chlorine's Manga

It was enjoyable, but I wouldn't really call it all that good.

It was really cute at the beginning, but there were parts I found a bit cringe-worthy and stilted while the conflict was just frustrating.

The first two chapters were good. The build-up of Jihwan and Chanyoung's relationship was done pretty well, I also really loved Chanyoung's initial confession scene. Jihwan was sitting with Chanyoung and his friends, and when his friends joke about Chanyoung liking him, Jihwan shoots it down and tells them not to be silly, only for Chanyoung to say "Was it not obvious? And I was trying so hard to make it obvious" as he's looking over at him with his chin on his palm and a soft smirk and I just . . . If I were Jihwan, that would've instantly won me over. That made me swoon, man. Chanyoung in general was very suave which I liked quite a lot; there was another scene where he found out Jihwan didn't like white milk, so he went and got a chocolate power packet, and I just thought that was so cute. They had a really cute dynamic for the most part which I really enjoyed.

As I mentioned though, I didn't like the conflict. I understood where it was coming from and I found it quite human—Jihwan has never liked another person before so he doesn't really know what love is, so it kind of intimidates him, and because of that he tries to ask Chanyoung to let go of his crush—but I still found it quite frustrating regardless. Some of the dialogue was really clunky, like the time Jihwan said, "I'd like it if you stopped this now. Liking me, I mean." Who says that? He also said he doubted Chanyoung really liked him since all Jihwan did for him was hold his earrings, which sets Chanyoung off and makes him have a spit . . . But, like . . . What Jihwan said made sense. I could fully understand where he was coming from and, despite the story trying to say otherwise, he articulated himself very clearly and directly. The reaction Chanyoung had was, in my opinion, completely disproportionate and it kind of turned me off of him.

This was so fucking good, man. I really wish it was longer but what it offered was still great. It actually, genuinely made me emotional.

It's an incredibly simple story; Eden is part of a family called 'Timewatchers.' His family has the ability to time travel. After he dies, he gets sent back in time to a period he wishes he could have done something different—the time he & his best friend kissed and he ran away. Now he gets a do-over.

This was genuinely such a good fucking story. It evokes such specific feelings in me that I don't feel like I can accurately describe. It almost felt like I was going through an old camera, it had this tear-jerking sense of nostalgia to it; the idea of a do-over is always very romantic to me, there's just something about it, and I think this story really executed that specific feeling perfectly. It's a young love, a true love; Eden missed out on his chance once, they went their separate paths with his true love having ended up marrying a woman, and now he gets another chance. He won't miss out this time.

The moment where Eden goes to the pool and sees Jay swimming was just so insanely romantic to me. The monologue during that scene that moved me close to tears. "It was long submerged in the deep sea. It was similar to the first gasp of air we take when we hit the surface of the water to breathe. Something like soft and transparent air that filled our relationship. When we breathe there... Time stops, and love surrounds us. A kiss that tastes of chlorine."

I usually think such short stories hugely suffer from the fact that they're so short. But this story . . . It didn't have that problem. At all. In fact, I think this was the perfect length—this was telling a specific, very tight story about redoing the one thing you regret most. And it told that story amazingly. It's only three chapters yet it's so rich in emotion, I found myself satisfied with the story when I finished. It's about a redo and we saw the redo. What more could you ask for?

The only negative I'd have is that I think the way time travel works is a little vague, but it's not too bad. We know enough that it makes sense with what we saw, it's just that it leaves us wondering more about it—like is this a one-time thing? If he dies again, is he going back to another moment he regrets?

It was cute enough. Relatively inoffensive; like pretty much every story that isn't just porn, it being so short hinders it pretty greatly. Still, it's pretty strong even with that weakness, it's like a solid three stars.

The plot is pretty simple; Hanjae tries to start smoking as to get closer to his coworker, Jinwoo, as Jinwoo smokes alone on their work breaks. However, Jinwoo is a taken man, and his girlfriend wants him to quit smoking—or else she'll break up with him.

