otakulys's manga / #Psychological(138)

Rather creepy and pretty interesting, though I could have done without the endless, graphic animal torture.

Honestly, most of this manga had me leaning toward a one star rating, just because of the self-pitying protagonist and the way the wife is written as this soul-sucking harpy who ruins everything for him, when he was just a hardworking, innocent man. It primarily comes across as misogynistic drivel. However, that last little bit is kind of interesting, and it caused enough doubt for me to think that perhaps the author was intentionally portraying these characters in an exaggerated manner to reflect the unhinged nature of the main character. That thought was again cracked when I read the afterward and how this story was a detox for the writer. That makes me think that he relates to the writer on some level. At any rate, the story is mildly interesting, mostly predictable, but not the worst around. I wouldn't read it again, but I didn't want to burn my own eyes out or anything.

UGH. Heartbreaking and beautiful. It shows the shortsighted, selfish way a person can look at love, even to the detriment of those around them. It's so painful because he realizes what he's done way after the fact, but now it's probably too late to fix. I mean, I'm gonna go ahead and continue this in my mind, where they end up having a threeway relationship, and everyone is happy. Yeah, there we go. Haha. Also, that first sex scene was brutally hot. Holy crap.

I really appreciate how Harada handles evil characters. She sets her work apart from yaoi where these things happen, but the author treats them as cute or part of romance. This is how shota, rape, abuse, etc. SHOULD be written--as the evil, fucked up things that they are. Her stories can be so subtly twisted, and if you took out the pedo aspect, that would have been the case here. It was too short, though. I'd like to see more about the characters. Either way, I love Harada for her beautiful art, dark and complex stories, and intense character emotion. But I especially love her for making messed up things happen and not pretending that they could ever be forgiven. ETA: Oh yay, it is continued! Glad that it was mistakenly labeled as finished. Just as screwed up as ever. I like the new girl. I hope something interesting happens with her. Maybe she's as fucked up as the rest of them. This is definitely the first time I've ever read a story about a young man who's in love with a pedophile. Count on Harada to make that work.

Harada is the master of subtly manipulative and evil characters. The ending was a bit more spelled out than most of her stuff, though. I feel like readers knew what the real situation was before the reveal, so it didn't need to be so overt. Still, creepy-crazy face is always off-putting in a fun way, haha.

2.5 stars based on just the first story, but I'm waiting to see if more comes out. I think I've read this one before. It's familiar, but then, a lot of these stories are similar. I'm not a fan of rape being excused in any way, but it's a pretty common theme. If the author goes on to show that she meant for the first story to be as fucked up as it is and hadn't intended redemption in the seme's explanation, that'd be great. I'm not holding my breath, though.

I like the main character a lot. Usually girls in stories like this are very timid to make up for their utterly offensive appearance, like how dare you be ugly! I do think it's pretty telling that only the women get this virus. At any rate, I started reading this with cautious optimism. Most of the time, stories like this are disappointing or even insulting. I can't say that this one entirely shied away from that, but once Park Jangmi finally told that dude off for being a jerk, I felt like the story was beginning to turn around. Uuuuunfortunately, I'm just now noticing that this hasn't been updated in three years. That really sucks. I'd like to read more. But at least it didn't end on a cliff hanger. Maybe someday it'll start up again. Oh, and that cat thing, wtf! Terrifying! Get it away!

So heartbreaking. I kind of hate AI related romance for so many reasons. It's like an immortal and a mortal in love. One will live and die and the other will exist and then stop existing. It makes me feel like there's no true happy ending when one of the people isn't real. That aside, I just love this mangaka. I've been meaning to read some of her work all this time, and I can't believe it took me so long. I adore her art and her approach to story in general. I just hope I end up feeling satisfied by the conclusions of this one.

If it weren't so common to easily excuse rape in yaoi, I might have had more of an interest in examining the ambiguity of what happens with the uke in this story, but as is, the encounter between the main characters smacks of "it's okay that he raped you cause you were denying that you liked dicks," which is pretty gross. There were some interesting concepts that came up in little hints, but none of them were fully realized. 2.5 stars just for having some semi-intriguing concepts. The ending line, though. Wtf.

Haha, started reading it because it had cutesy art but was listed as horror, so I was intrigued. Definitely takes a sudden turn. I wish it weren't so short and abrupt, but I definitely like how it flows so quickly from cute to horrific.