boy, and Otohiko (the one who died) has the messy black fly-away hair. Otohiko was in love with Daigo (who was marrying his sis), Masaki (implied) was in love with Otohiko, and Daigo was in love with Katsuko (Otohiko's sis). Masaki was salty that Otohiko couldn't give up his love for Daigo despite Daigo getting married and kind of took it out on Otohiko. Masaki and Otohiko continued to have a sex friends sort of relationship over the years because Otohiko was just never in a good state and just didn't give a f and Masaki wanted him in some way, even if on a superficial level.

Not all of the things shown in the manga were things Masaki told Daigo while standing there in his apartment. The ones presented in flash-back format were just Masaki reminiscing to himself on the situation from back then. So while the readers know the situation because we get to see the flashbacks, Masaki only provides Daigo with some vague context to clue him in on the situation (saying that Otohiko was doing it for money and that Masaki took him up on the offer).

In the end, Masaki requests Otohiko's ashes (because he loved Otohiko), and Daigo kind of understood it on some level after their conversation, and so acquiesced, giving them up without comment.

I looked on cmoa and amazon.co.jp and it appears there's one full volume for this, 187 pages. So I'd expect this to be about 6 chapters and done. Hopefully someone will finish this one up relatively soon.

The author has another comic out released this year with 3 chapters already called "Baby Pink Complex" that hasn't been picked up by anyone that I can tell. Chapter 3 was released June 1st 2020. That one looks delish; I hope we see it get picked up soon.

The characters' dynamic was so entertaining that it was a little bit ruined for me when they stared arguing about who gets to top. I mean, arguing was kinda their dynamic so it's a bit forgivable here, but it's still such a tired and unlikable trope in a story that's otherwise pretty good. Can it really be called love if the a person won't even consider doing for their partner what their partner does for them? Not only that, but also looking upon the role with disdain while simultaneously taking advantage of their partner agreeing to be in that role in the first place?

Also I feel like Tsukamoto went from straight to gay at light speed with no real on-screen transition or conscious decision or other reasonable explanation. Japan ain't that progressive, so he'd have reservations about it most likely. And loving an author's works is not the same as being in love with that author. Also, when Tsukamoto calls Itsuki a virgin, it's implied that Tsukamoto is "not a virgin", and since Tsukamoto didn't announce mentally that he was gay, it was probably with girls. Also, both of the dorks were in love with the pet store girl at the beginning of the story.

Meanwhile for Itsuki, it was fine, since before the pet store girl, he either admired or loved (the distinction is kind of blurry as written) chief editor, which means he was likely bi (if inexperienced).

Anyway, I'd be interested to know a little more about chief editor and/or read a spin-off story about him.

This comic has such interesting characters and such a great setup, especially regarding the character interactions, that it's a shame the ending was so rushed. Also, much of the connective tissue of the story is missing, which makes the latter half of the story come apart at the seams by the end.

It cometh forth, and what much complaining shall be had presents forthwith a lengthy diatribe, beyond which any sane individual shall care to peruse.
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First off, the title. The primary plot of this story is piano/music school stuff, which should be reflected in the title, but isn't. Rename this to something like "Piano Complex" or "Body in G Major".

The relationship situation is a convoluted mess by the end.

Whether or not Jaehyun still loves Minwoo is a really important factor in how the relationships will turn out, yet is never clarified. Jaehyun says a few times that he used to love Minwoo, implying he doesn't anymore, but his actions indicate he still has feelings for Minwoo. It is not unthinkable for a character in a comic like this to lie to himself in the text of the story, but usually they admit they have done so on-screen by the end of the story, if this is the case. But this never happens. The audience needs some clarity on this point so that they can feel really satisfied and secure with the posture Jaehyun and Seojin are in with each other at the end of the story.

