otakulys's manga / #bully(11)

I really liked this at first, because I hoped, despite having read enough yaoi to know better, that it was going to be about the main character getting with his love interest after overcoming the psychotic bully who was abusing him. The moment his attacker was given some development, I knew this was going to have a typical Yaoi-land ending. To be fair, as far as rape forgiveness in yaoi goes, this is absolutely not the worst I have seen. At least the uke was upset for a while, and even later, the seme wonders if the uke is still scared after what happened. But it's still annoying as hell. I don't mind rape in stories when the rapist gets what's coming to him, or at the very least doesn't end up in a relationship with his victim. But that's often not how these things go in yaoi. Still, I liked the manga enough to give it four stars despite the rape to love. It's pretty and emotional, and it's *almost* realistic, outside of the sexual assault and coercion.

Kinda weird, but pretty art. I don't like DJs really, but that seems to be the bulk of Togainu no Chi stuff out there, so it works.

That was... a very odd story. Kind of cute, but definitely weird. I liked the second one more because there was no rape in it. I like elements of the first one, but nonconsent isn't erased by future consent, and it bugs me. But whatever, the author clearly has a thing for very odd love triangles. The manga treats some stuff too lightly, but what else is new when it comes to BL? It doesn't surprise me, but I still don't like it. Anyway, it was entertaining, and I did like some of the cute twists on certain tropes. Everyone was an asshole in the first story, so at least they were more likable in the second.

While the way the seme treated the uke throughout the story was horrid, at least he didn't rape him, which is like 90% of the manga out there, so I can tolerate their unhealthy relationship a little more. And in the end, it really did seem like they were going to be kind to one another and treat each other well. So I really enjoyed it. Plus, I love Harada, so I'm naturally going to enjoy her work to some degree.

This isn't real, so I'm using it for tags to remember later.

This was very sweet. Not perfect, but I liked the concept of a bully going after the guy he bullied. I'd like to see more stuff like that. The uptight uke kind of took away some of the fun for me, since I'm not really into the rigid, has-to-be-provoked-over-and-over type. I think he was right to not forgive his bully and start dating him immediately, but he was pretty uptight in his life in general. At any rate, I would have liked to have seen more of them when they were younger, but it was an interesting story. The stalking stuff was a bit more intriguing, too. That's okay, though. I'm glad they got their happy ending.

Said this in the comments, but basically: I can actually relate to the uke, but in a less extreme sense. I don't do it anymore, but as a little girl, I used to set up situations in order to make myself feel unloved and unwanted. I'm not sure when it started, but I guess it was a form of masochism born from my need to cope with being ripped away from my loving mother and raised with mean children and crappy babysitters because my dad would rather my mom suffer than his daughter be happy and healthy. Basically, it's the sense that if someone supposedly loves or cares about you, some part of you has to prove it isn't true. It isn't that you actually like it. It's more of a compulsion. I don't know why I did it. Maybe to prove to myself that I was incapable of being loved. If someone claimed to care about me, I was much more likely to lash out at them or hurt them. Granted, I moved past that by high school, and I was never cruel to anyone but myself. I just understand where that comes from. I don't know, it's dumb, but this manga really got to me because of that. The uke doesn't want to be vulnerable, so he acts like a dick. He's testing this guy, but pretending it's because he doesn't care. That way he won't get hurt. But secretly, he wants the guy to keep passing the tests. Not-so-secretly by the end, hence the tears. It made me cry, too. I know a lot of people are hating on the character, but I think it's clear he's just a damaged person. Doesn't mean the seme should just tolerate the abuse, but I'd like to imagine a future with them working through all of this together. Maybe they can even be friends with the other kid? I like that it's open but it's still so sad. I wish there'd been more here. You don't see this kind of personality explored often. I wish it were easier to explain, that sheer contradiction of wanting to prove that no one can truly love you and desperately, DESPERATELY wishing that you're wrong.

WOW I hated this manga. I thought it would be interesting, but it was just creepy smut and rape. I couldn't enjoy any of the drama or love revelations, because it was all so forced and weird. Also, I feel like there was something going on with the omega that was never addressed. Like, is this guy a serial killer? It's not just me, right? He forced this to happen and was manipulating everything from the start. That sort of twist would actually be pretty great if it had been executed properly and not treated like it's funny that it happened. Great art, which is mostly the only reason I finished it, other than being thorough. I skimmed the sex scenes after that first one. So gross. Ugh, I need to get the bad taste of this out of my mouth. It's trying to be all cutesy with this psycho and this selfish asshole who was tricked into a relationship through emotional manipulation. I will never understand that fetish. It's weird, like this manga ticked almost all of my top five biggest hates in manga: rape to love, straight guy going gay (It's okay if it's you), oddly stupid/sexually oblivious ukes, and weird commentary during sex, like "you came from just your ass." (At least I didn't see him mentioning his "lewd body" at any point. *gag*)

Only like six chapters, and it said somewhere that the original may have been discontinued. That would really suck, since this is very different and interesting. We don't get a lot of BL with action. The most recent release was very poorly translated to the point of not even making sense, and I feel bad for being frustrated by that, because I know the ones who did it are doing so for free. I just wish I could enjoy it a little more, given how action-packed it was. I hope it gets updated soon. I would be so bummed if this story were dropped completely.