pidgeonreads's manga / #nipple play(38)

I rarely leave reviews on unfinished stories, much less five stars. But Anemone Theatre is in a different league. First of all, it’s the perfect combination of real and fantasy. It makes me, as a person in the community, feel seen seeing out history displayed in its both wonderful and painful truth. The elements of found family are perfection and not a single character feels like a caricature - a common feeling I find when reading BL. At the same time, it nails down the feeling of your average coming to age historical romcom so well. This is one of favorite genres, but I next to never find queer stories that actually capture the feeling without any ‘otherness’ included. But the cast feel so perfectly like they could be real people you’d meet. Another thing AT does very well is nail the sexy without lessening the story elements. Despite being a smutty story full of graphic content, it does not feel like a story made with the sole intent of making porn. At the same time, I would not say that the porn is something you can separate from the story. It is important to the character development of the cast and didn’t have the porn for the sake of porn feeling. At the same time, it’s extremely smutty and will make you blush.

Okay okay I know I’m usually the first to be like ‘dude!! He said no!!’ but y’all are going to have to hear me out on this one. Reading this story was a delight. It was full of humor and never took itself too seriously. In a story where a strong heterosexual man get constantly beaten up and dubconned by a man who hates him but also sits perched right on the borderline of being a yandere you’d expect it to leave you feeling a little icky. But instead you get Mason, mercenary extraordinary who’s lifelong curses was being a bit too much of a himbo and yet always finding himself in the most unfortunate situations, waking up in the body of coked out holiday child star turned party twink. Genital piercing and all. And every moment of it is hilarious. From his genuine awe at the range of sex toys previously collected by Reese to the internal ‘was I always gay or am I gay because this body is gay??’. This story reads in the same energy as my much beloved SVSSS (the first novel written by MXTX) with many of the same tropes but even better jokes. The art itself is a joy. Hayley’s constant wide eyed and confused stare always left me cackling as it truly perfectly combined the body with the personality. Even the side characters were written as perfect little joys. The director’s shirt changing constantly, sometimes even between panels in the same scene, and the manager thanking amnesia over and over again. Truly a joy. I can safely say that I’ve also joined the Hayley hype train just as ever other character in the story has xD I will say that for me the sexy scenes are lacking. As with many people in the comments, they make me uncomfortable. The pair have a large age difference and it’s made clear time and time again that Mason still sees the young boy he saved in the current man. The sex also always feels like something that he’s just agreeing to rather than something that he actually desires and wants. It’s made clear that he agrees for two reasons: one, his body wants it (which still isn’t his choice) and two, blondie is desperate for it and will just keep begging. And since Mason still sees the boy he wants to save in him he just wants to make him happy. Even the man himself has a moment where he contemplates why he’s suddenly developed a strong sexual desire toward Mason. At the same time, I don’t believe the author has done a poor job of tackling it and if they change the way they have sex some in the future I can fully get behind it. Make Blondie actually listen to Mason and be more loving. Because as of now he’s basically having sex with Reese not Mason, since he’s doing what the body responds to and not what makes the person inside happy.

This manwha was such a cute read!! A perfect little ‘he fell first, but he fell harder’ second chance romance complete with a couple so disgustingly into each other you could imagine them with anyone else. I found myself laughing time and time again, especially at Seul’s antics in the second half of the series. He also served to be pretty relatable and a solid representation for folks with anxious attachment. Though I’ve seen comments with people saying they don’t like him, I enjoyed his character he lot. Sometimes we’re all just little haters on the inside. His anxious attachment struck a cord with me and I feel that it was very well written despite still being set in comedic timing. The plot is pretty light hearted. They go through their ups and downs and tug at the heart strings, but without any need for content warnings so this is the perfect story if you’re in need of something nice and light after a rough read! And what I can say - the couple is just my type. I’m a sucker for a more feminine top who thinks nothing of it and a bottom who could clearly and canonically carry the other one around if he wanted to but just prefers being pampered and babied. They’re a little similar to the Love Tractor couple in that sense, so if you enjoyed that manwha give this one a try! <3

They’re bro, they’re annoying and they’re shallow. But also they’re sweet? This is going down in my list of books I expected to hate but actually enjoyed. Don’t get me wrong, it’s far from a 5 star read. But it gets credit where credit it due. Shion living as a woman clearly opens his eyes and develops his character, something much needed considering how he behaves. And the choice to have Rui admit to being in love with him long before he drank the potion helped the story immensely in my eyes. And in my opinion it defeats everyone in the comments saying that this story is clickbait hentai trying to lure in yaoi readers. Rui’s diagnosed down bad for his friend and in its own weird way it’s cute. There’s definitely some scenes that lean away from enjoyable though and I feel that the latter half of the story is MUCH improved from the first chapters. If it weren’t for the scene where Shion is in the bar and later it gets treated as just a turn on for Rui, I would have actually given this 4 stars.