Hanjae ends up confessing to Jinwoo, to which he is rejected. After the rejection, Hanjae ends up enlisting in the military, meanwhile, Jinwoo is unable to stop thinking about him & picks up his bad habit once more, leading his girlfriend to break up with him.

Once Hanjae comes back, Jinwoo admits he hasn't been able to stop thinking about it, and so says he'll date Hanjae for a month to see if Hanjae will be able to make him fall in love.

We then flash forward multiple years. There's a brief bit of conflict where Jinwoo's ex comes back and tries to get together, kisses him, Hanjae sees the kiss and thinks Jinwoo doesn't really want him. Hanjae chases after him though and reaffirms his feelings, making them officially a couple.

. . . It becomes a little messy. I really didn't like the flashforward at all; I mean, one, it's silly that they ended up dating for multiple years and didn't make it official. Like it's just stupid. But two, I really would have preferred to see the initial month Jinwoo gave him and have seen them fall in love. That would've been cute. Instead, we completely skip it, we don't actually see any development of Jinwoo's feelings whatsoever. He doesn't love him, and then he does, all in the span of like . . . A single panel. That's really underwhelming, especially since it was done to prioritize conflict that just felt incredibly unnecessary. It's only two chapters. We don't need conflict like that.

Still, I thought the first chapter and a half was incredibly strong for what it offered. It was cute to see Hanjae trying to get close to Jinwoo, it's a bit extreme but him getting into smoking purely because Jinwoo smokes was endearing to me. It was cute. He was also quite a jealous and desperate person; I mean, as soon as he heard that Jinwoo's girlfriend threatened to break up with him if he continued smoking, he pleaded with him to still smoke lmfao he was not subtle at all and I loved it

Anytime I read something that's basically just a oneshot, I'm really just expecting shameless smut, so the plot—and it being a good one at that—was really surprising to me.

To be expected with a story so short, I do wish it was longer. It had a really intriguing premise that just wasn't really able to go anywhere and the development that did happen felt incredibly quick and out of left-field. With a story so short, you can't really have even pacing, and the fact that it is so short brought the issue of it front and center.

The story follows Ilya, a man who lives purely for his lover, Henrik; Henrik is a possessive man, controlling everything Ilya does, forcing him to stay in the house they share 24/7. Ilyra is treated as merely a possession he owns.

At night, Ilya is plagued by nightmares. He sees himself in a black void, being told that Henrik doesn't love him and that he's deluding himself into thinking otherwise. He always wakes up with Henrik looming over him.

One day, the house gets a visitor. Henrik tells him to stay in the room and to not come out, but upon hearing an argument, Ilya couldn't help himself. He opens the door slightly and instantly spots the strange visitor. He and the strange man have a brief exchange before Henrik comes back and tells him to leave, but that short exchange changes something in Ilya.

That night, Ilya decides to run away. Henrik tries to stop him but he stabs him in the shoulder and flees. Before going to the front door, he notices Henrik's study is slightly open. He feels himself getting pulled towards it, too curious not to, like a moth to a flame.

And when he opens the door, he sees himself. Multiple versions of himself, all battered and bruised. They're all robotic parts. Before he can make a run for it, Henrik comes up behind him and smashes a hammer against his head.

As he's dying, Ilya finds solace in the fact that in death, it's as himself, and not an object Henrik owns.

That's the whole story. It's pretty good, especially for something that's only two chapters, but there isn't enough breathing room between scenes, and some of the scenes themselves are way too short.

For example, the brief conversation Ilya has with the visitor is a huge turning point. It's what makes Ilya finally stand up for himself and decide to leave Henrik behind . . . But why? When I say it's a brief conversation, I mean it's super fucking brief. I don't think Ilya even says "Hi" to him. All the visitor says is that Henrik isn't a man to accept something as "impossible." Why did that so deeply move Ilya? It makes no sense. If anything, I feel like something like that should have just made Ilya more afraid of the outside world, as that's his seemingly first encounter with anyone other than Henrik. It wasn't exactly a great first impression. Yet it's the turning point for the story, the whole thing hinges on it. Even with it only being two chapters, I thought it was pretty poorly done. You could have just made the visitor allude to Henrik being a bad person.