Minwoo loving or not loving Jaehyun is never clarified. This is a big factor for whether Jaehyun will try to repair his relationship with Minwoo or instead choose Seojin at the end, since we're not sure if Jaehyun really has given up on Minwoo yet or not. We see eventually Minwoo getting obsessive over Jaehyun but it's never shown whether that's because Minwoo "loves" Jaehyun or because he had a toy taken away from him. And please note that Jaehyun had the perfect storm of ideal attributes for Minwoo: good looking, super horny, willing to put up with his BDSM insanity, and forcibly dependent on him due to no family or job or skills. It would be very hard for Minwoo to replace Jaehyun and tick all these boxes with a new person, so it's not unreasonable to think he could just be pissed that his toy was taken away.

Something needs to be done to obviate the "stockholm-y" nature of Seojin's "love" for Jaehyun. Seojin was all gung-ho on using Jaehyun to exact revenge on Minwoo early on, and then after Jaehyun forces Seojin to have sex with him against his desires, he suddenly decides he loves Jaehyun. This is really risky territory to base a love story on.

The relationship-stuff setup at the beginning reached the wrong conclusion at the end. Early in the story, Jaehyun was going to get revenge on Minwoo by "using" Seojin. The wrap-up for this should've been that Jaehyun gets revenge on both Minwoo for ruining his life and Seojin for having the gall to try and use Jaehyun to take Minwoo down. But this would mean that Jaehyun ends up single, which we can't have in an R19 BL, so we have to force them into a relationship that hasn't been built up properly. If the author really wants this relationship to happen with this particular set-up, then the author needs to show in the text of the comic that Jaehyun has transitioned from wanting to "use" Seojin to enact some kind of revenge on Minwoo to Jaehyun unambiguously loving Seojin, and letting go of the revenge plan. Because this never happens, the whole relationship with Seojin feels forced by the end.

The side characters need to be evaluated for role and purpose in the story.

The chairwoman should be removed from the story completely. The chairwoman's convenience marriage to Minwoo doesn't add anything to the story. He would be in just as much trouble if caught having a sex affair with a student whether or not he was married. Seojin and spurned-TA could've been seeking revenge with or without the chairwoman's interference. Nothing that the chairwoman did to Minwoo couldn't've been done by spurned-TA with a little ingenuity on her part. Finding Jaehyun at the end after he went missing could've happened any number of ways without her help. Seojin didn't need to get sponsorship from chairwoman when his mother died; he could've just inherited whatever small amount of wealth she'd managed to accumulate before she died. The changing of the program could've been forced by spurned-TA threatening Minwoo with making their relationship public, and she could've done it to force Minwoo to be center-stage when Jaehyun embarrasses himself playing the piano like a clod.

The spurned-TA should've just been the virtuoso pianist in Jaehyun's major/department who was angry that Minwoo was showing Jaehyun favoritism when he's a foul-mouthed, lazy, slack-ass who may or may not actually be good at playing the piano. This is much better motivation for her than a cheap "spurned women's club" trope.

Why was there any need for the chairwoman to "bring Minwoo down", anyway? He's just a professor at a college. Was he a bad teacher? Was he bad at the piano? Was she pissed that they had a convenience marriage and she wanted (a real one with him) or (out of it)? Was she mad that he was screwing one of his students (even though she might have been doing the same thing?)? Was she exacting revenge on behalf of his spurned-TA (who may or may not be her lover)? The dumb part is that what she ended up doing caused the exact opposite of what a chairperson of a school would want: a scandal, that would likely impact enrollment, which impacts the bottom line (money), which is Bad (tm) for people who get paid based on the school's success. Also, it was way too obvious that it was arranged by the chairwoman ("the chairwoman changed the program at the last minute!"), so if Minwoo decides he wants revenge for this, he already knows exactly who to target! Just drop this whole chairwoman angle and just make it solely the revenge of the spurned TA.

Well, at least Seojin's motivations for bringing Minwoo down were clear.

Moving on to piano-related plot issues.

It's stated in various places that Jaehyun loves the piano, but we never really see this. Jaehyun is never shown practicing. He says at the end that he's been busting his ass training for the duet with Minwoo, but we can't feel good about it because we never see any practicing happening. It would be better to see him practice, see his hand shake, ruining what he was doing, and getting increasingly frustrated with it over the course of the comic. This would also make the ending have A LOT more impact.

