Mayday mayday mayday!
Okay, so here's my review. Which means critique and such, so be warned. :P The base storyline is great, the characters interesting and the overall plot very nice. Definitely a decent read and maybe good material for people used to smut and that want to try out a mafia story. The art is decent but could use major improvements. Which is generally not a problem for artists of this level. So this is just something I'll note for the 'graphics hoes'. XD I know the seme in this can be a turn off for some people, but those who enjoy a dominant, (in a way) realistic mafia guy who slowly takes what he wants and is accepted in doing so, you should find not much problems liking him. BUT! There are flaws, I will not sugarcoat that. So here are the ones I found. The flaws that are most prominent are probably that the comic doesn't do well in depicting emotions, twists and turns in the story. Characters feel indifferent or too empty in many moments and sometimes the behavior doesn't make any sense and feels random. Or rather like the author had an idea for a single moment, but couldn't quite string it together with the current happenings, hence why some moments felt off or like a weird choice. Not sure if this is due to missing info not being portrayed (as comics based on novels often do) or if the writing itself is the problem. But it's something I'd suggest fixing for sure. Which is hard since this is a thing from start to finish. Another flaw I noticed was that the writing is definitely heavy in tone but the comic makes light of everything. Either this is a failed choice in making this comic a comedy piece that simply doesn't do a good job in making darker moments funny (aka, the rapist guy and basically all interactions with him) OR, which I am more inclined to believe, the author for some reason did not really do a good job incorporating dark themes, wanted dark themes but really couldn't handle making them make sense in the story. Which is also something we often encounter in webtoons. Many authors know drama and trauma sells, but have NO idea how to write it. :'D Due to the constant mis-hits on the comedy/glossing over moments, the story can feel off and weird. It's still a decent read but not the greatest if you are looking for cohesive writing that makes sense. Either way the baseplot is I think still worth a read due to being VERY interesting and intriguing for sure, but I have to say quite a few things need to be done better. To give it more of an 'oomph' factor when situations are arising. The art is part of why this doesn't work too well, but the writing as well. So if both get redone alittle, this could be an amazing work for sure. Tho as it is it still can work for less experienced readers or those not incapable of overlooking issues and still reading to the end. It depends on how strong your desire for things are and if you like the subject of the story I suppose. I would say it's a decent comic but would put it more into the amateur faction of works due to the big, constant flaws we see and the art not being the 'carrier' type. Still like it tho, despite the issues and I would probably suggest reading the novel for this one. If the flaws here were created by the comic creator cutting away bits and pieces, then the novel might be a more cohesive read with emotions being delivered better. But that is just my guess based on past experiences. ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭ Recommended either way, since I do very much enjoy the baseplot and it has a peaceful ending without another drama arc elongating things. Which is always refreshing to see nowadays. Give it a try, I'd say. (=・ω・=)
Hold Over You
Alright, surprisingly 6 chapters is enough to write a review for this on the basics. XD (A review means critique/negative things being mentioned, so you have been warned.) I'll refrain from mentioning the major lack of logic for the characters or on the author's side but I have to mention these things. While the artwork is impressive, the plot is horseshit. VERY interesting at it's core, but the way it's done is just really unappealing. And the art is quite frankly the only thing that can save it. If this had ugly or mid art, people would likely not be bothering with it. Not only do we start of with rape, basically (even if it WAS in a dream, they were both sentient and 'there'), we also have both characters entirely ignore the situation if we're honest. Emotions in general are being portrayed weirdly. Especially since the entire comic seems to not be able to decide whether it wants to be a light-hearted comedy piece or an actual mental issue portraying dark comic. It hits neither of those spots well and dangles in the middle. I really find the basic story interesting, as goddamn mentally defective as this karma from a past life is, but if this was at least done in a cohesive way (not dnagling in the middle of two genres) and maybe NOT start out with rape that's being ignored, it would be SO much better. At this point I am utterly uninterested, as pretty as the art is and as interesting as the base story is. I just hope someone will make a copy-cat story of this in a good way someday, because this is honestly not appealing unless you have some problems or can ignore aspects such as rape and issues like the dangling genre thing. Either is worrisome to me tbh. XD I will not ever recommend this. Not even the art can give this points, the issues with the writing are just too big.
