miseryxcompany's manga / #Gang Rape(3)

After sitting on it for a couple days I've come to the conclusion that Stigma is just okay. It doesn't approach it's subject matter in a particularly unique way, and it doesn't need to, but ultimately I could not get myself fully immersed in the world of Stigma. To start off on a positive note I really enjoyed how it explores different responses to abuse through Boris. His sister is lax around men she doesn't know and still offers kindness to strangers despite what she's been through, and Sehyun tries to have sex with him after being raped by Michael. Boris cannot understand how Elena can be so trusting or why Sehyun isn't completely repulsed by sex and his concern is often aggressive to the point of hurting those he cares about. It's heart wrenching and simultaneously cathartic in its graphic depictions of sexual violence, abuse, etc. but it's insistence on containing the story within a handful of characters' lives only dampened my enjoyment. One of the few times I think a story has been held back by refusing to involve characters and storylines not directly related to the main pairing. In the epilogue Sehyun says Boris told him Tracy wanted to be a dancer, alluding to a deeper connection between the two than we are initially led to believe, or Boris learning about Tracy after her suicide. This isn't explored, though I think giving her that panel time and making her feel like a person rather than a plot device would've made for a bigger impact on the trajectory of Boris' life. As is, she's sidelined in her own tragedy and her rape is treated as something that happens *to Boris*. From the beginning Linda has been dropping hints to Maureen about wanting a child-- and the exact nature of the relationship is totally muddled; Are they dating? Is it a situationship?-- and she seems to live vicariously through Boris' love for his neice Anya. She even tries to coerce Boris into having sex with her with a sob story about her abusive father because Maureen won't give her a child. This will never be mentioned again. We'll never see anything detailing the nuances of her relationship with Maureen-- who I'm pretty sure isn't even named until chapter 26, by the way-- and this b-plot will never get a proper conclusion. My biggest gripe might be with Michaels mom. Michael is a child of rape and was neglected by his mother, regardless he still bends to her every beck and call in attempt to get her to acknowledge him. He tries to give back because he "doesn't want to create more trash in this world" but ultimately subcumbs to the gnawing realization that he'll never be loved. Sehyun becomes an outlet for his anger and sexual frustration, having someone that could take his place as the trash he is made him feel better about himself. This is all fine on its own I guess. But with Anya also being a child of rape, yet still loved by her mother, and his mother being an elitist bitch who expects others to grovel at her feet at the slightest bit of pity, it kinda reads like his mother is what made him a rapist. A "Fine, I'll be the monster you treat me like I am," kind of thing. And just why does she want Sehyun to kill him in the hospital? Is it because she doesn't want him to ruin her already damaged reputation? Does she just hate him that much? Is he not useful to her anymore? These are things you could write about!

I dunno why It took me this long to realize this is a Zariya Ranmaru dj. Their art and paneling is so much better now, wow.

You couldn’t even begin to make sense of this manga even if the translation wasn’t so shit. In a way I respect the dedication to setting every twink up to be raped but it reads like the story was constructed around those noncon fantasies along the way. Takaya’s pedophilic, incestuous mother vanishes from the story entirely after the first chapter and is never mentioned in relation to Nagisa again. A new character is introduced entirely for the purpose of forcing himself onto Nagisa in what is essentially a repeat of the first chapter and ends in much the same way— vanished and making episodic what is an otherwise a continuous narrative. Nagisa’s father is introduced and you might be thinking this has something to do with Takaya’s pedophile mom going missing, but actually he just wants custody of Nagisa and bribes Takaya with sex if he wants Nagisa to stay. Takaya has this brief bout of internalized homophobia after being called a queer by Nagisa’s father— who strips down and has sex with his assistant in front of him— but gets over it after Nagisa fucks it out of him. And the dad is actually insane by the way. He only married his ex-wife so he could have a child and doesn’t care that she killed herself or anything, and that’s not even getting into the forced antagonization of the only two women mentioned in this manga. And I just wish there was more angsting over the fact that they’re cousins. You’re writing incest and just doing nothing with it, what’s the point?! I’m almost mad that nothing in this manga is taken seriously because it’s just so absurd.