The piano plot is setup well but is never paid off. Jaehyun nagged Minwoo over and over early in the story to assign the duet at the concert to the two of them (Minwoo and Jaehyun). So, after the program gets forcibly changed against Minwoo's will, Jaehyun should've actually played the duet with Minwoo at the concert before the big scandal reveal. Not only this, but Jaehyun should've been so amazing that he completely blows Minwoo out of the water and floors both the audience and Seojin as they look on. It should take a lot out of him to keep his hand from shaking during this duet, to tie this back in with the main plot. Jaehyun really needed a moment to shine, to prove he was more than just a useless pretty face. That he was actually amazing and that everyone running their mouths were just jealous. But we never got this, and we're left with a feeling of incompleteness.

Truck-kun rears its ugly head when this should've been a pivotal plot choice. The hospitalization should've been caused by the direct actions of Minwoo choosing to do something awful to Jaehyun rather than a cheap-ass truck-kun moment. This is what everything had built to, and this was the turning point where Jaehyun was supposed to choose to take the downfall to protect Seojin, which meant he was effectively choosing Seojin over Minwoo. But no, we get truck-kun, and thus continued ambiguity about what Jaehyun really wants.

Germany is rife with problems.

Germany issue #1. Is the purpose of Minwoo sending Jaehyun to Germany to provide classical piano training to Jaehyun? If this is true, state it! This is never specifically stated anywhere in the comic.

Germany issue #2. Can Jaehyun realistically get classical training in Germany with his hand the way it is? Seems like no, but we're never given enough info about whether or not Jaehyun likes the piano, or is even that good at playing it before or after his hand was messed-up. One would rightfully assume some minimum level of desire and competence is required before a person gets this sort of training, but who knows if Jaehyun meets that bar. Which leads right into the next issue...

Germany issue #3. Is Jaehyun's "dream" really to go to Germany, or does he just want to get away from Minwoo, or does he just want classical piano training? This also is never clarified. Germany can't be the only place in the world to get classical piano training. So why not instead say it's Seojin's dream to get "classical piano training" rather than "go to Germany"? Meanwhile, Seojin just assumes going to Germany is Jaehyun's "dream" (as if Jaehyun thinks it's a neat place to visit/live), but he doesn't know that, and Jaehyun never confirms or denies this any of the times Seojin mentions it. I always just figured that before his injury, Jaehyun really wanted to go (for the purpose of training), but after the injury, it became more of a barb used to troll Minwoo while doubling as a convenient way to escape Minwoo if he ever managed to get Minwoo to send him.

Germany issue #4. Why was Minwoo "sent to Germany" at the end of the story? First off, he's just a college professor who had a sex scandal, not a disgruntled government employee selling state secrets. Why does he have to be expelled from the country? This is never explained. Does the chairwoman even have the power to force this on him? Just fire him. He can get a job somewhere else, at a different school in Korea.

Germany issue #5. If Minwoo is "sent to Germany" by the chairwoman, it is entirely possible that if Jaehyun and Seojin go later, they'll run in to him, causing everyone problems all over again. The characters even point this out. This whole obsession with unexplained/unmotivated international travel doesn't make any sense at all and actively breaks the ending of the story in many ways.

This story is missing a climax. It can be pieced together from the above, but here's a quick summary of what needed to happen that didn't: Jaehyun plays his duet with Minwoo and kicks ass, shocking everyone, then immediately after in the heat of the moment chooses to take the fall for Seojin (the accident or something like it), simultaneously showing that he does actually love Seojin and that he has finally made his choice to accept Seojin and reject Minwoo.



tl;dr -- The author let the story run away with her at the end, leaving necessary character motivations unexplored/unexplained, plot threads dangling, and turning the ending into a rushed, unsatisfying mess.

The pace moved briskly at the beginning of the comic, and I really thought we'd get to the exhibition somewhere in the 30s chapter-wise... how wrong I was. Here it is ch74 and the photo exhibition STILL hasn't happened yet.

