I normally really like manipulative son kf a bich semes and especially revenge shit. I mos...

Sorry for this mountain of a comment I just found your comment really engaging and I wanted to offer my perspective on the things you talked about.

I think the author(s)/artists deserve more credit. This story may not be the pinnacle of story telling, and of course, you’re allowed to not like it, but I think the story does work the way it’s written. The characters act irrationally or in a way which the reader may not agree with, or, heck, in a way which trained mental health profesionales wouldn’t agree with . But, imo, I think they behave in ways which make sense to them as characters, which I think is more important. (Important note: The SA and just general abuse in this story alone are perfectly valid reasons for hating this story. I can’t really defend it. I just kind of accepted it, but no one has to.)

First of all, I can accept the fact that Jichan can’t really fight back because of “omega x alpha pheromones and heat”, but I understand why it seems ridiculous. Jichan is a strong, tough guy clearly capable of defending himself, so why doesn’t he just go ham and beat the shit out of Eugene? I’m not super familiar with this sub genre so I just chose to accept this a/b/o dynamic almost as if it were a new magic system in a fantasy story. The rules of this world seem quite different to our own, so I just accepted the fact that Eugene has this almost supernatural control over Jichan now that he’s an omega. (Side note: Jichan does get in a few hits that seem to hurt Eugene a bit. One example is in Ch.11 Pg.6, but these don’t really have any meaningful impact so I can understand why someone would ignore them.)

Second, Jichan does act and talk very antagonistically towards Eugene, when he’s not being affected by that aforementioned omega x alpha pheromone dynamic, up until Ch. 16, when Jichan doesn’t attack Eugene when he gets home. But to be fair, like 6 of these of chapters do not have the two interacting, and a lot of these chapters have Jichan suffering under Eugene’s control. He willingly follows Eugene’s orders after Eugene tells him he might tell him where Mido is. I think this might be where people disconnected. How could he just do what he says after all that awful r*pe and abuse? But this tells us that Jichan’s resolve/desire to find Mido is very strong, almost comically so to some.

The importance of Mido is central to Jichan. The author drops hints about this importance as early as Ch. 2 when Jichan is faintly reminded of Mido when he meets Eugene. Later in Ch. 3, Jichan’s current position within his gang is threatened by Jaehyo, and he thinks about one of the reasons he needs to keep it: the continuation of his search for Mido. These hints about Mido continue to get dropped little by little until the end of Ch. 8 when Jichan finds a photo of Mido in Eugene’s drawer and later confronts Eugene over it. Eugene doesn’t deny he has a connection to Mido and uses it to get Jichan to do what he says. (Side note: I know it was extremely obvious that Eugene is Mido since the very beginning, and I can’t really defend this aspect of the story. Personally, I found Jichan’s obliviousness to this fact as intriguing and crucial insight into his stubbornness/ unwillingness to see the truth.)

So, Jichan gives up trying to escape or fight Eugene just for the chance to meet Mido again. He’s that desperate. It isn’t because Eugene reminds him of Mido; he even brushed off any resemblance he has to Mido in Ch. 3. His desperation to meet Mido really shows in Ch. 16 when he’s in the car with Eugene. Here he describes himself as “pathetic” and like “livestock being dragged to the slaughterhouse” but that he’ll endure it “as many times as necessary” if it can lead to him seeing Mido again. He’s still very stubborn in this way. Jichan’s stubbornness is not inconsistent. It is as present as it was at the beginning of the story. In fact, it probably grew now that he has a lead on where Mido is.

I’ll be honest, I don’t really care for Eugene as a character as much as I do for Jichan. I think the author has an uphill battle if they want to redeem him later on in the story. He acts cartoonishly evil toward Jichan, but in a confusing way. I mean, if you really hated someone, why would you want them so close to you? It seems more like he’s obsessed with Jichan but is confused about his feelings toward him. As early as Ch. 9 what seems like his true feelings come out when he says it’s a relief that Jichan didn’t die from the experimental drug he gave him before pivoting back to the idea that “if (he) had died, it would’ve been (his) fate.” This are contradictions in his character, albeit taken to an extreme on his more negative feelings toward Jichan. The full extent of his backstory hasn’t been revealed yet, so I don’t know how his actions in the present will stack up with his experiences in the past. We’ll see. Also I think it’s important to note, though it doesn’t justify his actions in my eyes, that Eugene came from an already traumatizing background before he even got to the orphanage. In Ch. 12, we find out that the reason he’s at the orphanage is because his mom abused him and then abandoned him. So he already had this fear of abandonment as a child that probably effected how he took his perceived abandonment by Jichan.

