Never agreed with a comment more, thank you for putting this into words!
Also total agree....and I think he is still taking note of the lessons he picked up on the book on caring for small animals
Thanks!
Hahaha! Kanou is trying, but I can't imagine how hard it is for someone with his history and his current job and social position to change. I had to make some serious personality changes about 15 years ago or so. I was abusive. Plain and simple, I was abusive to my husband. I realized it when I read a "Dear Abby" advice column that had the "50 Reasons to Leave Your Lover" list of the 50 most common signs of an abusive relationship. I had 48 out of 50. That scared the shit out of me. I was going to end up driving my husband and children away if I didn't get my shit together. So, I decided to make changes. I started with that list of 48 things. It was a start, but it still was very hard to change who I had been for the last 30+ years as well as try to remold myself despite my personal and family history. (My mother and grandmother were also abusive and my step-father physically, mentally, emotionally and sexually abused me.) My past had made me who I was up to that point and I didn't know how to be any other way. So, I found myself in our local Buddhist temple. I asked to speak with someone and I told the monk my story. Every last, ugly detail. He taught me how to let go of lingering anger, how to meditate, the Buddhist concepts of enlightenment and that my imperfections aren't something I should hate. Rather, by accepting my flaws and understanding that as a living person, I will always have flaws - and so will every other human - I was able to see my abusiveness as something that can be let go of without losing myself. I had created my flaws, they didn't create me. As easily as I created them, I could destroy them. If I met the me from 15 or 20 years ago, I don't think I would recognize her. I know I wouldn't like her much. But the me today... I like her an awful lot and I am very proud of her. So are my husband and children. I am also lucky that I married the most patient, loving, kind and understanding man on the planet. He stood by me no matter what and he was always there to pick me up when I stumbled.
I know that is why I sympathize so much with Kanou. He wants to change, he just doesn't know how or where to start. The fact that he tries and that he even wants to change at all, make him a good guy in my book. None of us is perfect and we don't need to be. We just need to try to be a better person today than we were yesterday. It will eventually add up and make us pretty darn good.
Thank you for sharing that with me....I am 57 and all I have left is my grown kids, my grandkids and a broken down body. I have not thought about taking that path but you have changed my way of thinking
I absolutely ADORE this manga. It really isn't meant to be taken seriously. You can spend days or weeks analysing Ayase and Kanou and, for me, it would be fun. But guys, this isn't exactly a romance manga or a "based on actual events" novel. It is erotica. Gay porn for chicks. And, like it or not, there are people out there, like myself, who get aroused by rape, ravishment and forceful intercourse. Get over it, move on if you don't like it and read something else if it is more than you handle.
Personally, I am more captivated by the growth that both Kanou and Ayase have undergone in the last several volumes. I even ache for Kanou at times because he is written as a character who only has one mode to his personality... yakuza boss. Where Kubo can be ruthless on one hand and kind on the other, Kanou is a character with only one hand. He is learning as he goes, just as Ayase is learning. Ayase is learning to be confident, self-assured, honest and unafraid of the world around him. Kanou is learning patience, respect for the feelings of others and what it is like to be loved and accepted as he is, flaws and all. These are poignant lessons we all have to learn in our lives and they are woven through an erotic manga by a writer talented enough to seamlessly blend the two. What is there not to love about this manga?