muse ✨'s manga / #tw dubcon(60)

Concerned his adult son is gay, Nobu -- a 47 year old widowed single father -- follows him to the club district where he's mistakenly picked up by Hijiri, who assumes he is a shy client and goes home with him. After a night of drunken sex (dubious in consent since it starts while Nobu is asleep, but in context, Hijiri believed Nobu had hired him to do it), Nobu comes to his senses but turns protector when he learns Hijiri has nowhere to go. Hijiri has a tragic ongoing backstory. His stepfather has assaulted him for years and forced him into the sex industry, which Hijiri agreed to out of guilt since his stepfather took care of him after his mother's death. Nobu steps into a father-of-sorts role with him, dragging him out of the sex club and offering to take over his debts. However, they're always lovers. This wasn't father/son play. They actually come to be pretty fond of each other and by the end get rings. I really wish the stepfather had been thrown in jail, though.

A boy feeling suffocated by his overprotective mother becomes entangled with the man who molested him on a train. This was fascinating and oddly sweet. Obviously not a road map for real life but an interesting story.

Kagehina omegaverse. Beware non/dubcon when Tobio experiences Hinata's heat for the first time. I'd also love to see this reversed and Tobio as the omega.

Akihisa leaves his otaku image behind when he moves away from Tokyo, determined to live a normal school life. But a manga volume leads him to Yuu, a fellow third-year everyone else avoids. Head's up for dubcon. Asihika is drunk when they first sleep together. There was the understanding of a relationship with a physical component and he wasn't blackout drunk. Inhibitions were definitely down. They'd fooled around previously and Yuu thought they were in an exclusive relationship, so it wasn't strange to me they ended up in bed even if they should've waited (I've done this muuuch drunker so I'm obviously biased). Is this a road map to how you should behave? Probably not. (Don't be like me!) But manga doesn't exist to teach us how to behave.

After successfully cloning himself, a scientist ends up in a foursome with two clones and the guy he loves, who — as it turns out — is in love with him as well. Might be related to something else? As a standalone there’s not much substance but it was entertaining.

Codependency and confused feelings lead a pair of twins into a relationship their parents probably won’t be too thrilled about. Really no discussion about public perception or the future. I don’t get the feeling that they will be able to maintain this for the long run. It might be interesting to check back in with them after a decade and see what their relationship looks like.

High school classmates reunite as coworkers and S&M playmates. Some sweet moments. Features a quick side story with the club owner that actually made me feel something.

A young teacher trying to encourage a 17-year-old to return to school ends up effecting change after he assaults the student, which sets him on a new path. Strangely, they end up together in what seems to be a happy, comfortable relationship. The teenager was dealing with past abuse from his father. There’s a lot of fish imagery in this. As boys, they both wanted to keep fish but could not, and in the final scene we see them through their fish tank. At a glance it seems happy, but I don’t know how happy either of them is or can be with the other. I would probably need to re-read this a couple of times to take in all of the detail but I don’t know that I want to.

Two AV actors audition for the same role and are later cast together in the TV adaptation of the film. Katou falls for his older co-star, Iwaki, immediately, and is delightfully persistent in his courtship. Which basically consisted of showing up at his house and eventually moving in. They're open about their relationship with the public and their families; they marry; they deal with the sort of ups and downs that come up in a long-term relationship. I didn't expect to like this story. The art style in the early chapters threw me, but it evolves as the story goes along. Katou is easily the prettiest man in any manga I've read. If he weren't married to Iwaki, I'd say he's one of my husbands, but I respect their relationship too much. A couple icky things happen to them, which are caused by outside people, but their relationship is solid and honest and loving. They love each other SO MUCH. That's what I like most about this. This story DOES have a sequel, which I've tagged with this story's name as well. It is ongoing. ETA 2020: It's probably best to avoid the sequel! Just read this and pretend this is all that exists!

A beautiful but frustrating man who finds fault with everything is the object of affection of an eccentric café owner. I like this artist, I appreciated the refreshing storytelling, and I liked the set up, but I never emotionally connected with the characters. i’m pretty sure the cafe owner is the gang leader from i’ll make you cry. At the end of this story, we see a picture of him when he is younger which looks identical to the gang leader, including his haircut, the color of his hair, the style of his glasses, his shirt, and even the exact angle of his face. I do think, considering the spider tattoo and similar personality, that it is meant to be the same character.