Another thing is that the plot twist at the end brings up three main questions; one: why? Why is Henrik doing all of this? Is he perhaps trying to immortalize a dead lover, or is he just lonely enough to create one? two: we see multiple versions of Ilya broken and destroyed, but then Henrik says this is the first time he's tried to leave . . . So, what was wrong with the other Ilya's? Three: since Ilya's a robot, what are his early memories? Was he given fake memories of a fake childhood, or is most of his "life" just a mystery to him?

I think this story did good for how short it was, but because it was so short, it couldn't really do much to begin with.

OK look, usually I have a pretty hard rule of not rating stories that are basically just porn. You typically hold them to different standards so I think it's pretty unfair.

But this fucking story man. I loved it.

I've read a few vampire stories and they somehow lacked such a basic yet critical component that I think all vampire romances need—erotic bloodsucking. I need a vampire to be sucking that boy dry in multiple ways multiple times, bloodsucking better be essentially just foreplay, yet for some reason so many vampire stories seem to shy away from that. I think these authors want to be a little subversive, they don't want to fall into typical expectations and deliver something rife with cliche . . . But bitch! It's vampires! Make that hoe suck his blood!

And fucking FINALLY I found a story that does that. It's basically just porn so it's kind of cheating but the whole story revolves around bloodsucking; Sumin is painfully sick with a mysterious illness that even the doctors can't diagnose, and then one day after his trip to the clinic he sees Luhan in an alleyway sucking someone's blood. Sumin faints at the sight and being the good samaritan that he is, Luhan takes him back to his house to care for him. When Sumin wakes up, Luhan reveals that since he's a vampire, he can actually smell what's wrong with Sumin—his blood is tainted by negative energy. And getting rid of it is easy.

To get rid of it, all Luhan has to do is suck it out. But there's one problem: when that happens, Sumin gets erect.

BRO. BROOO. THAT FUCKING PREMISE. THERE'S FIREWORKS GOING OFF IN MY HEAD, CROWDS OF PEOPLE JUMPING AND SCREAMING AND FAINTING IN EXCITEMENT, LIKE FUCKING FINALLYYYYYY A VAMPIRE STORY THAT FULLY TAKES ADVANTAGE OF HOW SEXY VAMPIRISM IS UGGHHHH

Like, by the final chapter Sumin is covered basically head to toe in his own blood with bitemarks just absolutely covering his entire fucking body. It's so sexy. It's crazy to me that it's seemingly so rare for vampire stories to do something so obviously perfect like that.

The only negative I'd say, which is very halfhearted since it's not too bad, is that the blood does look a bit . . . Fake? Like you can tell it's a brush setting on like photoshop or something. If the blood was drawn a little thicker it would've looked a lot better, but it's still not bad as it works with the overall art style.

Also, while it is mainly just hentai, I still really liked the characters and what we saw from them; Luhan is like . . . My dream boy. Someone needs to rape him. Like the ending where he basically had stars in his eyes because he was explaining how he'd be staying with Sumin forever now was cute, him being super clingy was cute. He's cute. He's also a little intense which is very attractive to me, and also quite perverted. On the other hand, Sumin is a mix of naïve with . . . A kind of sense of self-awareness? He realizes Luhan is probably lying about something if not everything, but he still goes along with it and hopes for the best. His personality is just very endearing, it's cute.

Luhan's also hot as fuck. Heavy dark circles under his eyes, pale skin, black hair that gets in his face a bit; he looks a bit haggard and unfortunate but in a very attractive way

This story was lowkey really ass. Its saving grace was the art, which was—to judge it by its overall standard—really, really good, bordering on phenomenal. But its story, for what little existed, was rather weak.