Haesoo and Joowon are adults now, I'm not sure how their relationship with each other has anything to do with the two parents and their relationship. I mean it'd make Thanksgiving awkward, sure. But you can't force your kids to do what you want, not even when they're kids really, muchless adults as they are now. Good luck pissing into the wind.

Also, I still stand by my claim that all of this mess is Joowon's fault. He told Haesoo back then not to fall in love with him. Because Haesoo did anyway (as if one can help it), he's been keeping Joowon at arm's length, trying to get him to leave him permanently so he can get over Joowon. Meanwhile, Joowon has apparently forgotten what he'd told Haesoo back then and keeps losing his cool when Haesoo doesn't do what he wants. And Joowon's behavior toward Haesoo early in the comic was atrocious, always forcing his way into Haesoo's apartment and doing sex things he doesn't like or want. I mean, I empathize with their predicament, but Joowon needs to do some growing up before he can really stand next to Haesoo.

I feel bad for Haesoo. His mom's mad at him for getting sexually assaulted as a kid, his step-dad doesn't like him because he "seduced" his son, Joowon wants to f!ck Haesoo into oblivion but won't give him his heart (or has been sending him mixed signals for years), Taku is a bit inscrutable and it's really difficult to tell if he's being genuine or just screwing around, fans keep slut-shaming him for having an active sex-life when he wasn't dating anyone... Haesoo's being jerked around by everyone and can't catch a break. (〜￣△￣)〜

I can't believe it's already chapter 74... is this really going to be longer than BJ Alex? ~_~

This author has such great art, it's a shame how much she really needs (needed) a writer to help her, or something. Finder suffers from this problem too, except its a million chapters longer which makes its issues much more glaring. This is basically the manga equivalent of eating a pint of ice cream for dinner (and Finder, a gallon).

It amazes me what old BL managed to get made into anime back in the day. They should've put more effort into the Sex Pistols anime rather than even bother animating this one. This is just schlock.

Anyway, don't read the rest of this, because it's just me complaining about nearly everything but the art.

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This is such a trashy plot with a hella annoying main character. I feel like the only reason this was ever popular was that the art (and smut) is really great.

Problems with the main character, Ranmaru:
- stated to be a badass but he's constantly damseled and rescued by his boyfriend
- is a total tsundere, a brat, and an idiot, none of which are appealing traits (to me)
- he yells at random people who just ask him questions, or are simply trying to communicate with him, which is inappropriate behavior whether or not you're in a foreign country where you don't speak the language
- he's an adult (20+?) but acts like grade schooler in terms of sexual naivety
- note: wafuku is traditional japanese dress, and hinagishi-style is basically a wafuku no-pants party
- he wears the wafuku hinagishi-style instead of normal clothes even when trying to sneak around without his yakuza escort, which makes him easily identifiable to anyone looking for him
- running around in basically a shirt and underwear in a foreign country where he doesn't speak the language, with nothing else on him. he basically just has some clothes, no phone, no id, no keys, no pager, no money, no nothing, wtf
- even though they knew each other for 20 years, Ranmaru and Kaoru never had one conversation beforehand about how they would deal with a marriage neither of them wanted? ugh

