otakulys's manga / #dark(197)

Kind of dark and definitely pretty strange. I don't have a piercing fetish myself, so I couldn't join in their excitement, but the story was interesting, and I like their twisted relationship, even if it's slightly unhealthy.

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.

3.5 for being kind of weird and rushed, but interesting, haha. It's too short for what it is. It's definitely on the disturbing side, but it's kind of funny despite it being about something horrible. Just that twisted "person beneath the surface" thing. I'd like to see that explored more, but without it being a cheesy comedy. I feel like most things like this are played for easy laughs rather than the dark essence seen here. It's a shame that isn't more common.

Aww, nooooo, so sad! He really loves that guy, and the guy is a total jerk. Not that it absolves the first guy of his sins, but that's so sad. I can't say that I hate it, though. It was interesting, and it wasn't painted as healthy or anything. Still, my poor heart.

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.

I don't like this one as much as the sequel. It isn't as careful and psychological. This one is more self-indulgent, I think, and I find it odd that the teacher would be so careless as to risk this sort of thing getting out when he'd carefully groomed the first boy over a period of time. It's an interesting concept, the process of breaking in a plaything, and the prequel was disturbing and sad, but very well done. This was... okay. It had a slight edge to it, but it ultimately felt more like typical yaoi BDSM than Harada's work usually does. Though that thing with the toy and the classroom is definitely screwed up. I've never seen that used in such a dark way.

Need to re-read, but I also don't want to since it may never be finished. Blah. I love this mangaka, and it breaks my heart every time I think of what happened. I hope someday she comes back.

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.