#I know the manga isn't finished and that we will get more backstory later but I am tired of waiting for him to be a loveable character to m

[iamhereinthebg]

Haven't they broken several rules they've established just for everything to revolve around Tsukasa? Like...

1. A mystery can't be defeated in their own boundary (and yet Tsukasa somehow ripped Kako's heart out in his own boundary)

2. You can't use your tsueshiro in a boundary without permission (and yet Tsukasa ordered his to hold down Mirai)

3. Nobody could move because the school's time was frozen (yet Tsukasa did, as well as Yashiro, and Hanako who if I remember correctly suddenly unfroze on his own to break down into tears)

The earlier chapters were way better at following previously established rules and concepts compared to whatever's going on right now

They did ! :))) (want to explode)

I can understand the idea that Tsukasa is a rule breaker, he did destroy the previous n°3 in his own boundary too and it was an interesting twist! I can understand the idea and why it can be interesting, but the way AidaIro using all others characters/plots to make him stand out is just terrible. Dirsregarding rules is not a new thing about AidaIro unfortunately but Tsukasa really wins all medals on breaking them.

As you said, he was able to move when time was stopped and for which reason?? We don't know. Hanako was able to move once Akane and Teru got to him, probably because Akane is a clock keeper and can somehow give the permission to people to move.

I said it before and I will say it again, but wanting to show a character is powerful/cool by making the others characters look stupid is terrible writing, and that's the feeling I got with Tsukasa in general. (and chapter 109 is just a whole sequence of the characters being made fun of)

We don't know where to stand because he has every kind of tropes attached to him. They want us to understand he is some kind of martyr who is 'omg poor lil Tsukasa who was so selfless at only 4yo boohoo' (no matter which translation I read for the red house arc, he is believable somehow with Kou but then we get the flashbacks with Amane and it's gone). They put him in an 'angel' position and naive position in a lot of aus, want us so bad to understand deep down he is a nice boy. When we watched him do every possible horrors on screen. And don't get me wrong, I don't mind this, it's cool. Him forcing Mitsuba to eat, creating him, the way he treats some characters... It's the way they are not doing that to other characters who is so strange in my opinon. They know how to handle grey characters like Hanako or Teru (from the reader's pov) so I don't why they try so hard to put Tsukasa in a good light.

He is not a believable kid character in the red house arc, being smarter than Kou and Nene is not making him cool, it's just making Kou and Nene absolute idiots.

Him destroying his shackles thanks to Mirai power? It's not him being clever, it's Mirai and the clock keepers being made fun of. Him knowing what Hanako should be doing by using Nene? Not making Tsukasa cool, it's making Nene just as an object for Hanako's love, and to get a reaction out of him, most of the time by making Hanako look stupid. (I could go hours on why Nene is just here to serve as a mean to Hanako's character since some arc rather than being her own person but that's for another day)...

I understand that Tsukasa is like 'the antagonist and should be some steps ahead of the portagonist' but it's just so repitive in the way he is unpredicatble that it became boring and predictable. I was overjoyed to see him like this in chapter 108. (which was let's be honest the only good chapter in this new arc)

Tsukasa is really good here, which is why the drop of quality in chap 109 is even worst. Seeing a new side of him as a supernatural and his sorrow/hatred for Amane is really great. He even moralizes Nene about why sometimes you just need/have to get yourself out of situations alone, and that's how he himself proceeds because his brother never went to see him in 50 years. That he had no choice but to do so. It's great! Really great! To see that he is also an unpredicatble character and who decides to do what he wants not taking people's opinions in mind, because even his older never helped him when he called for him during all this time. It adds a good layer to his character and seeing him weaker/not really knowing what to do is something we desesperatly need for his chacter. But as everything in chap 108, chap 109 throws it out of the window and goes back to the usual ' we have set ups but terrible pay offs' things that has been happening a lot in the recent arcs.

He is also way too OP. As you said suddenly his tsueshiros could move again and he got rid of Kako. Even Hakubo and Teru being ones of the most powerful characters, were defeated once, Tsukasa never was seriously. It's never explained why he is so powerful (probably because he has an entity inside him/he eats others supernaturals) but the difference of levels is just insane, and absolutely not compelling to read.

We don't know why he is doing what he is doing and they try so hard to make him mysterious. They want us to get to know him without saying anything relevant or his backstory. We are left with whole chapters of absolutely nothing. Welp too bad I am not patient enough to see Tsukasa doing random stuff when half of the characters have rushed characters development or none because 'there isn't much time'.

AidaIro want us to understand they love him and that we should too but they are just destroying every other characters rather than make him loveable.