Pretty much every scenario in this was completely implausible wacky yaoiland insanity that you can only shake your head at:
- getting left behind at the winery without anyone noticing. use the winery phone. also, there were cellphones in the aughts. i would think yakuza would be rich enough to afford them. or pagers if you want to be old-school.
- the whole standing on the balcony and yelling at people and then falling is just so grade-schooler and yet another damsel moment
- running into your main rival yakuza group in the same foreign country in the same hotel at the same time. this could've made sense if the rival group had planned it, but Goudou was just like "eh we do business here too", wat.
- random italian dudes driving around the countryside who suddenly decide they are interested in boning some random asian guy they come across because he's cute and ain't got no pants on
- ranmaru getting kidnapped in the street just because he chose not to confront Al at the bar, and then he blames himself for choosing not to go be in the protection sphere of the man he refuses to admit he wants to ride the D of, ugh
- why would you take pills from kidnappers (or random strangers at best) when you wake up feeling like crap in a place you don't recognize? why would you believe anything they say? ugh
- how convenient that the women who were paying off their debt by kidnapping ranmaru (or just any hot japanese guy?) knew specifically where he (or a hot japanese guy by himself in rome) was at the time when they needed to kidnap him. why bother going through that bs and instead just put him in a car at gunpoint. he doesn't even have pants on muchless a gun or a knife.
- every dude in italy seems to want to spend a night up Ranmaru's yaoi hole but not Kaoru's sexhole? this is so ridiculously implausible that it's almost offensive.
- there was no indication that ranmaru was gay, yet Al pushed him into gay adulterous sex on his wedding night wtf. not wanting to get married, or marry a specific woman is not the same as being gay.
- one chapter implies he was sexually assaulted as a kid by another guy but it doesn't mean he's gay
- nowhere in this manga does ranmaru really ponder his sexuality in any way. did this stuff never happen in japan, where every guy on the streets of tokyo who sees ranmaru wants to do a prostrate exam on him with their dick?
- how convenient that the hot italian guy knows japanese and has a dad obsessed with japanese culture so that he can communicate with ranmaru. i'm glad the dad showed up later and tried to molest ranmaru as well so we could watch another damsel moment where Al swoops in to defend the sanctity of his boyfriend's poopchute yet again.
- Al seems to just lust after Ranmaru in some kind of a fetishistic way; he doesn't even know the guy at first beyond him being a good-looking if annoying brat with no pants on who is a passenger on his cruise ship
- Ranmaru deciding he loves Al was hella rushed, and was only supported at all by forced sex/stockholm syndrome and Al rescuing ranmaru constantly to ensure that yaoi hole remained his and his alone
- it just generally would've been better if ranmaru had also been completely spellbound by Al the first moment he met him and then at least we could say they both had love at first sight or whatever. this would've been better than Al's fetish-at-first-sight and Ranmaru's ok-well-at-least-you're-not-kaoru.


There were also other issues:
- Al was a pretty generic tall/older/powerful/rich/super hot seme/top stereotype
- the mythical yakuza organizations here are corny rather than feeling at all dangerous. why bother having a yakuza plot if you're not going to have a dark/dangerous tone. just make him rich kid from an old-money family instead
- seriously, why did Al's pervert dad have to show up? just to tease an old-man sex kink scene that never materializes?
- why is ranmaru wearing female garb at the wedding instead of two guys in menswear (Al in a tux and Ranmaru in a formal male kimono)? Ranmaru as an uke/bottom does not make him a woman, and Ranmaru constantly rails about the fact that he's not a woman all throughout the manga.
- I don't want to harp on this too much this since someone went to the trouble of scanlating this, but too many words were in romaji with t/n instead of translating them when there's obvious english equivalents. For example at one point "hanao" is in romaji and then they had to put a translation note, when they could've just translated it in the dialogue as "sandal strap". or even just said "my sandal broke" and leave it at that.
- Also the t/n for "hinagishi" was inadequate given how much it's used in the dialogue. ITS A SLOB LIKE RANMARU BEING TOO LAZY TO PUT PANTS ON WITH HIS KIMONO. I guess he's gotta show off those sexy thighs so that all of gay italy can come sniffing around his yaoi hole inside his underwear that looks like a thong-diaper. :)


tl;dr -- Ranmaru is a hot annoying idiot, everything that happens is implausible or stupid, dumb cornball yakuza organizations, no paaaaaaants. The end.

I wrote this topic with no pants.

"What If..." side story 2 is complete at 2 chapters (chapters 8-9). I don't mind this; it's a way for the author to explore the characters in different circumstances if things had gone differently or characters had made other choices. They could've been happy too. *shrug*

This series is still up on the "Ongoing" page so I think we're going to get a 3rd side story after this, but we'll have to see next week I suppose. I am hoping the next one will be a redemption arc story for Jihyun, because his character is the most interesting of everyone given his family circumstances, the false accusation on him, and all the problems he's had in his life. Doesn't excuse what he did to Chiwoo of course, but he is allowed to learn from his mistakes too. If not, then we're all doomed.

