A very sad look at how devastating life is when you're the quality of your life is determined by your gender. And if misogyny and sexism is allowed to free reign. For the most part all the alphas in this story are great A assholes who should be beating up neutered and then throwing in a ditch.
The story is also about going against fate. Which is actually physiological / physical urges. And grasping your fate for yourself.
The pacing is a little fast because you know Japanese story but I think it managed to touch on a lot of subjects well. I like all the characters a lot.
Yuka - through this character we see a lot of internalized misogyny. He hates the fact that he's different than that he's lower than other kinds of people. And he carries the shame all the way towards the end of the story even when he's at a happier part of his life.
Kaoru - probably the white knight of this series. The lone Alpha who is advanced in his way of thinking and actively works to make life easier and better for omegas and not just his own. I love that he refuses to give in to physical urges until he's pushed to.
Taiga - I usually hate redemption marks for super shitty characters but I actually appreciate this one a lot. In hindsight, you can see that when he was in junior high school he was repeating the misogyny and sexism that he's probably fed on a daily basis. That doesn't excuse his attempted rape of Yuka but it explains it. And he still is a shitty person pushing Kaoru to the point where K felt he had no choice but to rape Yuka (so Yuka wouldn't be required by Taiga and the other guys). When we meet him again as an adult, we can see that he's a little more mature still a kind of not so nice person. But it's through his relationship with Rin that he changes a lot. And become a more selfless and forward-thinking person. It sucks that some tragedy had to be fall someone he loved in order for him to grow but unfortunately a lot of people need that. They can't all just be super empathetic like Kaoru. Also, I like that he didn't fixate on Yuka too much, like he knew he done fucked up when he tried to rape Yuka back in jhs so he doesn't give Yuka (and us) the overheating apeman MINE routine.
Rin - he's so cute. He's both similar and yet quite a bit different from Yuka. The alphas mentioned that both omegas never had lasting friendships in high school due to their omega nature. And it seems that their gender dictates a lot of their social activities or lack thereof. For Rin, he kind of embraces his Omega nature according to what society dictates. So he hangs on to alphas and wait for one of them to mate him and impregnate him and that's all he wants in life. And unfortunately at the beginning of the story he couldn't even get that kind of simple "acceptable" piece of happiness. Unfortunately while I really adore this character in his story made me cry a lot it feels a bit like he was Canon fodder for Taiga's punishment. But I understand. He was also needed as a way to push society forward. His memory loss from overdosing on heat suppressant pills led to Kaoru pushing for more research and disclosure which then leads to society pushing for more alphas to take meds instead and for better medication for omegas.
Well overall the whole story is so freaking sad, I cried so much I could have watered like acres of crops with my tears, it ends on a very positive note. Yuka and Kaoru's son, appropriately named Mirai, will grow up in a society that's a lot more accepting omegas and the stigma between the different genders hope you will lessen. Hopefully.
I love that the two omegas and the two alphas are each other's foils. It really is a story about how f***** up the Alpha Omega world system is. Yuka fights against nature while Rin accepts it. But neither of them can be happy. Yuka was always depressed by how his gender was viewed. And Rin couldn't get the Omega dream life because at the life of perpetuated by the patriarchy. Kaoru try to live his life as morally as he can but he's forced to give in to Alpha nature to save his friend. Taiga embraces his Alpha nature and invite them in the ass when the Omega he loves doesn't believe him.
Shounen No Kyoukai