July's manga / #BL(125)

Hmmmmm, I'm a little torn on this manga. There are some things the mangaka does really well, and some things they don't. I liked the conflict of having a father-son incest relationship seriously addressed, so the reader can sympathize with their taboo relationship, but I also feel that everything was resolved far too quickly and easily for such a controversial topic. And we never get to see how they lived the rest of their lives, do they tell their loved ones or do they keep it a close secret? I liked how time travel was a closed loop, to prevent the most glaring errors that occur in time travel fiction. Basically, in a closed loop, any changes made in the past don't affect the future because it has already happened, hence leading to the current present. Some things I don't like were: I don't understand their unfading attraction to each other, for something as taboo as father-son incest to occur, it would have been more convincing if the son loved the father for other qualities besides being cute and the father loving the son for being the only one he could talk to, it seems too superficial for me...there's 6 billion people in the world and there must be some deeper reason as to why those two are perfect for each other right? Also keep in mind, they loved each other for 22 years. So it needs to be more substantial, is what I'm saying. Because the manga tackles things like the ridiculousness of societal norms and railing against life itself, I know it's capable of being deep when needed, but it's not there. Also I don't like how much younger the father looks in the present compared to his son. It really, really bothered me. At least make them more similar in age... He looks like he's a teenager and his son looks like he's thirty something years old, when it's the reverse. I also don't like how the son calls his father by his first name. That irks me to no end. I don't care if you're in love with your father, but you definitely must follow the norms of addressing people, especially if there's a possibility of other people hearing you. It would bother me less if he didn't call him by his first name initially, and was only allowed to use it when they resolved their feelings for each other, as a sign of intimacy... Then that's better. They tried to explain it in the side story, but I don't buy it, especially for when the son just returned from the past. Still not appropriate to call your father by his first name, and you don't even know if he remembers you from the past...Anyway, this manga handled a difficult subject matter decently, so I do approve of it overall.

A dark BL webtoon in the same vein as Killing Stalking. Art is very stylized, and mostly in black and white tones, which is quite nice. The story is somewhat muddled, and definitely goes downhill in the recent chapters, hence why I docked off a star. The ending is a happy one, which I wasn't totally expecting from the genre... Yet it didn't catch me by surprise either, since it seemed it was going in that direction from the previous chapters. But I didn't like it so much, since it didn't give them time to recover and sort through their feelings. Decent webtoon overall though, would recommend.

Trash BL. Nothing makes sense and there's no chemistry between the two male leads. So boring. Art is mediocre. Avoid!

This was so, so, so bad. If you wanted to know how to not write BL, this would be a good example. There's plenty of sex scenes, but they're all really boring and just there for fanservice. There's no chemistry between the two males, and Sunny is a wimp. There's no conflict or major hurdle that they need to overcome. The ex-lover wasn't even a small rock in their path to love, he didn't even do much to get in the way of their relationship. When characters don't need to go through hardships to get what they want in life, it's just bad writing because they'll never grow. Art is average. When Sunny said he was quitting his stable job to be a children's book author, I almost threw my phone away. And he had to go to university to take classes for it. Seriously, what the heck? That's not even a real profession. I just can't take this seriously after that. Avoid at all costs.

Very dark, twisted incest BL. Art is amazing for this short story. It ended on a surprise twist. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's a yaoi anthology, so it's written and illustrated by different people. The art differences between stories is super jarring, since some art is good and some art is just terrible. I didn't care for any of the stories that were in this collection. It was just typical BL trash.

Very good dark BL, comparable to Killing Stalking. Art is really good, and the plot is overall well-paced. It has lots of mature themes, so may not be right for everyone. This webtoon is the closest to Killing Stalking in terms of dark BL genre, although Killing Stalking is still superior.

The art is so-so, the protagonist is well drawn and beautiful, but everyone else is average or ugly. The plot is dark, but not as dark as I would have liked. None of the characters are likeable and they're all twisted, which I liked about this webtoon. It's hard to sympathize with any of these characters, and it wasn't surprising that they all ended up unhappy and trapped in their futures.

It's quite dark, a BL in the same vein as Killing Stalking. Personally, it's not as dark as I would have liked though. I think the plot is a little weird in pacing and there are some gaps in the story, but it was overall a good read. I'm not surprised at all at the ending.

Classic dark BL, it's very well written and the art is gorgeous. It deals with a lot of mature themes, so may not be appropriate for people who don't like this kind of material. Ending was tragic, but made sense as none of these characters deserved a happy ending.