I do have to say that I am glad we finally got the verbal "I love you" that was missing from the main story from Chiwoo to Kyujin. That was a part of Chiwoo's character arc that had previously been unresolved. It's unfortunate it took 5 years for him to say it, but at least he finally did.

Well, at least none of them are named 'Leo'.

Thoughts on the split-personality plot and who loved who.

White is the functional part of Riya, the part that allows him to fit in with society and go to school, and play the violin. Black is the emotional part of Riya, the one that stands up for himself, that contains his ego, and his ability to love as well as hate. I speculate this divide was based off of a Jedi/Sith distinction because it lines up so well with that, but just complete speculation on my part.

Anyway. The white part of Riya had respect for senpai because of both their relationships with music, the instrument, and performance, but I think it's a mistake to call it love (even though he did say it in the text), because I don't think white was capable of that, he just didn't know what to call it. In the past, full-Riya was captivated by a performance that senpai gave, and meanwhile, after senpai watched Riya's performance, criticized him harshly. Full-Riya knew that his (Riya's) talents were greater, and that senpai was just jealous, i.e., so Riya (pre-split) sassed back at senpai, and that sort of set the stage for white's relationship with him later (e.g., like when senpai kept saying white/Riya "has an ego" even though it was never shown -- senpai just didn't realize there was a split I guess and that the ego went with the part of Riya senpai never saw).

Later, when Riya split, the respect and admiration for senpai's performance went with white/Riya (ex: all the nagging for senpai to get his shyt together, etc), while the hatred of senpai's petty jealousy went with black/Riya ("i hate you" is pretty clear). Because white/Riya couldn't remember anything that black/Riya took with him, he didn't remember the part where senpai was basically a salty jerkhole. This is why white/Riya lets senpai get away with so much (in addition to abuse-victim/stockholm syndrome), and why black/Riya says he hates senpai.

Also, there is the matter that white/Riya's personality was said to be an imitation of his friend Yasui, whom he really misses. Yasui was Riya's first real friend, and the first person who tried to break Riya free of his cycle of abuse, but didn't have the power, as a middle schooler, to do so. And then bad things happened as a result of them running away, and it seemed like white's personality became Yasui so that white/Riya wouldn't have to feel alone even though Yasui was taken from him forcibly. I would say that full-Riya loved Yasui first, never really truly "loved" senpai because full-Riya knew he was a jerk, and that black/Riya loved Atsushi (and white/Riya later accepted this), because the part of Riya capable of love went with black. This was probably why re-formed/Riya told senpai he "loved" him (past tense), because it's an easy word to use, and white/Riya did have some affection for senpai, but it was a completely unhealthy relationship, and full-Riya understands this.

Also, I would suspect the Riya at the end of the manga is actually 3: white/Riya + black/Riya + Yasui. Unfortunately, we're not really given enough time with this final Riya or any time with Yasui to really know for sure. Final Riya is definitely not the zombie his cousin described as his original personality, so yeah.

This is just my interpretation. (๑•ㅂ•)و✧

Haters gonna hate, I guess.

This was really well written. All characters have differently miserable backstories, are shytty to each other at some point because they can't get control of themselves, they all have moments of reflection ala "what have I done", and all characters force themselves to do something about their situation to fix it. There's so much great character development here, it is well worth noting, because most BL is not written this well, and most omegaverse is way way WAY worse.

The omegaverse dynamics of the alpha-omega struggle, and how betas are often left out in the cold, played such a strong yet nuanced role in how the leads broke down and why they did horrible things to each other over the course of the story. I can't over-stress the importance of using omegaverse setting dynamics if you're going to bother writing in the setting. So many omegaverse stories don't even need to be set in omegaverse, and the setting is often wasted. But not here.