I put this in my review for it, and I feel it’s only right to share it here filled with fellow fujos and fudans who are equally disappointed
I’m no puritan yaoi reader, I’m not against dark themes or interesting and complex dynamics. But this was shitty
1. The World Building.
Most good “Toxic Yaois” that occur in the business world use it to help build amazing power dynamics and a complex relationship, but they only matter if this business world makes sense.
They did “clearly” portray what they wanted with this business world, but in a world where sex is your weapon and your weakness shouldn’t it matter more? I’m not asking for the uke to be chaste or holier than thou.. I’m asking for the sex to carry weight the way it does in other manhwas. To portray domination, possession, corruption, love, or more. The sex should mean much more than it does here. These characters dynamics should show in their purest form through sex but I found the scenes ineffective and insignificant. I found myself skimming through most of them actually. The business world trope has so much potential because of the dynamics that can occur. The business world is a power system and it wasn’t utilized in the thrilling way it should have been. The power dynamics exist but without a well established business world behind them they feel hollow rather than dangerous. It seems the business world was just for show, in fact the whole sex contributing to power makes little to no sense. This story made me feel grateful to "Pawn's Revenge" which used it's setting wisely, rather than as a prop.
2. Characters The dynamics started interesting. An uke who is socially and economically superior is always interesting. It’s not the fact that the seme was superior by the end that made this bad. The seme changed, and that change was ruining the seme’s ambitousness. He clearly had capabilities. He was intelligent, he had language skills, and he was ambitious. An ambitious person will do whatever it takes, but the author focused more on him becoming codependent because of that ambition, rather than the drive to act for himself. It stayed like this until the end, even though in the beginning he was only at this company because of his will to do whatever it took, his will to survive and move forward for himself. He had a real opportunity. He could have grown into something great, which would have made the revenge far more satisfying. I would have enjoyed seeing the power system actually used, and his original personality maintained. His cynical, cunning, detached nature was thrilling. I found myself relating to the uke, because I too was interested in the seme at first, and then slowly bored by him. This story had so much potential to create characters with real depth, which is what makes toxic yaoi good. Complex characters with sharp traits. Instead, those traits were watered down, even though they were clearly established in the beginning. The seme thought of the uke the same way he thought of the classmates who bullied him, the classmates he looked down on until the end. So why would he continue to grow dependent. Why wouldn’t he begin to look down on the uke as well, and realize he could get the revenge he wanted through him. There is so much untapped potential here, and so many possibilities I haven’t even listed, that could have happened but didn’t. Had the story actually built on the seme’s improvement arc, the ending would have made much more sense. In fact, I would have preferred the seme stealing the investors or contractors himself, instead of them simply abandoning the uke. A perfect role reversal.
3. The shit obviously rushed ending. The time skip was well placed, I guess. But that’s all the credit I can give this ending. The ending is still corrupt, but it’s a hollow kind of corruption. Maybe the ultimate outcome of role reversal was nice on paper, but it wasn’t pushed to its fullest potential. The role reversal exists on paper, but not in character psychology. This ending feels open and lacking, it leaves too much to be desired. The story gestures toward so many possibilities, then refuses to commit to any of them. The secretary’s reaction alone could have added real weight. His downfall after realizing the uke was stuck, and truly taken from him, would have been satisfying. I would have even been interested in whether he would attempt revenge. The cage around the uke could have been handled better as well. Tapping into the uke’s almost masochistic nature would have been interesting. How compelling would it have been if the uke found this thrilling, even slightly. Or if he was completely destroyed by it. The seme asking for the uke’s company after all of this made me wince in disgust. It just reminded me of how pathetic they made the seme. It contradicts the ambition that once defined him. He wants everything handed to him, yet he doesn’t even manipulate well enough for it to feel inevitable. The power shift isn’t earned through action, only circumstance. The drive that once made him dangerous is completely gone. This ending is so lackluster that it becomes difficult to critique, because there is so little substance to engage with. Most of my criticism of the ending has already been sprinkled throughout the earlier points. Even with everything that was already wrong, this ending didn’t have to be this empty. The direction it took wasn’t inherently wrong either, it was just sudden, underdeveloped, and made insignificant. Overall, this was not well done, which makes the title ironic.