I hate what they did with his character, his role is terrible because it's destroying eveyone else's. Tsukasa is the favorite and it shows, but it's so badly done that I can't help but hate him.

[rivangel]

AOT MANGA SPOILERS!

i think what Ymir Fritz was after her whole life (and afterlife) was true love. or at least proof of it.

(read ch122 for her full backstory (which is a masterclass in visual storytelling and storytelling in general) but...)

we don't learn a single thing about Ymir as a person beyond that she seems to long for love from the time she was a child.

also, she more than anyone (in the aot universe) knows endless, merciless suffering. from a very young age she knew the world was cruel.

that’s the reason in my mind that - after getting the power of the Titans - she didn’t rebel against the king. she didn’t run away. she did whatever the king asked of her because for once in her life she was wanted. even in this completely backwards and transactional way, all Ymir knows of love is this, even though it’s just slavery at its core.

so the king got married to her and she had her three daughters, who Ymir doesn't find love in either. it seems her children are more proof of her enslavement. Ymir doesn't even find that true love she wants in her own daughters. she's still miserable.

13 years after she got the power, there’s an attempt on the king’s life, without hesitation she protects him. she, effectively, is willing to face certain death to that end.

so we establish this. to Ymir, love = self-sacrifice.

i feel that Ymir finally reaches the end of her ability to "love" the king. this is her breaking point. her final misery among a thousand other miseries she's accepted from him.

she isn't loved. she was willing to give her life, and yet he doesn't love her.

after this rejection, she doesn’t heal herself. we know that in order to use the Titan powers, you have to have a goal (the way Eren learned to transform in The Spoon Incident and later, Reiner doing something similar to Ymir). but she was finished.

Ymir had the power to manufacture a dimension without life or death. the paths. and would spend 2,000 years there doing what she always did and obeying her “king” - the Eldian with the Founding Titan. she wouldn't serve her king directly anymore, but enslavement is Ymir's only definition of love, so that's what she will continue to do.

until she observes a true display of true love.

now (and this is interesting) this is where the concept of the Ackermans come in. i explain in this, this, and this post the Ackermans and the Ackerbond, which is important for understanding this post.

so first, why Mikasa? why would she specifically be the one to free Ymir?

at the time the chapter came out, people criticized Isayama and Eren not knowing how Mikasa was the key the giving Ymir peace. but think about it. Eren doesn't know the depths of Ymir's heart, true. he also got the same exact omnipotence Ymir had thanks to (1) possessing the Founding Titan and (2) effectively having royal blood thanks to the way he enslaved Zeke. Eren has the same exact knowledge that Uri or Frieda had.

but of course, Eren wasn’t BUILT to be god. he has no right to it. Grisha gave him the Founding Titan and he forced Zeke to use his royal blood. Eren says that he started experiencing the past, present, and future all at the same time. of course he wouldn’t know why it’s Mikasa.

what we do know is that the timeline of aot is linear, and can’t be changed. i talk more about that in my Eren character analysis.

the person to ultimately give Ymir peace was going to be Mikasa no matter what. how?

1: being an Ackerman means possessing Titan powers while being a human. would that not also mean that an Ackerman has a special connection to Ymir?

it's different from being a Titan shifter. the potential to awaken their Titan-like powers are their birthright.

2: I linked above my thoughts on the “Ackerbond”. but in a nutshell, Ackermans have the best of both worlds. made to be obedient “Titan-like” tools to protect the king. to be the strongest slaves. while also possessing the best trait of a human being, and that’s the ability to love (as Isayama conveys in aot). so a major trait in Ackermans, i think, is this enhanced ability and propensity to love one special person.

what’s so striking about this from what would be Ymir’s point of view is that, like her, Ackermans have the traits of a Titan like she did, but Ackermans CHOOSE who they are “enslaved” to. it’s not slavery at all. what a shock that must be to someone like Ymir, I mean right?

Levi and Mikasa have their respective moment of “a display of true love” towards their lieges in the series. i want to compare.

Erwin and Levi.

to be succinct, Levi shouldered the weight of Erwin’s sins. [i talk about it more here and in the second half of this post here]. Erwin puts not his life in Levi’s hands, but what comes after. someone putting their trust in their other even in the face of certain death, certain grief, is a major display of true love. (as Isayama conveys in aot that is.)

then, both despite and because of Levi’s love for Erwin, he was strong enough to end his suffering. to let him rest, even though he had the choice to bring him back. that is a major display of true love.

Erwin and Levi both sacrifice aspects of themselves for the other.

what do Levi’s and Mikasa’s moment both have in common?

the willingness to share the weight of their liege’s sins, their darkness, their shortcomings, their most vulnerable sides. that's unconditional love.

