Sleeps In Sunbeams's manga / #S&M(15)

All these stories were good, but the main story about puppy like masochist Hanada Sakutarou, and the insouciant sadist Chouno was simply *chefs kiss. Be sure to read the prequel first; Chou to kumo no su. I loved their dynamic. Chou was a pure caretaker, the perfect S to help Hanada safely push his M boundaries. Given his background, it’s even more special that he was able to be true to his own nature with his loving partner who was so responsive to his touch. Plenty of kinks, sexy and hot with sweet aftercare. Loved it.

Supernatural short stories with beautiful art. Should be a winning formula but some of the stories were ‘bleh’. I really liked both snake stories, especially the last one. They had some humour and in the case of the last one, some power in the relationship for the uke. The goat and carnivore story was my least favourite (which was so sad because the seme was such a good looking character). There was zero affection, pure sex and not even much in the way of the caring you would hope to see from the seme in a S&M dynamic. Felt entirely non consensual even if the airhead uke had enough masochist tendencies to be sexually satisfied, when all he asked for was to be held gently the seme found his request boring and ignored it. That’s an abuse of power dynamic, not a good S&M relationship. Sucked.

Completed at 5.2 despite marking. An excellent S&M story written just the way I like it. This mangaka understands that a good, dominant S treasures his submissive M and will reward and praise them for pushing their boundaries and giving themselves in trust to a good S. This pair were such a good match. Office worker Masachika (M) has some trust issues and has been having trouble finding a S he didn’t destroy. When the matchmaking Master paired him with the younger university student, Seiji (S) he was horrified until Master pointed out that Seiji was a former M and Masachika could train him to be his perfect gentle S. But it turns out that Masachika didn’t understand himself as well as he thought. It a good thing that the younger Seiji was happy to not be a gentle S all the time after all. Especially when his new M really liked to stir him up,

CW: Non consent Two short bondage stories. The first is pure, traditional yaoi smut. No consent, forced pleasure, sadist seme. The second was age gap with 46yo sadistic seme and the much younger man he wanted to bind to his side through sex but at the same time he felt conflicted for thinking that way.

CW: Violence, dub con, abuse, degradation This was a surprisingly good story. Misaki and Haru’s story spans roughly 8 years and shows a lot of growth in both the characters and (imo) the mangaka’s approach to and understanding of, a relationship with someone who is strongly masochistic. When we first meet the MCs Misaki was just discovering his affinity for pain, how he was able to make it become intense pleasure and the unhealthy ways he fulfilled this need. Haru was not a sadist so much as inherently short fused and reactively violent. Their relationship began with violence because giving and receiving it met different needs in each other but it was a very unhealthy relationship. Over time, it evolved and changed into something that suited them. For Haru, having someone who was in his corner seemed to bring out his “lovey dovey” side and he became aware that he didn’t want to hurt the one he cared for, but the one he cared for needed that. And, tbh, at times Haru did too. I really liked that each looked into what real S&M was about, healthier ways to satisfy those deep needs and seemed to really prioritise their partners needs. I also liked the hints that other random Ms out there seemed to instinctively recognise the S in Haru. He had a strong presence as he matured. They weren’t perfect (not even close lol) but they grew into an unexpectedly stable pair and they went from mutually toxic to a loving pair.