It was incredibly jarring to read basically nineteen chapters of non-stop, shameless PWP, only to have the last two entirely dedicated to rushed, hamfisted plot that is basically one big shonen battle . . . Though when I say "big," that's in reference to the fact that it took up two whole chapters, and not in reference to the spectacle of the fight. Despite being a life-or-death fight between two demons—or Gods, it's a bit hard to follow—the fight felt rather anticlimactic. They're just standing in place shooting beams at each other.

The story started incredibly strong; it opened with a group of friends going on a camping trip in a mountain. When one of the friends goes a little deeper into the woods to try and find sticks for their fire, he comes across a cave with old warding charms roped in front of the entrance, though he doesn't know that's what they were. He calls out for the rest of the friend group to come to where he is, and once they do they all reluctantly agree to go into the cave together to check it out. This scene creates a pretty good sense of atmosphere and foreboding dread, with them gradually getting more freaked out as they delve deeper. They end up coming across a man-like statue wrapped in warding charms, and Junhee—our MC—feels an unexplainable pull towards it.

When Junhee touches the strange statue, out erupts a large deity, which scares the other three friends away. As soon as they leave the cave, their minds were seemingly altered with, making them forget Junhee was with them on their trip. So they leave, and Junhee is left with the diety—a man called White Wolf, though he also goes by White & Baek. Baek was originally going to eat Junhee in order to recover his stamina and energy, but Junhee begs for his life, saying he would never betray Baek the way people in his past had. So Baek makes him agree to a contract . . . And this is where the PWP begins.

Another way Baek can be "fed" is through sex, both by directly participating in it but also just merely being around when it happens as to take in the energy that gets released. So they fuck. And they fuck. And they fuck. And then Junhee's friend fucks him . . . And then another friend, and another, and then it's back to Baek. It's just nonstop porn. The first two chapters are to establish context, and the next nineteen chapters are shameless sex scenes between multiple men, which is why the sudden inclusion of plot—that I didn't really care about and had struggled following—during the last two chapters felt so odd to me.

Speaking of all the fucking, I didn't really know what was going on with Junhee's friends. It seemed like Baek possessed them to fuck him, but then it also looked like it was less direct overt possession and more so some sense of supernatural influence, but then it also just seemed like all he did was amplify their already-existing feelings for Baek. I don't know if all three friends were influenced by all three possibilities at once, if it's a case of one possibility per one friend, or if it's a mishmash where some friends are more influenced than others. And to be entirely honest, I thought Junhee had more chemistry with his friends than he did with Baek. I usually hate unconventional couples but I was kind of hoping that the story would end with them all having a casual relationship with him, especially Woo Hyun, who acts as this story's antagonist.

Woo Hyun was probably my favorite character. He's the first—and I think only—one to notice their memories got altered, and he was also the first one of their friend group to fuck Junhee. It's actually rather brutal, as due to (I think) Baek's influence he rather brutally rapes Junhee, and that moment basically triggers his downward spiral. He acted uncharacteristically and tries desperately to make up for it, while also noticing the man suddenly hanging by Junhee's arm is incredibly suspicious.

While Woo Hyun acts as the antagonist for the majority of the story, the real big bad is a man from Baek's past. To be entirely blunt, I didn't give a fuck about it. The basic plot—being that he was an old lover of Baek's that Baek let die . . . I think? And is now back for revenge—is good . . . If it were a longer story. This entire plot is limited to what's essentially just one chapter. It's just so fucking stupid.

The ending is also kind of bittersweet and I have no idea if it's intentional. All except one friend basically lost physical contact because of what happened with Baek, though I don't believe any of them can remember, and now all Junhee really has is Baek. One friend had his memories of the whole thing erased, the other left the company and now can barely meet up with him, and the last friend, Woo Hyun, moved to a different country.

Also . . . The translation are, like, really bad. There's no other way to put it. It's not extreme or unreadable but it is pretty poor.

To end on a good note, to call back to what I first mentioned, I really loved the art. For the most part, it was incredibly well done and detailed; the men were incredibly handsome, sexy, attractive, you name it. And most of the sex scenes too were super hot, I loved that Junhee really lost himself in the moment so many times and became a mess. It was sexy

Quite literally just hentai. It's a one-shot so not much to say.