I have seen a lot of people honing in on this fact: that this whole plot hinges on a misunderstanding and this is bad writing. I’m not an expert on what makes writing good, so I’ll just give my take on this. Stories are inherently heightened versions of reality, this one especially. This are made up characters reacting in their own way to their tragic circumstances. The fact that they were so close to running away together but couldn’t due to things going wrong on Jichan’s side just heightens the tragedy of it all. Yes, it’s frustrating, but to me, it isn’t bad writing. It wasn’t even one silly mistake that caused it. Jichan’s entire plan put Mido directly into danger and he knew/knows it but chose to ignore it. In Ch. 23 he admits this and that he “couldn’t control (his) greed” to be with Mido. Now, I admit, this childhood “mistake” on Jichan’s part doesn’t really compare to Mido’s actions now, especially to us, the audience. But to the characters, especially Jichan at this point, his actions in the past matter so much, and I think the story conveys that just fine. I am glad you liked the art style. I think it’s beautiful as well :)

I don’t have much to add regarding the quality of the smut. Again, I’m not super familiar with this genre. I disagree with the idea that Eugene doesn’t enjoy it. I think he does in a messed up, controlling kind of way? I think when the panels focus on Jichan “enjoying it” but not wanting to, its building toward the humiliation that Eugene’s putting him through? And as to the “if you read it thinking he wasn’t given drugs and made to become [an] omega all of it loses effect” statement, why would you read it like that than? Isn’t him being drugged what happened in the story? I do understand being tired of the coercive sex trope. It’s probably a little over used. And again, Eugene is completely in control because of the whole omega x alpha pheromone thing in this world, so Jichan can’t really attack him. I don’t really like this either but I’ve just accepted it. The SA in this manhwa is pretty wild and I completely understand refusing to engage with it because of it.

I haven’t read many manhwas so I can’t really address the overall quality of them, or whether there’s a serious plagiarism problem going on in the industry.

In regards to this story, I don’t think the narrative is so simple it’s as if it’s written for kids. If it is simple, I’d say it’s a feature, not a bug. The feelings the characters have (guilt, anger, despair, resignation, determination) are pretty universal and thus easy to understand and relate to because it’s things we feel all our lives. The story is very dramatic, which may put some people off, with twists and turns that may confuse at first, but I think they are understandable.

I’m going to try to clear up some of the confusion you expressed at the end of your comment, but you don’t have to read them if you don’t want to. I guess you don’t have to read any of this comment if you don’t want to lol:

(Like, was the uke supposed to be sub? Oh so he isn't supposed to be but the seme made him a sub. Oh... But here it says he isn't a sub again. Huh?)
Jichan (uke) was an alpha before Eugene (seme) made him an omega with an experimental drug. I don’t know where it says he isn’t a sub again.

(This side character is here to just add spice? No he is important to the story? Oh, he is just an accessory... Oh? He was important??)
I don’t exactly know which side character you mean but I’m guessing it’s Hyeon: the one who visits Eugene’s apartment all the time. I think he is going to be more important down the line. The slow nature of these updates makes it frustrating to wait to see how he’s important, but we can’t really judge until we see.

(Or, okay, the uke is actually faulty and deserves all this shit. No, he doesn't.... Or does he?? Okay so the story will focus on how he isn't guilty but feels guilty so act like he deserves it. Wait, the story also suggests he IS actually guilty based on what happened??)
I think the frustration with not knowing whether Jichan deserves Eugene’s abuse is due to the mystery aspect of the story. At first, you believe Jichan is completely innocent, as the story clearly shows he was still trying to find Mido. As more and more information is revealed, the innocence of Jichan comes into question. But throughout all of this, the story shows that Jichan does feel guilty about what happened, and the story leaves the question of his innocence up to the reader. This isn’t a fault in the writing, it’s just the central mystery unveiling itself.

