sadslime's manga / #Post war(2)

In post-war Japan, Aoi spends his time working as a translator for the Americans and waiting at the docks for returned soldiers. It's been three years since the end of the war, but without a killed in action notice, he can't help but hold out hope that his best friend, Takahiko, could one day return. But when Takahiko does finally come back, he's his usual, grinning, carefree self with no explanation for the three years without so much as a letter. Aoi is enraged and punches him, but he still lets Takahiko stay at his house in the meantime. Now as Takahiko seeks employment as a screen actor and Aoi tries to figure out his muddled feelings, will they be able to overcome the pain and trauma of the war? Really beautiful and bittersweet story that encapsulates the way war destroys lives, yet life moves on. Trigger warnings: wartime violence, racism.

Tamao is a prostitute in post-war Japan, but one day while totally smashed, he thinks he sees his dead lover returned to him! When he wakes up, he later finds it was actually his lover's younger brother Gorou, who has come to find him and declare his love. Though Tamao is hesitant, Gorou takes him up on the challenge to "make me fall in love with you," and starts coming to Tamao's part of town every day until he's won over. Tamao is beautiful and believable, and his story is heartbreaking. Trigger warnings: sex work, rape, violence/gore.