I put this in my review for it, and I feel it’s only right to share it here filled with fellow fujos and fudans who are equally disappointed
I’m no puritan yaoi reader, I’m not against dark themes or interesting and complex dynamics. But this was shitty
1. The World Building.
Most good “Toxic Yaois” that occur in the business world use it to help build amazing power dynamics and a complex relationship, but they only matter if this business world makes sense.
They did “clearly” portray what they wanted with this business world, but in a world where sex is your weapon and your weakness shouldn’t it matter more? I’m not asking for the uke to be chaste or holier than thou.. I’m asking for the sex to carry weight the way it does in other manhwas. To portray domination, possession, corruption, love, or more. The sex should mean much more than it does here.
These characters dynamics should show in their purest form through sex but I found the scenes ineffective and insignificant. I found myself skimming through most of them actually. The business world trope has so much potential because of the dynamics that can occur. The business world is a power system and it wasn’t utilized in the thrilling way it should have been. The power dynamics exist but without a well established business world behind them they feel hollow rather than dangerous. It seems the business world was just for show, in fact the whole sex contributing to power makes little to no sense. This story made me feel grateful to "Pawn's Revenge" which used it's setting wisely, rather than as a prop.
2. Characters
The dynamics started interesting. An uke who is socially and economically superior is always interesting. It’s not the fact that the seme was superior by the end that made this bad. The seme changed, and that change was ruining the seme’s ambitousness. He clearly had capabilities. He was intelligent, he had language skills, and he was ambitious. An ambitious person will do whatever it takes, but the author focused more on him becoming codependent because of that ambition, rather than the drive to act for himself. It stayed like this until the end, even though in the beginning he was only at this company because of his will to do whatever it took, his will to survive and move forward for himself. He had a real opportunity. He could have grown into something great, which would have made the revenge far more satisfying. I would have enjoyed seeing the power system actually used, and his original personality maintained. His cynical, cunning, detached nature was thrilling. I found myself relating to the uke, because I too was interested in the seme at first, and then slowly bored by him. This story had so much potential to create characters with real depth, which is what makes toxic yaoi good. Complex characters with sharp traits. Instead, those traits were watered down, even though they were clearly established in the beginning. The seme thought of the uke the same way he thought of the classmates who bullied him, the classmates he looked down on until the end. So why would he continue to grow dependent. Why wouldn’t he begin to look down on the uke as well, and realize he could get the revenge he wanted through him. There is so much untapped potential here, and so many possibilities I haven’t even listed, that could have happened but didn’t. Had the story actually built on the seme’s improvement arc, the ending would have made much more sense. In fact, I would have preferred the seme stealing the investors or contractors himself, instead of them simply abandoning the uke. A perfect role reversal.
3. The shit obviously rushed ending.
The time skip was well placed, I guess. But that’s all the credit I can give this ending. The ending is still corrupt, but it’s a hollow kind of corruption. Maybe the ultimate outcome of role reversal was nice on paper, but it wasn’t pushed to its fullest potential. The role reversal exists on paper, but not in character psychology. This ending feels open and lacking, it leaves too much to be desired. The story gestures toward so many possibilities, then refuses to commit to any of them. The secretary’s reaction alone could have added real weight. His downfall after realizing the uke was stuck, and truly taken from him, would have been satisfying. I would have even been interested in whether he would attempt revenge. The cage around the uke could have been handled better as well. Tapping into the uke’s almost masochistic nature would have been interesting. How compelling would it have been if the uke found this thrilling, even slightly. Or if he was completely destroyed by it. The seme asking for the uke’s company after all of this made me wince in disgust. It just reminded me of how pathetic they made the seme. It contradicts the ambition that once defined him. He wants everything handed to him, yet he doesn’t even manipulate well enough for it to feel inevitable. The power shift isn’t earned through action, only circumstance. The drive that once made him dangerous is completely gone. This ending is so lackluster that it becomes difficult to critique, because there is so little substance to engage with. Most of my criticism of the ending has already been sprinkled throughout the earlier points. Even with everything that was already wrong, this ending didn’t have to be this empty. The direction it took wasn’t inherently wrong either, it was just sudden, underdeveloped, and made insignificant. Overall, this was not well done, which makes the title ironic.