Of course, we can disagree on whether what an author tried to do in a story worked or not. I think it did, as I’ve shown with this freaking essay of a comment, I really like this story. The level of engagement with it puts it above average for me. But, as I’ve said many times before, I haven’t read many manhwa so maybe this is a very typical, unimaginative, boring story to your average manhwa reader. I read this one on a whim and really liked it. I think it’s amazing how people can come away from a story with very different takeaways and levels of satisfaction; it’s very interesting to me. This comment was very fun to read. I hope you find a manhwa, or just another story, that you do really like :)

Honestly, your reply made me smile when i read it. Thank you for your time to write all that. I respect all your opinions and find them very insightful. I never expected anyone to read my comment seriously and answer it like this and i i don't have a lot of friends i can criticise or discuss mangas with but it made me think how nice it would be if that was the case because i can see it being really fun both to discuss and read mangas that way. I am really impressed with how you took time and effort to look for chapter and page references and really meticulously wrote all that. I just woke up to see your comment and it made me smile immediately lol. I have a strand of hair on the air i can't stick back, and I'm writing all this with blurry eyes so i hope i don't make many typos, since I'm basing the things i write on my memory, forgive me if i write something differently than it was in the manhwa.

All the things you mentioned, I can understand why they are the case really. But the part where you said you think everything is conveyed just fine, i don't really agree on that. To me, the characters really do have all that character depth but the manga is lacking in giving it in a delicious way. It is true that i might have been hasty and made a comment about all these things before all the mistery was resolved and the unknown parts were filled but I can somehow see how this is all going to unbind and i saw some other comments people said this was easy to guess. And what made me so disappointed was that this had so much potential to be a manga i was loving to read because just like you, I'm not stuck on the SA or rape because I also got used to it and i have a personal opinion that it's fine to portray illegal things and crimes in media content as long as it's not trying to make it look okay and a way to protest how it is illegal, like child pornography. Reading your comment made me think maybe i was just really frustrated about reading too many similar unfolding mangas made a harsher about my comment on this one. And I got reminded of some other manhwas i read that are similar and maybe worse than this one that i liked more because it was something fresh at the time. I might have been unfair and honestly i just wrote all that on a whim lol.

And my opinion about the part where you said "I’m not super familiar with this sub genre so I just chose to accept this a/b/o dynamic almost as if it were a new magic system in a fantasy story. The rules of this world seem quite different to our own, so I just accepted the fact that Eugene has this almost supernatural control over Jichan now that he’s an omega." That is the part I'm struggling with. Some of the omegaverse manhwas/manhas that i absolutely loved reading and still reread are the ones that don't leave it as a hole were the ones that explained omegaverse so well you had something to turn and say "okay so this is the reason" to the things that were happening. But because the lines of omegaverse differs from each manhwa is it so important for me that the manhwa tells me about that line. There are a bunch of "the alphas can't control themselves when they're exposed to omega pheromones" and other bunch of "alphas can control themselves and it's their will, so they're faulty if they attack omegas but just not willing to accept that." This kind of seems relevant but I'm giving this example to set a base for my opinion. There's a part where Jichan says "but if i am truly an omega like he said, he should also be effected by my pheromones, so why is he acting so indifferent?" I know the story is yet to unfold and there's too many unknown things BUT I want to know if in this omegaverse omegas lose themselves immediately when they go heat or they can control it with their will? Or how hard is it to control themselves, so i can give credit to Jichan for holding on so much as to give Eugene a punch despite all the effort it takes. Or, leave that aside as I'm not a fan of the smut, the world dynamics! Honestly, i was really excited when Hyeon started talking about the world dynamics to Jichan. Every omegaverse has a different world and all that circumstances that build on an entire different universe that leads to character developments and traits that couldn't form in our world, understanding the characters based on that and trying to empathize is really interesting and intriguing to me. I love that kind of a story telling and i was really heartbroken to see it mentioned really vaguely. Then again there's still a chance it will get mentioned more detailed during Eugene's backstory and it's too early to talk about this. But I wish these things were set on an earlier basis for audience engagement. Maybe my second read will be better on this because i can interpret it as deeply as you did. But I'm more of an, "why would i have to interpret it myself when you can show it to me graphically and literature wise" kind of a reader and viewer for movies as well. I expect the symbolism or characters to be well portrayed enough instead of me trying to prove them right or guilty based on limited information.

