Its good in the portrayal of enforced societal norms on lgbtq+ people but its sort of not that good in the way that it shows love as fixed. Throughout the manga, characters around mc and mc both acknowledge that the love when you get hard is different to ‘love’ love. Personally, I don’t really like this as it insinuates that eros is not a love however phillia is true ‘love’ love but then mc’s actions go against this when he starts beliveing otherwise; going completely astray from his previous conclusion.This pushes the narrative that love is love only when you feel sexual attraction which is further implied when mc says he ‘like-likes’ the girl, with no references to platonic love, explaining his feelings as like instead of love. It is also harmful in the way that it suggests that if two men like each other they are gay, If two women like each other they are lesbian, and if a man and woman like each other they are straight. It categorises people of the lgbtq+ into boxes which is exactly against the poing of the lgbtq+ movement. Giving them only three boxes as it does in this manga disregards the fact that bisexual, pansexual or even people who are sexually attracted to one gender but not romantically attracted cant exist. This is a very real and uplifting manga however it’s clear that the author only has gay men in mind thus making this quite a toxic read because of it’s (perhaps unintentional) underlying messages.
Its good in the portrayal of enforced societal norms on lgbtq+ people but its sort of not that good in the way that it shows love as fixed. Throughout the manga, characters around mc and mc both acknowledge that the love when you get hard is different to ‘love’ love. Personally, I don’t really like this as it insinuates that eros is not a love however phillia is true ‘love’ love but then mc’s actions go against this when he starts beliveing otherwise; going completely astray from his previous conclusion.This pushes the narrative that love is love only when you feel sexual attraction which is further implied when mc says he ‘like-likes’ the girl, with no references to platonic love, explaining his feelings as like instead of love. It is also harmful in the way that it suggests that if two men like each other they are gay, If two women like each other they are lesbian, and if a man and woman like each other they are straight. It categorises people of the lgbtq+ into boxes which is exactly against the poing of the lgbtq+ movement. Giving them only three boxes as it does in this manga disregards the fact that bisexual, pansexual or even people who are sexually attracted to one gender but not romantically attracted cant exist. This is a very real and uplifting manga however it’s clear that the author only has gay men in mind thus making this quite a toxic read because of it’s (perhaps unintentional) underlying messages.