I Thot You Was a Toad's manga / #rape trope(11)

Kei's step-brother, Haruto, has a peculiar genetic mutation that allows him to live practically forever, but there is a special connection between the two of them, a connection which only Haruto seems to understand. Kei, fed up with Haruto's pestering, and unable to comprehend the mystery tries to sort things out by himself. His realizations come at the same time as a visit from Haruto's real father, changing the course of their lives. The ending is unnecessarily melodramatic and the mystery is a bit of a Maguffin. Really, things would've been much better if everyone had sat down for a little chat much sooner, but that would've scotched the whole plot.

Kuraishi, a twice-divorced events manager, is a depressed and self-destructive alcoholic, until he is nurtured back by Izumi, the florist who has a supernatural ability to communicate with plants. The plants tell him Kuraishi is withered and rotten, and he needs some tough love to recover. Volume Two deals with the return from Europe of Chouno, a colleague with whom Kuraishi shared a strong connection in the past.

Abused indentured servant, Shuri, is purchased by Tatsumi to work at the Hanabishi brothel as a male prostitute. Shuri longs to be of real help and comfort to Tatsumi, whom he regards as a saviour, but Tatsumi misunderstands his efforts as attempts to run away. In retaliation, he treats Shuri cruelly, but as dark secrets of his own past begin to emerge, he is slowly won over by Shuri's devotion. A very typical romance genre plot, but Samamiya Akaza's illustrations are breathtaking.

Childhood friends: one's a doctor, the other's a host who visits him to get his booboos patched up. On one such occasion, the doctor casually mentions he has a girlfriend which sends the host off in a fit and the result is a formulaic romance story trope.

Pretty art, but hilariously bad dialogue and blehh hackneyed plot. Example, "His skin is like it's been bathed in syrup" ... not sexy, unless you have a thing for attracting bees. Things happen which are meant to rachet up the UST, but when the butler finally snaps and molests the young master, it falls flat badly and completely lacks sizzle, mostly because there is no UST when it's so obviously building up to that moment. Also, why does such an accomplished and interesting butler admire such a dull, dough-head of a young master anyway? There's nothing there to entice anyone, apart from big eyes and frills (which butler can find anywhere.) No juice award for lack of smexy.

This story is a hot mess, like mainlining libidinous crack. It starts off with two rejected suitors for a couple now embroiled in father x son incest, all living together under the same roof. I mean, W! T! F!!! Rejected suitor #1, Rai, soothes his ego by sinking into BDSM club depravity and raping his would-be rescuer, rejected suitor #2, Mamiya, followed by regret, a crisis of conscience and a weird act of contrition for which the only response available to Mamiya, according to this strange logic, is pity and ever greater concessions to more sexing up. I mean, there is nothing wrong with the contrition, atonement and redemption. Those are actually wonderful themes for a story. It would just hit the heart a little closer if Rai weren't such a damned Gary-Stu, with a wildly unrealistic resolution to his issues with Mamiya, and if Mamiya weren't such a pushover. There are a lot of complaints in the comments about the feminine appearance of the characters, but they really do look like Visual Kei rock stars or hair band stars, who had that feminine quality about their style. After that brain-mush, the end leaves readers hanging. Yet, there is something quite weirdly fun about this strange, strange little story. If you can overlook the many, many things that really stank and were a pure splooge-fest, it was lively and entertaining, like Todd Haynes' Velvet Goldmine or Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge (except for gays.) SSSSSPPPPPLLLOOOOOOOOOGE! That is all.

Idiot couple at school with an especially naive uke for ravishment fantasy scenario. Uke goes from virgin to rape trope, fruit kink, sounding and adult forums within a matter of hours and still dithers whether they are friends. From the art style, it's meant to be cute, but I found it scattered and dialed to near constant freak-out, and couldn't suspend my disbelief even for the purpose of pure smutty goodness. Weird. So much kink and it still tastes like vanilla.

Childhood bullying.