nobile's manga / #dark(50)

All the stories go like this: 1) Barairo no Hoo no Koro 2) J no Subete Vol.1 3) 2 Shuukan no Adventure 4) J no Subete Vol.2-3 Man... what a rollercoaster of emotions, I feel sooo bad for how much so many of them had to go through. I'm quite fortunate to have been alive in this time, when issues true equality is able to be fought for a bit more openly than back then (we still have a long way to go, but we've definitely gone a long way since those years). This series definitely is worth reading, it touches on several topics that are still quite relevant today and really makes you see how much the characters suffered throughout their lives, not just by other people's hands but by their own "demons" as well. For this particular section of the series, at first I really felt annoyed at Andrew, his attitude. Then I pitied him a bit, considering all anyone ever thought of him was "the Mayor's son", having been on a sort of similar position, I KNOW how angering that ends up being. Middle-school Paul was cutest out of ALL the characters in the entire series, I think... it was such a pity to see him all grown and changed :P Then the ending... gah. I REALLY feel bad for Andrew now, it's like nothing ever went right for him, life just kept shitting bricks on him and his lack of maturity just made things worse. I'm glad J has someone that cares for him deeply, but I think that that person could have been Andrew too, and the person for Andrew could have been Paul, you know, who knows, all three or I don't know! But it feels bad that only Andrew got the short end of the stick, all the way to the very end.

All the stories go like this: 1) Barairo no Hoo no Koro 2) J no Subete Vol.1 3) 2 Shuukan no Adventure 4) J no Subete Vol.2-3 Man... what a rollercoaster of emotions, I feel sooo bad for how much so many of them had to go through. I'm quite fortunate to have been alive in this time, when issues true equality is able to be fought for a bit more openly than back then (we still have a long way to go, but we've definitely gone a long way since those years). This series definitely is worth reading, it touches on several topics that are still quite relevant today and really makes you see how much the characters suffered throughout their lives, not just by other people's hands but by their own "demons" as well. For this particular section of the series, before reading this I _really_ didn't like J, not one bit. I saw him just as "that little brat that got in the way of Paul and Andrew", but now it's like... this poor kid had so, so many horrible things happen, lived such a pained life, grew up with no self-worth whatsoever because all everyone else saw him with was disdain. I'm sure that there's still a lot I can't really understand about J's circusmtances, I don't know if there was a real desire to be a woman and not just a crossdresser; in either case really, I'm pretty certain that there's a lot of nuances that went over my head or if even J's situation was really an appropriate portrayal of someone in that position, I don't know. I don't have anyone close to me that is going through anything even remotely similar, but if there were, I wish I could do something for them.

Boy that is constantly being sexually abused by his uncle at home, bullied and physically abused by his classmates in school, and most likely blackmailed by his teachers, finds solace in a dark and lonely student-teacher who more than anything craves for acknowledgement. The story is really, really sad; that poor child has lived a miserable life for who-knows-how-long. Things seem to fare slightly better with this dude, but still, the relationship doesn't seem very healthy at all. Not that anyone reads manga for the healthy relationships :P

Maidens, a half-casino-half-brothel that mixes gambling with money and sex, currently employs the Iron Maiden, an undefeated call girl. She is assigned as the mentor to the new girl,who happens to be quite innocent herself.

Not my cuppa tea, transfer student unknowingly goes to the "restricted" West stairways, bumps into someone who ends up beating him up and abusing him because he found he liked the transfer student's troubled face.

Two stories, I have a lot of conflicting feelings about them, the subjects themselves are things that I really can't deal with at all, but Sensei is so good making great characters, that you end up overlooking the horrible stuff they do. Damn you Sensei.

So many stories, this book compiles two other books (and a handful of other related stories) so that you can read everything in one go. I discovered that many of those stories were actually connected to other ones, I was quite pleased. Also, many of the stories here seemed to be sort of like a dark take on famous fairy tales, I loved that.