otakulys's manga / #age gap(59)

I really loved Demon Flower, which has a bittersweet ending itself, and I know this mangaka's style is to kill everyone as much as possible, especially sweet and innocent characters that stumble into the frame (I've never read a shoujo manga with so much graphic murder and torture of children), but the ending petered out so oddly. I've owned all four manga since they came out when I was in high school, but I only now read it on here, and I have to wonder if she'd meant to continue this but then it didn't work out, because even compared to her other abrupt endings, this was like she walked off a cliff mid-sentence. Plus, I hate it so much when a character is like, "You're all I care about! I don't have anyone else!" when friends of theirs are literally dying all around them to protect them. Seriously, bitch? You have no one else? The ending was a miss for me. It could have been more powerful, but in the confusion it just fell flat. 2.5 stars overall. EDIT: Apparently there's a follow up out there that she wrote in 2007. I had, in my delirious, sleep-deprived state, thought it was a continuation for Demon Flowers, though I'm not sure how that would have worked, and I got super excited. Now I'm a little sad, but I'm hoping it gets translated eventually, because this ending is so random. We need a follow up.

I seriously spent years agonizing over the fact that the publisher went under before releasing the final, translated volume. I thought I'd never read the ending. Then I discovered it had been scanlated about two years ago, and I was so freaking happy. It took them a while to get to it, so I'd lost hope. Thank you so much to the scanlation team! This manga is so sad and screwed up, typical of the mangaka, but at least the ending isn't as depressing as it is in some of her other stuff. Still sad, but it could be worse. I just saw that she wrote a follow up to the series in 2007, though, and I wonder if anyone will ever pick that up. It's been a long time, though, and it seems like her work is less popular in general, so I have no idea if it'll ever be translated. I miss how active scanlations used to be. EDIT: Damn it, I was deliriously tired when I saw the continuation thing, and it isn't for this at all. It's for the other one, The Demon Ororon. I should have read more carefully. But that one should be translated, because that story had such an abrupt ending.

I really like the concept, but I'm iffy on this one. I want it to focus more on the political climate and the bigotry toward spes. Honestly, I hate that uke devotion thing, like he just wants to help no matter what. I hope it get better, though. The nightmares are intriguing.

I hate the animal death. So gross. But it was there for a reason, at least. Unsurprisingly miserable story, but it's an interesting little back story for Itou-san, which was a fantastic manga. For that reason, I'm giving this a four star rating. Definitely upsetting, though, for many reasons. Also, watch out for pedophiles galore.

I wish there were more legit kidnapping stories, where there's an actual motive and danger, and the victim isn't a trembling uke who gets yaoi-raped until he falls in love. Of course, this one was kind of weird, and it didn't have much of an impact on me. There was no indication as to why feelings developed, and it seemed too short of a time for anything like that. I do have to say, though, I so enjoyed that gun against his back. I know that makes me kind of sick and wrong, but damn. For that, I raised it from three stars to four.

These were all really weird and mostly disjointed, though the twist at the very end of the first story made me chuckle, and the final exchange of the second one made me laugh a little, too. Each oneshot involves a psychotic person, usually more than one, which is played for comedy in the first two, but takes a messed up turn in the third. I got the feeling that we were still supposed to be laughing, but it was so sad and mean. Like, moral of the story, never be nice to anyone. After that, though, it doesn't seem to follow any sort of pattern other than the "no happily ever after" theme. Mostly unrequited love throughout, though the mood really changes. That final story made me cry, despite my best efforts. It was just so pointlessly sad. Is this guy not aware that gay men can also have children? Adoption isn't an imaginary thing. Anyway, sad and weird, rather abrupt, pretty uncomfortable. Mixed with strange humor? That about sums it up, haha.

"And he's letting me live!" Aw, how romantic! I really wanted to enjoy this manga, but it was BS like that that killed it. Even with the rape to love, which I loathe, I was gonna give it three stars because I feel like there isn't enough decent yakuza/hitman type stuff out there. But the moment he yelled at JJ for being "kind" when he "slept with" Azusa, I just couldn't do it. Not the worst thing I've ever read, but give me a break. "When you were raping me, you shouldn't have been nice! Now I want to be your waifu!" Come on, yaoiland. Come on.

Is this a duplicate? I feel like I reviewed this one already. It's sweet and cute and sad, and I cry every time.

Aw, I wanna know what happens next. Honestly, I have mixed feelings. The first half, I loved it. The alpha actually physically harms himself to prevent himself from raping the omega. That never freaking happens. And he's nice and everything. But then it's all tsundere and typical with the omega chasing after him. We all know the alpha secretly wants him, too, but I'm sure it's gonna take five chapters and thirty misunderstandings for us to get there. So annoying. I'm leaving it at four due to misplaced optimism that it'll surprise me in other ways. I just hope it goes up from chapter one and doesn't just crumple into cliches.

The way people were acting, I thought this was going to have a sad ending, but it was perfect! THIS is what I want. This is the hurt/comfort that I crave! Why can't there be more yaoi like this? Where the seme loves and protects his uke, and the harm comes from some other piece of crap? There's no force or rape to love or any of that garbage. Just real emotion. Plus, for me it's the psychology of trauma and the character working through it that draws me to violence and rape in manga, so it makes me sad that so often rape is romanticized or treated like a firm handshake. This was exactly what I was looking for. The beginning was a bit clumsy and rushed, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was very happy with where it went. I imagine people are freaking out because the rape was so graphic and the character actually had a realistic reaction to being assaulted, but the tags *did* say there was rape, and every chapter had a warning for violence, etc. So why are 90% of the comments people bitching about it? If you're a delicate person, skip stories that say that they contain violence and rape. At any rate, I really enjoyed this one, and it's the embodiment of my list, "Rape that Doesn't End in Love."