I actually find this story and characters interesting. There is a fight between rationale and emotions, where they try to fight their attraction, use logic to justify their choices, but in the end, they can't fully get away from their emotions. Is their desire the by product of fated names, or the fated names merely a vehicle to trigger the first step? While in real life, we don't have fated names, we all have innate preference of what we like. Acquired taste or grooming to like something we don't naturally like is possible, but we can't completely get away to what we innately like.
Souichiro is a prude. He will never be outright affectionate, nor would he admit their relationship in front of others. That's his personality. What you need to see is his action. How he is always supportive of Morinaga, even willing to take him into his family.
Those who keep saying there is no progress in this manga, what you wanted isn't progress, but personality change. It's like asking an introvert to be an extrovert after they fall in love. That's unrealistic. Being a prude is who Souichiro is. He isn't going to change the very core of his personality, and Morinaga falls for him for who he is, with all his flaws, because deep down Souichiro will always have Morinaga's back, and Morinaga knows that.
True I've been reading this since 2010 and it is indeed way too long, but not in the story timeline, it hasn't been that long. And Souichi has made so much progress since chapter 1. For me the timeline here and events were more realistic than those with suddenly being openly gay or accepting that they're gay even if just for their partner. Especially for Souichi, it's been established how he hated gays, and had trauma.. it would have been hard suddenly accepting that and just coming out especially how they've started.
True that!
The logo is blushing too!
Man, I love this series. It's easy to follow, funny, cute, wholesome, but it also has mystery and an intriguing plot, lovable main characters and side characters, top it off with a tinge of angst. It's my favorite blend of genres.
Side note, I would love to have a Talon dragon plushie. It's so adorable.
A lot of people seemed to be frustrated by the progress of the story, but I feel many mistakenly attributed it to the time skip. I personally enjoyed the time skip because it expanded their relationship and characterization. I don't mind the angst either as long as it's well written.
That said, I do have a problem with the story. I didn't really notice it early on in season 3, but the latest chapter showcased it. I'm not a fan of this vague storytelling that the author has been employing in season 3. Basically, the characters are withholding so much information from the readers, so we ended up with a bunch of conversation that lacked context, making it very hard to follow.
I don't understand why the author chose to write like this. I still enjoyed the characters and the story, but this shouldn't be a mystery story. The author decided to write it like it was one. It's ironic whenever I heard people saying they hated misunderstanding trope, but usually in most stories, misunderstanding trope requires us the reader to be in the know. With this series, we were given only fragmented flashbacks, cryptic conversations, and vague monologues. I often finished the reading the chapter thinking, what are they talking about again?
Like this latest chapter, the author should have just revealed what the characters are talking about, instead of making it a mystery to be revealed in the next chapter. It would probably work better as a cliffhanger as opposed to leaving the readers utterly confused.
Some good mysteries keep us in the dark too (Swallow You Whole) and can be very interesting, if done well. The problem with this one is that the intrigue behind the fragmented clues isn't as compelling as the resolution of the relationship tension between Dohu and Juheon.
Especially given that the two somewhat reunited, those plot points don't hold the same "power"(?) anymore. Previously, for example, the threat of knowing Dohu's suffering or true mom would create some major shift in the relationship {mending it). But now that they're together, it just becomes something extra the other needs to know before the story ends. The reveal is just not as interesting or anticipated anymore.
This story honestly had me best when they haven't gotten back together yet. It was like "oo is he gonna find out? dang can't wait for him to realise and run back to him!". If author had sequenced the events well, I think it would have been much better.
I personally don't mind being in the dark about some aspect of the story like the full extent of Juheon's backstory. However, there is absolutely no need to make some things into a mystery, like in the latest chapter, half of the chapter is spent with the characters talking in a roundabout way about something, seemingly building into a reveal, only for the chapter to end, yeah, you have to wait next week to know. I bet you whatever revealed isn't going to be mindshattering to the point we have to wait another week. This wrecked the pacing of the story, and is the culprit of why every chapter feels so slow and short. Why can't the author just make the character say it at the end to get us anticipate the next chapter? Instead, we are left in this weird limbo of, so what should I even anticipate now?
Honestly, the story is fine. I still look forward to see the eventual full reconcilation of Dohu and Juheon, but the execution has been a bunch of invisible carrots on the stick. It's hard to be excited because I don't even know there is a carrot on the stick since the author refused to show us that there is more to look forward to.
I really hated the chapter last week, even though I know exactly why the author chose to go that route. From chapter 1, we know Juheon would rather hurt others to protect himself. He now took it a step further by also wanting to self destruct while hurting Dohu. However, as expected, he couldn't fully commit to it. Dohu ended up calling him out for it.
All his life, Juheon believed he needed to be good and useful to get people to like him. So he couldn't understand why Dohu could still like him even when he showed all of his ugliness. Now, Dohu has completely cornered Juheon. Juheon has no more bargaining chips left and has to accept that Dohu's love for him is real.
That said, I wish the author chose other method to convey a similar message instead of this tired trope of rough forced sex. I know why the author chose this route. This is afterall an X-rated series, so having smut is to be expected. Hopefully, this is the last time we see such a scene. I really love the story even with all the angst. It doesn't need a random inserted sex scene to prove a point.
This is probably the first chapter that I don't like from this series. A lot of people wanted to see hate sex, but I was originally happy that the story didn't go that direction. I liked the drama, push and pull, and didn't mind that the author took their time to develop their relationship. In fact, i would rather they have 50 chapters to clear whatever problems they have instead of this. I know sex sells, so some authors insert them so frequently even though the story doesn't need it. This series was great at avoiding common BL pitfall, and yet it just decided to plunge at it. It's disappointing. The draw of Juheon this character was that he may look like a typical bastard love interest, but in reality he was just a wounded soft boy inside. Now, he is no different from thousand other horrible love interests. I thought for sure that no matter how hurt he is, he won't resort to hurting Dohu. I know that he is doing the typical "I hurt you so you will hate me and leave me", but I prefer the earlier version where his words and actions didn't match, hence why Dohu couldn't leave him alone. Now, the author is taking things a step too far. I wonder what it is with Korean BL that it always goes this way. What a shame.
Manga in general is so underrated in this site. This manga is even more so. It has great characters and writing. The development and chemistry are also top notch. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
A lot of people don't seem to understand why Dohu is so persistent despite Juheon adamantly refusing the guy. If Juheon truly hated Dohu, I'm sure Dohu would understand and leave. However, Juheon's action doesn't match his words. Despite the claim of wanting Dohu to leave, Juheon still clung onto Dohu, as if Dohu is his last reprieve. Juheon's action is so contradictory because he loves Dohu so much that he did everything he could to protect Dohu, and yet that very same love made him unable to resist Dohu. Dohu knew this, that's why he couldn't give up.
Just finished reading this in one go. While overall enjoyable, I feel it could have been better directed. There are too many moments where the tones look serious, only to be undermined by jokes a panel later. Plenty of emotional high and build up get ruined because of it. Also, the plot with the father get dragged way too long for my liking. The father character is a stereotypical trash father with no depth, yet he took way too many screen time.
That being said, some of the plot, especially the ones in regard to the aliens are really well written. The reveal about how Sihwa came to be, and his parents backstory is easily the highlight of the story. I think the author has a lot of talent, as their latest work Office Hero is a mark improvement in term of direction. Definitely be looking forward to their future works.
This isn't the first time a perfectly good novel adaptation got ruined because they decided to add smut scene far earlier than the original. It's like the authors are terrified that the readers are losing interests because it's missing mature content.