miseryxcompany's manga / #Character Death(2)

They’re all simultaneously attracted to the idea of each other holding Yuka and the idea of themselves— mainly Orie— as Yuka being held by one another. Yuka cherished all three of them, supposedly, and her love for each of them complicates their feelings for each other in the midst of her death. An interesting premise on paper, obscured by its unwillingness to let Yuka be more than a memory and limiting the boys’ memories of her to her body. Their sexual encounters with each other are all fueled by a desire to embrace Yuka again, Orie has this prolonged interest in how Yuka had been held by the other boys, Tatsumi has photos of each of them being intimate with her, Suguru fucks Orie in his jealous rage over his relationship with her, which is accompanied by images of Yuka appearing in Orie’s place. It actively makes Yuka’s impact on their lives seem uncompelling. We know next to nothing about her or the kind of relationship she had with each of the boys beyond that it was sexual, so we have no reason to recognize these things as borne of a deep connection to her because that’s not something we’re actually shown. A brief conflict faced by Orie is whether or not he was really in love with Yuka or if he just liked the sex, and you might expect for the story to recount some of Orie and Yuka’s more emotionally intimate experiences, but the realization of his feelings is instead marked by his need to cum inside of her. She is the crux of this manga and yet she dies in the first 3 chapters and is nothing but a sex symbol in the memories of who are supposed to be the lovers she left behind. Without exploring their relationships with Yuka beyond sexuality, their behavior following her death comes off as obsessive at best. It also suffers from not exploring the boys’ feelings for each other unrelated to Yuka. tl;dr — grief induced homoflexibility

Kyaaaing at how sweet and tender this is. Makoto and Kazuhiko compliment each other so well; I especially loved seeing Kazuhiko talk Makoto out of his apprehensions about Kazuhiko’s feelings for him and their relationship, and just being so shamelessly in love with him, Makoto eventually letting his walls down and allowing himself to just love Kazuhiko in return. Sharing aspirations and seeing each other in their futures. I loved the flashback sequence in chapter two, where Makoto realizes Kazuhiko is only trying so hard in school for him, and caves to Kazuhiko’s mother’s insistence that he stops their tutoring sessions, thinking the real him does not live up to the Makoto Kazuhiko has grown fond of. And later, when he tries to reject Kazuhiko’s confession while doing a not-so-great job of veiling his own feelings, fearing he’ll come to regret their time together. But Makoto isn’t truly considering his Kazuhiko and is ironically treating him like a child who doesn’t know what he wants. I just loved how Kazuhiko’s assertive, head-first disposition balances out Makoto’s anxieties. You get the feeling that Makoto isn’t afraid of death in the end, and Kazuhiko is truly satisfied with the life they had together.