rainydays's manga / #Abuse(4)

kou kills his brother sanehiko, but wakes up in the hospital to be told that his brother saved him in a car crash. so starts a sexual relationship in which kou questions if the changed man before him is really his brother. started with an interesting premise (albeit very dark), but makes less sense as the story progresses. i understand that sanehiko was replaced by another man, but i dont understand WHY those people did it in the first place.

despite being reincarnated, satae still has the traumatizing memories of his past life and after encountering kwon chaheon, who looks just like his past life abuser emperor narye, satae decides to avoid him at all costs to prevent a repeat of the past. honestly as of right now it looks pretty run of the mill reincarnation with a scum love interest and abuse plotline, reminiscent of erha. rather than the past life, im more interested in seeing how the mc attempts to avoid chaheon.

an eldest son imprisons and manipulates the father that never cared for him in his own form of obsessive love, after the death of his brother and mother. one of akabekos darker works, yes its really fucked up and weird but pretty compelling from a psychological/horror perspective, on top of great art there was interesting insight into topics like child neglect, fanaticism, manipulation, etc.

didnt expect to love this as much as i did, not only was the plot unique and the art consistently striking, but i feel like it did a really good job with characterization. the ending was also so blessed and well deserved.