And by the sex not being enjoyable I seem to have misphrased it. It is clear that it is enjoyable for the seme/mido/eugene but it's just that it is no different than using a toy instead of a real person. By saying if you take away all the omegaverse effects i meant to emphasize how dull the smut is if you look at it. There's no foreplay or technique shown, no teasing, no other erogeneous zones used. Even for sadistic play the only thing used is the humiliation given by Eugene to Jichan. Plus if i look at it as the smut translating Eugene's obsession for Jichan I get reminded of tens of yandere characters that were absolutely obsessed with their uke throughout the smut and still feel a bit disappointed. And the biggest reason i skipped it all was mainly because Jichan seems just so upright and undeserving of all this I couldn't take it for him. Maybe a better way to handle this could be to actually show him as if he was guilty and let us empathize more with Eugene, and then telling us Jichan was actually innocent.

After reading your comment, I still think this could have been a masterpiece i came to read all over again had it been improved on the lacking parts and I really hope the author gets to work with an amazing editor in their next works and gives us manhwas for us to absolutely devour them. But it was still just average for me.
And yes, I was talking about Hyeon when I said the side character. I honestly didn't even read it that carefully and the comment i wrote was as i said just on a whim. I also think it is really amazing that you loved it, of course we can agree and disagree, and i hope the story goes on just as enjoyable until it ends for you :) And would it be awkward or weird for me to ask if i could slip in your dms to be friends...? :3

sorry for the late reply! but omg! i’m so glad you liked my comment :) i was so nervous right after posting it. i thought you were gonna be totally weirded out by the sheer length of it. i’m glad it could bring you some joy! thank you for replying <3 your last question isn’t weird at all! what would you like to dm though?

To discuss this manhwa a little further… i guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree about the manhwa delivering the character depth in a ‘delicious’ way (love that description btw). idk why, but i was hooked. i love the character of jichan. i like how tragic he is/feels. like the whole plot was kicked off because he wasn’t willing to part with mido and put him in a dangerous position so they could stay together :,( i love when a character’s tragic fate is due to their own flaws. it’s just so deliciously angsty i want him to find a way to heal and live a fulfilling life whether or not it’s with mido (kind of wish the author will subvert expectations and they’ll just be friends, or hell, maybe even part ways. that shit would be sooo good.) as i’ve said, i don’t really feel as passionate about eugene/mido. i like/tolerate him because he’s important to jichan lol. and i think we have about the same stance on depicting illegal things. the sa in this story is what it is

i accidentally cut my comment off here’s the rest:
i’ve also seen some other comments and a few spoilers and yeah, this story’s kinda predictable and tropey especially when it comes to eugene. i don’t know why i’m fine with this. maybe it’s cause i haven’t read too many of these kinds of stories/manhwas. maybe i’m just one of those people that are satisfied with mediocrity? i hope not

i totally understand being frustrated with this manhwa if you’ve already read many stories that are similar to this one. i’m sure the sameness of it all makes reading them much more annoying.

damn, the omegaverse is a lot more diverse than i thought. it sounds very interesting how different authors play with the rules/dynamics. this story seems like a very barebones and maybe even boring use of omegaverse with a little sprinkle of spice with the addition of a trait-changing drug (unless this is also a common device in these stories? i don’t think it is as i’ve seen many comments expressing confusion over it). i think the author just assumed people would be on the same page about how it all works and after reading your comment, i kind of wish they had elaborated on it more :( to give the author some credit, i think they got the idea that jichan can’t resist against mido across clearly enough, at least for me. in ch 1 pg 24-26, they kind of address it. he says his body feels limp and “whenever (mido) touches it…”. but this is very quick and probably not substantive enough for a lot of people.

yeah when hyeon started talking about the inherent inequality that exists in this omegaverse world i was pleasantly surprised. i was like ‘oh we’re doing this?’ but yeah… i have a feeling it’s all we’re gonna get. it’s a pity, and i understand why you’re disappointed by this because it does sound like an interesting thing to explore. seeing how the characters interact with/fight against this unjust system would be so cool.

maybe we’ll see a bit of a discussion about the injustices among alphas and omegas in future chapters? hyeon chose to escape it by becoming a beta, and maybe the drug that he took and that was forced on jichan will come into play in the future (i hope so!). jichan’s rival jaehyo seemed to know he was going to be forced to become an omega when he said “we’ll see about that” in reply to jichan saying “no one can change the trait that they’re born with” in ch 1 pg 122, and he most definitely helped set the trap for jichan to fall into. do jaehyo and mido know each other? how? (as you can see i haven’t though about this at all lol)

