otakulys's manga / #rape out of love(7)

I don't mind non-con when it's treated as the horrible act it is, but the fact that it's easily forgiven always disgusts me. Otherwise, this would have been a rather sweet, if not a bit odd, collection of stories. The rape is only in the fourth story, though, for those trying to avoid that.

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.

Don't you just hate it when your grandpa binds your soul with a doll in a spiritual marriage? Don't worry, though. This is Yaoi-land. Anything goes. This story is kind of disjointed and all over the place. It isn't the worst thing I've ever read, but the plot points were very choppy, and the reveals were formulaic. The art was okay, but the plot itself was kind of dull and rushed. I may have liked it a tiny bit more if it weren't for the weird rape-to-love elements, but I dunno. Two and a half stars, but it won't let me do halves.

It rubs me the wrong way that most people will probably excuse the rape scene since it's the uke raping the seme, but whatever. The fact that it's so easily forgiven isn't at all unusual for yaoi, even when the seme is especially violent, so this is no different. I really like spin-off books for stories I enjoyed to begin with, so despite that one thing, I had fun reading this. It's kind of annoying at times, mostly just how emo and self-pitying the main guy is, but I also feel for him as far as his fear for his happiness ending. It's a sweet story, regardless. I'm glad it had a happy ending, even if it was sort of implausible as it was. I wish more manga would promote the concept of bisexuality, rather than the "I'm straight, but I'm gay for you" trope.

I don't know if I can read this whole thing. Gonna try, I guess, but the yaoi rape is so disgusting. It isn't like most of them where the guy puts up a fight for two seconds then gets into it, which I still hate but at least we can pretend it was secretly consensual all along. Rape is treated so casually here, and I don't know if that was what the author intended, but it's so gross and uncomfortable. How can you go on from that and act like it's some sort of cute love story? I don't want them to end up together. I want Madoka to get hit by a bus. So I'm not sure if I can go forward. But yeah... I'm gonna try. I don't like leaving manga unfinished. And the art is just so pretty, so I'm really bummed.

Typical rape to "love" sort of story, where the uke feels guilty somehow toward his rapist. Gross and unoriginal. Art was so-so, not great, but I've seen worse, so I'll leave it at 1.5 stars.

Read this again to be sure of how it all went, but yeah, pretty much as I remembered. This is a sad one. At least it doesn't go on long enough for them to live happily ever after, which I hope is not the natural conclusion to such a violent rape. But we all know how yaoiland works. For what was here, though, it's a sad, interesting story about obsession, denial, and unrequited love.