lamsar503's manga / #Yaoi(4)

Seme (Dominant) ML is hot, famous actor who "held nothing precious in his life until he fell for" the good-natured Uke (Submissive) ML, who reveres the Seme ML and also aspires to be an actor. Above all, I want to say: Neither "Romance" nor "Love" have room for Rape in the relationship. Period. There are other genres for that shiz, guys. Otherwise... Considering that this is set in the entertainment industry, the story is predictably progressed through drama related to aspiring actors (like coerced sexual favors), popular actors (such as psychotic, homicidal fans/stans), and the development of the yaoi relationship itself (including a rape that is forgiven in the blink of an eye, because "love"). Personally, I detest when stories treat rape dismissively. I find that it is my biggest qualm with this story so far. More specifically, the uke ML fully recognizes that he was raped by the seme ML; the seme ML also recognized what he had been doing in the middle of the act, and then just walked out on the uke. Even so, the uke pursues and forgives the seme ML in the next chapter because he "doesn't care" what the seme ML does, because he "loves" the seme ML. -- This whole development could be summed up to me as "garbage". Honestly, if the rape had been left out of the story it would've been much better. The rape is completely out of place and out of character. The seme ML may be aloof and possessive, but he is not depicted in any way to the extent that actually raping someone in anger is believable of him. What is more frustrating is that nothing changes because of this event, so even if it never happened every other chapter afterwards could remain unchanged and you wouldn't feel like you missed anything. I consider it completely amateurish to include a rape scene solely for the sake of drawing readers attention; if nothing else it just serves as a huge flag in the middle of the story that screams "bad writing and flimsy plot". If you can pretend those 2 chapters don't exist, then the quality of the story and romance increases significantly. Even then, however, you are left with an aloof guy (Seme) who basically forces a good-natured guy (Sub) into a contract with him. They go through the ups and downs of helping the aspiring actor start his career, and they deal with drama along the way. The times when they are "good" to each other are actually really sweet and well depicted. It is really a shame that what could've been a decent yaoi romance story was spoiled by a crappy decision to include rape and a few other minor developments. The art is pretty decent, nothing amazing. Basically, the decent art and the story of the relationship (minus the rape) earns about 2 stars. The rape is dismissed so completely that I had honestly forgotten it even happened until I happened across a scene of it, so it makes it easier to focus on the "nice" elements of their relationship and rate the story higher. If I take the rape into consideration I'd probably say this was a solid one star. But since I can't give the absolute rubbish stories that are even worse than this one "zero" stars (as opposed to one star), I'll opt to let this story barrrrrely keep 2 stars. Overall, I've certainly read worse, but I have also read much, much better. My last thought: I will never, ever label a relationship that includes rape (especially an aggressive rape, where both partners are fully aware of what is happening, and which is abruptly dismissed entirely) as a "romance". So I can only call this story "drama" or just "fiction", since there isn't much else to it.

My word, this is actually a good, moving story. A BL comic without any rape, no asshole MC, no completely unrealistic sex, and no totally contrived developments? ...I almost don't know how to process that. Heck, this story gets two thumbs up just for the crap it *doesn't* have in it. Basically, [Editor x Mangaka] that have both been heterosexual their whole lives start figuring out that they "might" be bisexual. Editor quickly recognizes his growing affections and physical urges and becomes comfortable with the idea of exploring them. The Mangaka doesn't understand "love" as a concept, because he has never felt it. He can't define it or put it into words; this frustrates him and makes him feel alienated, since it seems to be something that comes so easily to everyone else. Because of this, he is very cynical about the idea of love and also cynical about what people say. For example, somebody wishes him "Happy New Year" and his thought in reply is "Those are just empty, meaningless words" or something similar. Watching the development of these two characters (individually and as a couple), especially the mangaka's personal struggle with being "different" and his struggle to depict an emotion in his manga that he himself has never felt or understood is a real pleasure.

*stops reading chapter 3 mid-page; immediately googles up images of "choriaster"; lol lol lols; return to finish reading chapter 3.* Also, chapter 3 (and the reaction to the starfish) reminded me of the times my bf gripes about how "absurd" penises and penile reactions are, saying stuff like "sexual stimuli aside, there's no damn logic to them! Feel a breeze? Stiffy. Underwear too comfortable? Chubby. Underwear too uncomfortable? Chubby. Random event of utterly no significance? Get hard. -- They're really absurd appendages."