Fucking love big, beefy bottoms. Bonus points that he has a beard, and even more bonus points that the beard actually suits him and doesn't look like shit. A beefy uke with a beard in a slutty maid outfit wasn't something I knew I needed but good lord

Oh this was . . . Really bad. Like just terrible. I can't think of a single thing this story did well. This was the BL equivalent of AIDS and AIDS still ain't as bad as this.

The art was mid, it was a little janky. Usually serviceable enough but it did often push into the "bad" territory, especially in regards to the face. The plot was thin and nonexistent, I honestly can't remember much of it. It felt like all the plot lines kind of just dissolved into nothing outside of the personal relationships, and even then they weren't immune. And the characters . . . God, the characters. They were unironically some of the worst characters I've ever read.

For context, I can handle most tropes; rape, abuse, incest, general toxic relationships, stuff like that I actually quite love. I do not have an "ick" . . . Except for cheating. I just can't stomach cheating . . . And all three main characters of this story cheat on each other. It was fucking terrible. I have so rarely seen a story so quickly ruin itself in the way this story did, and then it just kept going. It was like as if there was a car crash in the middle of a highway, and the other cars kept on going straight instead of steering around it, so the crash just constantly grew bigger and bigger with more and more cars colliding into each other. This story is that wreck. It's just abysmal.

One thing to note is that this is a love triangle. You can't tell that from the cover and it's not said in the description. This story follows Jordyn and his exploration of his newly liberated sexuality after he found his wife cheating on him. The day following his break-up, he gets on a gay hook-up app and invites a stranger—Owen—to go out and get drinks with him. They end up going back to Jordyn's house only for it to go south, with Owen being offended by the degrading, pornographic dirty talk Jordyn tries. However, at his lowest emotionally, Jordyn pleads in apology and begs him to be his friend. Owen reluctantly agrees, mainly because he can tell Jordyn isn't exactly at his best and he takes sympathy, and that's the beginning of their relationship.

The next day, when Jordyn arrives at work he finds out there's a new employee—Simon, the son of a higher-up—and he's been assigned to look over him. After a few days of lowkey flirting, Simon comes onto him and they end up dating.

It's kind of strange, because straight from the get-go you know Jordyn and Owen are going to be the main couple, but the first quarter of the story is dedicated to Jordyn and Simon. I was never able to get fully invested in their relationship as I knew it wasn't going to last.

What absolutely ruined the story for me comes in about the midway point; having watched Jordyn and Simon act couple-y, Owen realizes that he does in fact like Jordyn, so he tries to win him over. Which is whatever. But there are multiple scenes where Owen comes onto him, and though he does verbally protest, Jordyn never pushes him away. In fact, he eventually ends up going along with it and flirting back . . . All while Jordyn is still in a relationship with Simon. Instantly that just poisoned all relationships and all characters for me. I can't fucking stand cheaters.

Around the midway point, Simon also starts becoming restless in his relationship. There's a bit of an age gap between him and Jordyn, so Simon is a lot more reckless and "fun" while Jordyn is too mature and reserved for his tastes . . . But Owen is, at least physically, exactly what Simon likes. So Simon starts crushing Owen. And then during the night after the three of them had a sleepover—since Jordyn wanted them all to be friends as he doesn't really have a social circle, especially amongst other gay men—Owen wakes up, sees Jordyn and Simon cuddling, and decides to leave. Except Simon follows him.

Simon proposes to Owen that if Owen fucks him, he'll break up with Jordyn . . . And it's just so fucking frustrating to me. Because one: though he says he'll break up with him, both characters knew he wouldn't, and two: Simon making that proposal is insane because he does, even if it's just a little bit, genuinely like Jordyn. It seems like he has quite deep feelings for him, at least from the impression I got.

