It’s just so wish-washy and bulldozes through its plot.
I really like that Hagiwara discovers his masochism through Takagi’s obsession with him and it was an interesting twist that he wasn’t actually in love with Takagi and just liked the rough sex.
But I’m not so easily convinced of Takagi’s transformation from a hardened gangster who doesn’t know how to be tender into this love-sick simp of a Yakuza.
I don’t understand why the Goto subplot with the rival gang was necessary, especially since his death didn’t spark tension between their gangs like you might expect, considering they occupied the same territories. In fact, the gang-warring in general is secondary to Hagiwara and Takagi’s relationship.
And maybe the whole point was to get Hagiwara to realize it wasn’t just the sex he liked about Takagi, but this is not a turning point since Hagiwara’s attitude towards Takagi still doesn’t change until the end of the last chapter, as the resolution to a completely unrelated plot point.
I really liked Hagiwara’s brief relationship with Yasushi— he recognized his former, scared self within the 5th Boss and sought to corrupt him in a way similar to himself. Yasushi eventually grows into his position, opting to find a comfortable place within this new world if he cannot escape it, and is even willing to kill Takagi for Hagiwara due to his grown attachment to him
This all makes me so irrationally angry with its direction, because it’s finally acknowledged that Hagiwara enjoys the thrill of being wanted yet unattainable— which is why he still wants Takagi in spite of not loving him— and yet in the final stretch he succumbs to his apparently dormant feelings for Takagi.
And I just think it would’ve been so much more interesting for Takagi’s feelings to remain unreturned, while Hagiwara continues using Takagi and Yasushi’s feelings for him to his advantage.
The Gospel