vignette00's manga / #comedy(4)

A follow-up to a oneshot that is not yet translated. In a weird inversion of the "rape is love" trope, a highschooler finds himself engaging in truly bizarre sex with his friend, and no one makes any confessions. There are enough random comedy bits ("you're the only 167 cm 50 kg 17 year old virgin who's friend recently fucked him with fruit", Kaede's offscreen wailing interpreted as cat noises) that I suspect it's a knowing parody and just a way to draw a couple too dumb for words, including words of active consent.

At some point someone should write a treatise about the tropes at play here (the ordinary everyday hero, the naive rich heir who is too purehearted, the mysterious rich Arab man, the trip to the aquarium, the playful but cunning but also purehearted father) but not for this manga, which sees the tropes quite clearly and has no interested in subversion but every interest in flaunting them to the point of hilarity. This has roots in Boys Over Flowers but ends with a totally unexpected side jaunt with Tanaka (the money hungry best friend) and Malik which completely breaks free from the original framework and becomes Darkness Hound. Three stars just for that, and for Malik's introduction which is trope exposition heaven.

starts with a long joke about replacing a small penis consistently with an image of a clownfish, then went into a poignant story about friendship/hiding your true self, then comes out the other end with an unhealthy, monopolistic relationship.... i'm shook at how this story zigzags between genres without a single breath, the effect isn't particularly good but it's definitely... something