I agree with your sentiment that the characters aren’t portrayed well enough but only when it comes to one character, and that’s eugene/mido. i feel like there’s a serious imbalance of character depth and intrigue between him and jichan. i think the suggestion you made later in your comment of having us think jichan is guilty and getting us to empathize more with eugene before tragically revealing that jichan is innocent would have hit harder and endeared us to eugene way more.

i don’t feel super qualified to judge the smut. i thought it was serviceable lol. felt like it did what it needed to. but i can totally see why you’d think it’s boring. it’s kind of just the same thing over and over. the humiliation aspect does seem to be one of the central concepts controlling how the smut is written/drawn. And yeah, having us think jichan is guilty would lessen the agony/annoyance of having to see him suffer so much and it would make eugene more likeable, which seems like an impossible task at this point and if the author wants to redeem mido, idk if it’s gonna be accepted by readers

omfg, it got cut off again. idk what i'm doing wrong. this is the last one i swear:
My hope is that making him this terrible is just gonna add to the tragedy of jichan’s situation when he finds out eugene is mido. oooh i just know that angst is going to be so good (to me at least :))
i hope the author and artists go on to write/create manhwas that you can enjoy :) but in the meantime, thank you! i am enjoying it and hope i continue to again, thank you for replying :)

Hey, that's really alright! Honestly, if I write too many things on mangago it just starts glitching, leaving me more prone to making typos and mistakes. So it could be the sites fault. And I'm not weirded out at all! I was thinking I was weird too while writing my first comment haha.

So if we are to conclude both our reviews together with this manhwa, 'i love when a character’s tragic fate is due to their own flaws' this is actually what i was thinking when i mentioned 'i like revenge shit ' on my first comment. Dang, we talked about so many aspects of the manhwa that it is hard to keep my thoughts collected on one point i want to write now hahaha xd since we agreed to disagree, i think it would be alright for me to say I actually like Eugene a little bit. I'm just really frustrated with how he is acting/or the way author chose for him to act. Because as i mentioned in my dm, an ex-omega revenger alpha is something I've never seen personally. Although of course I read other Omega revengers and some were really good. Again, too many things came to my mind to write and all of them disappeared because i couldn't keep track of my thoughts ;-; But i really wanted to say, the author is doing a better job than i initially thought. Making a manhwa isn't easy with everything considered, and the panelling and transmission of emotions are pretty good. I really hope some day they will make a manhwa i can enjoy like you did this one, too! Thank you for your kind thoughts.

I wouldn't say you're okay with mediocrity! The drawing style's topnotch as I mentioned and if this manhwa was edited a little bit more thoroughly, this was a good quality manhwa. And I'm sure this low rating is because of SA and rape scenes, minus them, even the rating of it would be really high, like 9.0 or 9.2 which is good for this site. And if there's a good redeem ark, this still has that potential given the average reader profile. The whole thing with the rival Jaehyo will either make this better or worse. I am not letting my hopes up in fear to get disappointed but I'll keep reading this out of curiosity and of course, our whole essays hahah. Dropping it after all this conversation/review/essay would be such a shame.

'interact with/fight against this unjust system would be...' i could recommend omegaverse with this kind of plot if i shuffle through the mountain of my already read manga list! Im willing to give it a try if you want to read something like that. No promises because anything i say I'll find the name of has a curse of disappearing off the internet lmao.

haha thanks. I hope this one doesn't cut off too >_< Who doesn't love a classic revenge story? I love these kinds of stories too and with the way things are going, I think eugene is going to have to grapple with the purpose of his revenge and whether it's worth it or if jichan even deserves it, which I look forward to seeing. His actions are so over the top it does feel almost cartoonishly evil, but I'm glad you could like him at least a little bit.

I also like the author's pacing (or placement) of the panels and the expressiveness of the characers; it's great stuff! Thank you for reassuring me :) I think the good qualities of this manhwa is enough to push it over the average threshold and into the good/great for me.

I'm very curious as to how jaehyo will factor into the plot. It's clear he wanted to knock jichan down a peg and he certainly got what he wanted, but I have a feeling he's got other plans in store. If the story shifts and he becomes the main antagonist it will certainly be easier for eugene to be redeemed. But again, I don't know if readers will accept it. Love that these 'essays' convinced you not to drop it haha.

I would love omegaverse recommendations with that kind of plot, but don't worry too much about it if it's a hastle.