muse ✨'s manga / #tw noncon(37)

Harada wrote a frightening story about a man traumatized by his own abuse, who then repeats it on a young boy who becomes infatuated with him. Years later, they reunite, and they're eventually officially together and stay together at the story's end. However, the man is abusing pills, and the now-college-student can't tell his parents who he's dating because it's the adult caught with him as a child. In the very last scene, the college student finds pills in his pocket and takes them while trying to convince himself the relationship isn't wrong. This is not a love story. It's not romance. This is going to disturb a lot of readers, and I don't think this was meant to be seen as beautiful or romantic - in fact, I know it's not, because the female avatar for the reader calls it out as disgusting repeatedly. It's deeply, deeply upsetting. But it was well told. I'm reminded of the movie "Normal" which also dealt with this subject. I've never been able to forget it.

Keith Kogane, who is called Shingo in this reality and is also a werecat, works on film sets and falls for a hot, hot actor who is actually a leopard. Lots of dubcon in this first installment. It comes across as noncon but is explained in another installment that Shingo did in fact initiate sex. However, he was out of his mind on catnip at the time, so the dubcon label definitely applies.

A lonely boy who hides behind the mask of a delinquent befriends the school janitor, a man who keeps to himself after being betrayed by someone he'd considered a friend.

Okay. The first story is hilarious - a woman loses her daughter and doesn't want to lose her son-in-law too, so she sets him up with her son. The last story I really really enjoyed - a man who had intended revenge against an older man who had treated him badly because of his social status falls in love with him instead (it's mutual). Some of the others were a little wacky; the one with the loan shark I scrolled through because it was disturbing and rapey. But overall this was a fun collection.

Even after eight years, a man realizes he's still in love with a friend from high school that he runs into at a bar. There is a non-con scene in a car after heavy drinking. It wasn't done out of violence, but one party was not able to consent, so it's non-con.

The art style is beautiful in this story, but I'll never know how it ends because the first chapter jumps right to noncon. A student who had admired his teacher works to become one, and once they've become coworkers, he takes his drunk teacher home after an evening of celebrating with coworkers and - you guessed it - has sex with him while he's passed out drunk. Not my cup of tea. PSA: Please please do not have sex with people who are unconscious. Please. Things he could've done instead: - Kissed his cheek - Gone to sleep - Made him breakfast in the morning ETA: Tried to re-read this and dropped in the second chapter.

Aratsuka Kaoru, a strict math teacher nicknamed "Alaska" by students who find his manner cold, loses the key to his apartment and spends the night in the care of his neighbor. The neighbor, Suzuki Kouta, is the new infirmary sensei and seduces Kaoru during the night. Kaoru, who doesn't have an interest in or understand romantic love, slips out before morning. He develops a fever while teaching and goes to the infirmary, where he learns Kouta was his student many years earlier and chose this career because of his love for Kaoru. But Kaoru rejects his confession, causing things to become awkward between them, and finds Kaota in a compromising position with a student not days later. Furious and battling his own jealousy, Kaoru vows he'll never speak to Kouta again and avoids the infirmary until he's tricked into going. Kouta reveals that he never slept with a student, but caught them having sex in the infirmary and promised not to reveal it. With all cards on the table, their relationship seems off to a promising start until someone from Kouta's past appears. # Spoilers: This would've been a wonderful slow-burn, watching Kaoru fall in love and accept these newfound feelings, but the pacing ruined the story for me. Additionally, the introduction of the antagonist - Kouta's college friend who kidnaps Kaoru and forces an infatuated student to perform oral sex on him in an attempt to coax him to leave Kouta - was a sloppy plot device to get emotions running hot. Futher, Kaoru won't reveal what happened to Kouta and has to shoulder the emotional fallout from his assault alone. Overall it left me feeling sad for both of them.

The first two chapters are about a horrible person who has no genuine remorse for how he treated a former classmate and now co-worker. I'd honestly skip them. Chapter 5 is a prequel to Like That. The last chapter is sweet, a couple five years into their relationship visits one of their family's homes.

While trying to return a lost dog to its owner, Aoi - a single man raising a deceased friend's four-year-old son - stumbles upon a mysterious shrine and discovers its resident, a beautiful man who tells him not to return. Unable to get him out of his head, Aoi disobeys, incurring the wrath of the man's twin, Yuuma, who seemingly befriends him only to violate him out of jealousy. A somewhat confusing supernatural tale involving dog gods, on-page rape (which is sadly brushed aside), and a love triangle. Beautiful art but I wish this had been better developed.