. . . And Owen agrees. They go to a motel and fuck. I fucking hated it. During this whole period of the story, Owen is trying so desperately to get Jordyn to date him, he's incredibly dedicated and head-over-heels . . . So him going and fucking his boyfriend just left a bitter taste in my mouth. Aside from obviously just being a nasty move, it totally felt like emotionally cheating. While it's not exactly that as they obviously weren't together, if I were Jordyn, I don't see how I'd ever get past it. You want me so bad but you go and fuck my boyfriend? Bro. Kill yourself.

This is quite literally just porn so I won't rate it.

That said, while it is porn, it tried to very loosely thread in some plot near the end and . . . I don't think I fully understood it? It kind of just left me with questions.

So the plot of the story is that the Winter's family had lies printed about them detailing alleged dealings of anti-military weapons, and because of that, the head of the house—Dominic—is blackmailed into having sex with a powerful man called Omar Bishop. Omar gives Dominic a date to meet him and then he leaves, and then the rest of the remaining chapters (four out of five) are basically dedicated to Dominic's butler—Michael—teaching him gay sex to prepare him for the eventual meet-up.

Then the end of chapter four reveals Michael is "leader of the world behind the capital" . . . Whatever that means, as he's meeting up in secret with a person that's revealed in chapter five to be Rowon Bishop. Their meeting was to discuss Rowon paying Michael to get rid of Omar, so that Rowon can rank up in position or whatever and assumedly so Michael can have Dominic to himself. And it's like . . . That is a lot to suddenly dump on someone when the only thing of value you're giving is porn?

The plot twist also makes me confused about what Michael's social standing exactly is—I can assume it's probably something to do with like the seedy underground society, but what exactly I have no idea—and what are his feelings towards Dominic? The story ends with a little internal monologue and I can't tell if it's meant to be loving and adoring or resentful lmao

Great art though. The characters are really sexy, and the bodies especially are drawn so perfectly

TIT FUCKING IN CHAPTER 31 FTW
IT SHOULD HAVE GONE ON LONGER

I don't really know what to say about this story though. I mean, it's mainly porn . . . And usually, I don't rate porn . . . But it also vaguely has a plot? But also the plot isn't really that strong, it's definitely the type of plot that exists just to give a reason for the porn, but it's still a plot, it's still a relationship that goes through development. But also not really?

I'm going to leave this unrated but I will talk about the few things I both liked and disliked.

As this is primarily smut, it's to be expected that the porn's pretty good. I feel like a total gooner degenerate "weighing" the porn the way I am but I mean, it's good! It's hot. It gets really rough and verbal and the characters get really, really into it to a degree that it might just turn some people off but for me it shot straight to my dick. Also, the characters themselves are really hot—I love some big, heavy man titties and this has exactly that. Ben is my dream man fr

I also thought the relationship between Dick and Ben, while a little rushed, was super fucking cute. It was really cute seeing the two of them navigate their newfound feelings, the way it's so new and unique while also having a sense of familiarity to it. It's not like these men have never liked anybody before, but it is the first time the two of them have liked a man, and reading them exploring that together was kind of sweet in a way. I also loved how they were completely and utterly "the one" for each other too.

What I didn't like was pretty simple: the pacing. It just moves at a breakneck speed. I thought at first it was so it could just get to the porn, but one of the early issues I had was how quickly the two of them officially became a couple and were saying I love you—but the thing is that if the author wanted porn, they simply could have just been sex friends. But they're not. They're boyfriends.

To elaborate on what I mentioned before, I'll explain the plot a little bit; Dick and Ben have a chance encounter at a men's spa, with Dick haven mistaken Ben for giving him specific signals, and from there there's a misunderstanding; Dick believes he assaulted Ben, while Ben believes he had led Dick on. They end up meeting again and get their grievances off their chests. The thing is, Ben was very resolute in not wanting anything more. He didn't want to fuck Dick again, and there were pretty undoubtedly no feelings involved. He knew they were sexually compatible but he by no means had any type of romantic interest in Dick.

. . . Anyways they're saying "I love you" like two chapters after all that.

Again, this story is mainly porn so I'm not holding it to super high standards or anything. It's just that the poor pacing was pretty noticeable to me, especially at the beginning where I kinda felt like the story never let up.