pluckaduck's manga / #Psychological(145)

when u end up rooting for the bitchy classmate antagonist u know it's a badly written story. ngl the added drama with her feels completely unnecessary to the overall concept. there's no reason provided why the girl end up this twisted, or why she fell for the father. she's disgusting, but the author clearly likes her so everything goes her way without repercussions. and the dude's so fcking bland. it fails to deliver bc it should've been a story about how uncomfortable he feels around his stepdaughter and how he tried to avoid her, but ultimately failed to do so bc she's crazy. but nooo, he's a passive and dense idiot.

first story wasnt all that sad. the art is really nice tho. the uke didn't feel fleshed out enough for me to care. if the mangaka intended his entire characterization to be miserable, regretful, and pitiful, then they succeeded. bc he has no other personality. he feels like a plot device instead of a person. and it doesnt feel particularly sad or angsty bc of the seme. i was bitterly thinking how nice that the seme is so kind and gentle and conveniently there to comfort, save, and baby him. tho, my callousness might be attributed to my lack of love life, so i cant relate to his situation much.

v3. to oversimplify the dynamic, it's good upright student x violent rebellious sociopathic gang leader. the mc is abruptly pulled into the world of youthful rebellion bc of ml, and both feel a visceral attraction to each other for sum reason. I'm rolling my eyes at how utterly smitten the mc is with him, despite all the shit the ml did to him. it's absurd, but the narrative does seem to be self-aware, and doesn't hold back in portraying the ml the ruthless crazy scumbag that he is. later on, the story seems to be trying to justify him by giving him an equally sociopathic father, and a mistreated grandma that he alone cares for. also, why is it trying to depict as if both wrongs to each other are equal?? it is far from equal, ml put mc in a lot of misery, even letting his goons rape his gf... as if mc stabbing him is a deed of equal measure. mc does not need to seek forgiveness at all, but i wish he wasn't all so in love with him.

the themes and intent was there, but it was poorly executed with the relationships and stereotypes. if there was a point to the age gap relationship with the married man, well, im just not see it. and I'm not gonna act blind to the issues in the story, but simplifying the story a great deal to just incest, pedophilia is self-manifesting what the author is saying. in any case, the mc's internal struggles and process of coming to terms with his sexuality feels realistic and was touching. it might be a bit too melodramatic but he's a high schooler and society in japan frowns upon homosexuality. also, yall being too hard on the girl; she's a high schooler for god's sake

it's ok, the ending felt rushed. the mysteries were relatively simple, compared to other detective mangas. the art style is cute, but not really suitable for this kind of story; everything felt light-hearted and the atmosphere never really felt all that heavy when times called for it.

confused. but the first person POV was nice. did he actually blow up the school, or was that just a movie?

multiple times i contemplated dropping this story; it's unnecessarily pretentious, dramatic, and lyrical. some dialogue felt awkward and cringe bc they talk as if they're in some dramatic play. some plot points, like Augusta being the villain, and women cain loved: meridiana and emmiline, are undeveloped and poorly written. several characters, like ida and celeste, end up unimportant despite their interesting designs and their character info are shortened to brief info dumps in dialogue. and are we not going to talk about how oscar keeps flirting with a 10-yr with whom he shares at least a 7 yr difference? and they even got married??? the pacing is weird and the build-up is horrible; in general, it feels messy and crammed and needs to be longer. however, i do like how developed cain and riff's relationship is; they definitely feel like soulmates. and the biblical and other classics's references is interesting.