I.. am really shocked that no one in the comments has said anything about how every single character aside from Drac himself (And the very short lived Helsing) are all children.
I was giving it the benefit of the doubt until Johnathan was fully molested by those grown vampires. Calling a (MAYBE) 12 year old kid a "law student" is absolutely insane to me. While the art is gorgeous, this is not an easy read for anyone who has thought processes beyond "PRETTY ART TO CONSUME!!" I found myself as an adult insanely uncomfortable throughout this read.
I was extremely wary from the beginning with Luke being drawn naked over and over, telling myself it wasn't inherently sexual and an artistic choice of showing them as an ethereal genderless creature, but I then became entirely grossed out by Quincy's masturbation scenes, and then just full out over it with Johnathan's treatment and ultimate molestation. I don't think it's wild to say that this is CSAM material with the way many of the child characters are depicted and treated. This is my first manga by this author; is this a common theme in his works? Why not make the characters adults? They are to be depicted in adult situations, sexual situations, drinking alcohol, etc. The decision to make the cast all underage is.. really wild. And more wild is that no one else has commented on this but maybe one other person saying "I wish they were older," but then ultimately not caring by following up with "couldn't wait for more."
I can acknowledge and appreciate that this could be a narrative on innocence. Because, of course, seeing a child say something like "Why can't I just fuck anyone who courts me?" is very shocking when it's coming from a young, beautiful character. Seeing a little black boy masturbating in a confessional to show he's "unclean" through a religious lense is also a shocking visual. But I have to ask; why are we using children in sexual connotations as shock value? Is it not enough that all the boys are in love/obsessed with Luke, another boy, to show the boys as "unclean" and having religious guilt? Would the visual of a grown man masturbating in a confessional not have held the same shock value due to the fact he's in a religious space with a stolen item of his object of lust? I believe the manga could have been absolutely 10/10 if the characters were adults without losing any of the shock/effect that we were supposed to feel.
I will also say, that the children are not written as such. All of the kid's inner narration/monologues are not spoken as children but as full adults; their wording, their thought processes, their actions. All very adult oriented so they don't FEEL like children while reading. That in itself is a hard to reconcile juxtaposition from the visual of them all being very young, beautiful, round faced and innocent looking children. So with all that said, my opinion is that the characters should have been adults. This thing is full of kink, from shota to cat/puppy boys, that's a big chunk of what I'm getting from this manga's undertones.
I.. am really shocked that no one in the comments has said anything about how every single character aside from Drac himself (And the very short lived Helsing) are all children.
I was giving it the benefit of the doubt until Johnathan was fully molested by those grown vampires. Calling a (MAYBE) 12 year old kid a "law student" is absolutely insane to me. While the art is gorgeous, this is not an easy read for anyone who has thought processes beyond "PRETTY ART TO CONSUME!!" I found myself as an adult insanely uncomfortable throughout this read.
I was extremely wary from the beginning with Luke being drawn naked over and over, telling myself it wasn't inherently sexual and an artistic choice of showing them as an ethereal genderless creature, but I then became entirely grossed out by Quincy's masturbation scenes, and then just full out over it with Johnathan's treatment and ultimate molestation. I don't think it's wild to say that this is CSAM material with the way many of the child characters are depicted and treated. This is my first manga by this author; is this a common theme in his works? Why not make the characters adults? They are to be depicted in adult situations, sexual situations, drinking alcohol, etc. The decision to make the cast all underage is.. really wild. And more wild is that no one else has commented on this but maybe one other person saying "I wish they were older," but then ultimately not caring by following up with "couldn't wait for more."
I can acknowledge and appreciate that this could be a narrative on innocence. Because, of course, seeing a child say something like "Why can't I just fuck anyone who courts me?" is very shocking when it's coming from a young, beautiful character. Seeing a little black boy masturbating in a confessional to show he's "unclean" through a religious lense is also a shocking visual. But I have to ask; why are we using children in sexual connotations as shock value? Is it not enough that all the boys are in love/obsessed with Luke, another boy, to show the boys as "unclean" and having religious guilt? Would the visual of a grown man masturbating in a confessional not have held the same shock value due to the fact he's in a religious space with a stolen item of his object of lust? I believe the manga could have been absolutely 10/10 if the characters were adults without losing any of the shock/effect that we were supposed to feel.
I will also say, that the children are not written as such. All of the kid's inner narration/monologues are not spoken as children but as full adults; their wording, their thought processes, their actions. All very adult oriented so they don't FEEL like children while reading. That in itself is a hard to reconcile juxtaposition from the visual of them all being very young, beautiful, round faced and innocent looking children. So with all that said, my opinion is that the characters should have been adults. This thing is full of kink, from shota to cat/puppy boys, that's a big chunk of what I'm getting from this manga's undertones.
This one doesn't sit well with me, gang.