otakulys's manga / #unrequited love(76)

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.

Really screwed up, kinda weird, and then it just ends. Pretty depressing.

Very sweet, sad, and touching story about unrequited love. The hint of hope at the end stopped it from being too painful. It's very realistic in the sense that the character would be ostracized for his orientation, and he'd be afraid of acting on his feelings. It's nice to see actual gay characters and not just "surprise gay" characters in shounen ai.

So sweet, if not a bit rushed at the end. I want to read more about these two. They're so cute.

Wait, what? I'm so confused. I've read this manga twice before, and the ending is suddenly different. I swear that before, he raped his friend and then the friend leaves without them ever seeing one another again. It was heartbreaking and dark, and I liked that it didn't brush away the awful thing he did, just left its heavy presence in the absence of the boy he loved. There's no forgiveness for that sort of thing. So why does the end have a new part with him saying that they made up and dated? That makes no sense. Am I crazy? This is going to drive me nuts. Three stars for the original ending, one star for the ending they have right now. I swear I'm not making this up, but wtf.

So sad and screwed up! I can't tell if the implication is that Shirase drowned out of shock after the rape, or Shirase killed himself afterward. Either way, I feel so bad for Shirase. I wanted to cry when he was crying. Everything was going horribly in his life, then his best friend raped him, then he drowned. That's a pretty crappy way to go out. Ugh, too depressing. Now I need to read something fluffy.

Miyamoto's work is so often sweet and sad, definitely a trademark of hers. This is no different. Poor little Sakai. I wish we could learn what happened to him, but I'm sure he found a hot boyfriend eventually and lived happily ever after.

Now I feel even worse for Sakai! I wish we could see his happy ending. Damn you, Miyamoto Kano! Your stories are always so heartbreaking! But I guess it could be worse. And I always end up coming back for more.