queerdinosuar's manga / #action(20)

The art style really suits the story and the characters are fun so far. God everything about this story is great. The setting and drawing style, the plot, character names, and the translation is especially good. An enemies-to-lovers, unlikely-pair buddy adventure in the Wild West (with for some reason a cameo of monkeys and a forest?), it really works with its setting and tropes to tell an excellent story. It’s a well told story that knows exactly the story it’s trying to tell and does it efficiently and deliberately, which I always appreciate. Well done.

I absolutely love this comic so far. It is funny and silly and the story is pretty good. It makes me laugh every chapter but also has some good sex and romance thrown in. The only thing I don’t like is that K makes a habit of fucking Rabby while he’s asleep, which is fucked up and non-consensual. But honestly my standards for this genre are so low that if that’s my only problem to look past, it’s better than most. The story at the end feel flat a little. I guess it felt kinda anticlimactic given that we were meant to believe that there was going to be a big reveal and showdown at the end, but it was just Kylot’s brother with a birthday party and an unclear reason why Kylot was trying to get there in the first place. There was an emotional climax of Rabby being deceived by Kylot but that was not even properly addressed or explained… Overall I really liked it and it’s probably one of my favorites, but there are definitely some things I would change.

I absolutely love the aesthetic of this story. The drawings with a steampunk sort of Victorian + vampires inspired aesthetic is perfect and does a lot for be feeling and storytelling. I like the story but the pacing is off, not much happened plot wise for a while and then all the action is happening at the same time with different plot threads. While I like both the main characters, I wish I got to see more of their internal feelings, it would really make me understand what drew them together and why they fell in love. Ok I’m really loving this further in now in the 3rd season. The plot points that could have been set up better have now paid off and there is a really interesting and emotional story underneath about class, a deeply unequal society, exploitation, star crossed lovers, suppressed desires, longing, trauma, and grief. It’s pretty well written and the mysteries that were set up are playing out very interestingly. Eric’s dad was a special person who questioned the status quo and many people admired and loved him for it, in both good and bad ways. The story is all about what we do with the hand we are dealt. I really wish there were side stories.