otakulys's manga / #sad(231)

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.

The third one was sad but interesting. These stories were all a bit rushed, and some of them were pretty strange, but they were entertaining. This author really has a thing for rimming, haha. Three and a half stars.

Flawed and a bit silly in places, but still an enjoyable read. It might have benefited from being multiple volumes that allowed more character development, etc. But hey, everyone was hot, so I'm happy.

Heartbreaking, twisted, incredibly fucked up. But I loved it. This is just a field trip into the mind of a psychopath/sexual predator, and it's a terrifying but strangely alluring journey. I wanted to cry a few times because I felt for the victims so much. I guess the fact that I enjoy reading stuff like this when I have an overabundance of empathy makes me a bit of a masochist. Oh well, heh.

Very sad in ways, very screwed up in other ways, but I liked it back when I first read it. It's messed up, and there's no love or kindness really, but it still resonates as an emotional story.

Very depressing but in a satisfying way. That's all I can really ask. I'm eager to see the other stories, so I hope they're translated soon. ETA: I was surprised, at first, that chapter four wasn't as fucked up as the rest. After a second read through, I really like it. I think cheerful creepy is some of the best creepy, that moment when things seem okay, but we know they're not. Chapter five was quite morbid and hilarious. It's nice to have a little dark humor in there to even out the soul-crushing stories.