Dragon's Bride
Finally I get a comic with a hermaphrodite and it's completely ruined by the most unpleasant, fuckwittiest smut plot to have ever fuckwitted about. Art cannot carry either. How unbelievable sad. My disappointment is immesurable. And my day is ruined.
Salvation Spirit
The plot is honestly riddled with nonsense in terms of logic and behavior. The seme/'love interest' is really dislikable from moment one and he just doesn't get better. The art might be decent but it also has a bit of inconsistency to it, hence why it cannot carry this for me. It's a shame since the base story they intoduced was REALLY interesting but it was ruined, as so many other comics, by the author going for focusing the smut and smut only at the expense of the plot itself. Shame, really. Good jack off material if you really have no standards or a few screws loose but not for normal people. Even without the text bubbles being read, the first smut of them together is NOT enjoyable. But I guess this depends on your taste, so whatever. ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭ I'm out, you do you and give it a try. But if the story starts like this and gives no hints at anything giving a glimpse of change/betterment, I'm just out. maybe it get's better halfway through, but I will not stick around and bother to check.
The Phantom of the Opera
Dear artstyle, I know you're carrying this story all by yourself but you're doing great. Keep up the good work! Jokes aside, this story is really below 'meh' for me. The world building itself is not great, the depiction of the scenes weird at times and quite frankly the smut is the only strong point here in my eyes due to the art being decent. But it's not good enough for me to keep enduring everything else, so I'm gonna go look for something better elsewhere. Can't recommend, won't even for the art. So check it out yourself. You might enjoy it if you don't mind toxicity, trashy behavior, mediocre writing, overdone tropes like rape and indifference and more obnoxious things. (I literally cannot find anything I like in this work, sorry.)
Namete, Kande, Kiss wo Shite
I got 2 issues, so hear me out! THE PERSONAL PROBLEM: I honestly cannot read this in a serious manner. I keep smirking, eyerolling and covering my eyes with my hands. XD Everytime this cake/fork stuff is mention it just makes me cringe in some sorta way because it sounds so weird when you listen to it. Like some 2001 made-up OC name from deviantart that the author thought sounds suuuuper cool and whatnot, but for anyone outside the teenage world it just sounds weird. If you know what I mean? I get people want to mix up the Omegaverse nonsense, and I am FULLY for it as there are a million better ways to do it, but this would have been better off being just an altered Omegaverse or at least choosing different names for the 'roles'. This honestly just doesn't sound good. So reading it just breaks immersion every single time, which isn't making this a good read in specific ways. Which is a shame since the plot idea is different (but still essentially the same rape-allowing plot) than Omegaverse. You could have made this some god/demon related stuff, mythical creatures, curses and blessings. Literally ANYTHING but calling people a food and tool. That's just weird man. I can't. Just thinking about it is making me crack up again. ( >∇<) THE REAL PROBLEM: The problem I have with this more than the weird name choice is: There was LITERALLY no reason to make this another rape story. The story set itself up as the 'forks' not being able to taste. You could have turned this into a very highly sexual tension story, anything from a sweet caress that's too long to endure to hardcore edging for the uke. There was no reason to make the seme, yet again, a fuckwit that cannot keep his dick under control when this was all about finally having tastebuds again. Absolute zero reason. And I am convinced half the readers could have come up with a MUCH better plot idea with this setup. All without having to resort to rape and 'haha, me powerful so you no have any say HURRDURR'. (Super appealing btw. [/sarcasm.exe crashed]) Due to the writing being trash tbh, I would not recommend this. I literally lost interest as soon as the seme said 'go to the police, I'm powerful so nobody will do anything anyway'. None of that is appealing, even for someone with a rape kink like me. Which is sad. Even in shitty scenarios I can usually manage to find appeal here and there. But this had me immediately nope out. And I don't care to wait for 'character developement' either. So I'mma hard pass. :/ Maybe as jerk off material this is good enough for some, but as a story? Really below mediocre. Which is sad since, again, the base idea WOULD have been interesting.
Crimson Ocean