Wow, there are a lot of angry people around this comment section. This is clearly not a perfect manga in my opinion, but there are however several points that make it at least different and unexpectedly good, or at least interesting to read.
First, even if most readers here don't agree with this, I think Yuka is, for once, a great portrayal of a woman in a yaoi. She is free, and sweet at the same time, and not a witch or a bitch as I have read. Let's put breaks on "slut-shaming" and let women explore their sexuality the way they want to do it and enjoy their life the way they see fit. The 2 first boys knew what whe was doing, and so agreed with it. She lied to the third one, that was a mistake, and it was wrong, because I see no problem in open relationships but only as long as all parties are in on it. But that's what makes her human, and a normal person. Not an evil woman set to destroy everything in her path right before dying. I also really like the theory of a comment I saw saying that she did pick those 3 boys so that they would not have to face her death on their own, and it is pretty much exposed that the first boyfriend would have killed himself if he had been left on his own.
There's this quote from the poet Alfred Tennyson that I think would fit really well with this story : "Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." Yes she might have lied, she did take for herself the upper hand in those relationships because she selfishly wanted to enjoy everything she could before dying (and I am not using "selfishly" in a good or bad way here), but the most important thing is, she still loved them, told them so, and even if it was short, and probably not perfect, it's better to have this love than dying without knowing it, don't you think ?
But yes, sure it is tragic, and I see it is a genre often rejected by the readers of yaoi. I personally, and with every art, be it cinema, music, or manga, wouldn't reject a genre in particular, the important thing is the quality of the creation, and that it can touch us. And clearly this manga brought up a lot of feelings around here.
But then like I said in the beginning, it is not perfect either, and I did take out a star because of that useless drunk rape that I think was out of touch, and rape does piss me off. And I know the fact that rapes in manga pisses me off, piss off a lot of people who somehow love to read those kinds of scenes. They just ruin the creation for me, since most of the time they are not explained, or even linked to any psychological pattern, but are simply most of the time the illustration of a patriarcal way of seeing the relations between male and female (in yaoi that is to say the slender, emotional, and somehow really physically weak uke getting raped but still falling in love and forgiving at the end).
To conclude I think that for the originality and reflection that brings out this manga, it really doesn't deserve that really poor grade.
Wow, there are a lot of angry people around this comment section.
This is clearly not a perfect manga in my opinion, but there are however several points that make it at least different and unexpectedly good, or at least interesting to read.
First, even if most readers here don't agree with this, I think Yuka is, for once, a great portrayal of a woman in a yaoi. She is free, and sweet at the same time, and not a witch or a bitch as I have read. Let's put breaks on "slut-shaming" and let women explore their sexuality the way they want to do it and enjoy their life the way they see fit.
The 2 first boys knew what whe was doing, and so agreed with it. She lied to the third one, that was a mistake, and it was wrong, because I see no problem in open relationships but only as long as all parties are in on it. But that's what makes her human, and a normal person. Not an evil woman set to destroy everything in her path right before dying. I also really like the theory of a comment I saw saying that she did pick those 3 boys so that they would not have to face her death on their own, and it is pretty much exposed that the first boyfriend would have killed himself if he had been left on his own.
There's this quote from the poet Alfred Tennyson that I think would fit really well with this story : "Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."
Yes she might have lied, she did take for herself the upper hand in those relationships because she selfishly wanted to enjoy everything she could before dying (and I am not using "selfishly" in a good or bad way here), but the most important thing is, she still loved them, told them so, and even if it was short, and probably not perfect, it's better to have this love than dying without knowing it, don't you think ?
But yes, sure it is tragic, and I see it is a genre often rejected by the readers of yaoi. I personally, and with every art, be it cinema, music, or manga, wouldn't reject a genre in particular, the important thing is the quality of the creation, and that it can touch us. And clearly this manga brought up a lot of feelings around here.
But then like I said in the beginning, it is not perfect either, and I did take out a star because of that useless drunk rape that I think was out of touch, and rape does piss me off. And I know the fact that rapes in manga pisses me off, piss off a lot of people who somehow love to read those kinds of scenes. They just ruin the creation for me, since most of the time they are not explained, or even linked to any psychological pattern, but are simply most of the time the illustration of a patriarcal way of seeing the relations between male and female (in yaoi that is to say the slender, emotional, and somehow really physically weak uke getting raped but still falling in love and forgiving at the end).
To conclude I think that for the originality and reflection that brings out this manga, it really doesn't deserve that really poor grade.