But Mikasa’s moment is even more special to Ymir.

Eren’s sins are obviously much more grievous and unforgivable than Erwin’s. that speaks more to how much value Mikasa’s “display of true love” has objectively. and, Mikasa wasn't able to "bring Eren back". (besides obvious plot reasons).

even though it was certain that Eren wasn’t going to be forgiven, that he would have to die, Mikasa’s love never wavered.

both despite and because of Mikasa’s love for Eren, she would be the one strong enough to end his suffering.

Mikasa and Eren both sacrifice aspects of themselves for the other.

Ymir had no one willing or strong enough to end her suffering.

Ymir believes true love is love enduring even in the face of certain grief through mutual sacrifice.

and that’s why she is seen smiling when Mikasa kills Eren. with that, Ymir is finally at peace.

[rinseveryday]

Hello! I have so many thoughts and theories in my mind, especially I want to ask you the one. What do you think about the Demon King Rin? In the last chapter we saw how all pieces of the puzzle is coming together....

Hello! Thanks for the ask! I also have so many thoughts, please ask away anytime.

Massive spoilers for chapters 139 (138? I don't remember) and above!! Putting my response under the cut because it is long :> Like, I had to sit down for over an hour, long.

Demon King Rin my beloved boy

You know what's funny about life is that I fell in love with him way back in 2013, and he ended up becoming exactly my type of character 10 years later. I kept up with the series, but I discovered my tastes through other media so it was a huge shock to me when Demon King vigilante Rin shows up in canon. I was/am OBSESSED with the anti-hero or jaded hero types, like Daredevil and Deadpool just to name a few (I had a Marvel phase) as well as serieses like Devilman and Chainsaw man on the anime side. A monster with a human heart, bonus points if they live in a world that doesn't accept them. Now why am I talking about other shows? (Bc I wanna, that's why)

Well, Blue Exorcist didn't start as an adult rating, morally gray, anti-hero series did it? It was a fun, cliché Shonen show for teens set in an academic setting with all the typical school festivities and classmate crushes you can expect. Kinda different than Daredevil. But it's slowly been creeping towards darker, more serious topics over the years because Katoh's specialty lies in her ability to twist clichés into her own thing. AoEx's plot runs a lot deeper, and more sinister than your typical devil shonen manga. I still see a lot of theories about AoEx that still think it'll follow a Shonen plot, though, where the end will be a big fight against Somebody and then they'll all go home, become exorcists, and move on.

But really, Katoh's already said that Rin is a character that, if she's not careful, becomes real dark, real fast. I bet she had been wanting to add an anti-hero plot to the story for a while. He's no Naruto. He is the fox.

And so, newsflash! Rin's biggest antagonist isn't a demon. It's himself. Not demon!Rin, but Rin, as a whole. The plot isn't anywhere near being finished. Right now he's not the Blue Exorcist quite yet. He's a guy (level of humanity questionable) wreathed in the flames of a demon god. The day where he must choose between Assiah or Gehenna, is coming closer.

We see in the timeskip chapters a world where the current day has become Rin's tragic anti-hero backstory. Where he made choices that led him away from his human allies. Where he chose to embrace his demonic nature and fight against the corrupt human organizations.

I used to think that someone else was leading Rin, using him as a puppet leader of a resistance with his friends kept away as blackmail. Because how could Rin be so organized as to lead any sort of resistance right? Did his friends die which made him go rogue? What did Paku see? Was it related to Rin's reasons for becoming the Demon King?

However, now with the things Rin brought up in the most chapters, I don't know. I still find it hard to believe Rin would lead anything, but maybe he was just doing his own thing and the demons followed on their own *shrug.* If Rin's friends were still in the picture, he'd go to the ends of the Earth to get them back. So that leaves us with either a) they're dead or b) he chose to leave them.

People wear masks to hide. He doesn't need to hide his identity because his flames give it away so... Maybe he's hiding from shame.

His face went from sad to blank when he realized Paku was around. Rin Okumura? With a blank face? Our Mr. Wears his heart on his sleeve? Dude who cries from manga and slaps his knee when he laughs?

The blank face is a coping mechanism, just like the mask. He's probably disassociating so he doesn't have to deal with the painful memories she brings. Memories of his friends... Memories of being human.

Which brings us to the question, What did Rin remember when he woke up? I have a feeling he never reconciled with his demonic nature in that future, which led him to be at odds with exorcists. (RIP Malchidael Miku, you were too annoying to live). He probably didn't see the same future Mephisto did, but considering he does have all the same powers Satan does, he definitely saw Something.

Rin is right in that he was wrong to cage his so-called "demonic side." Or, if you read the raws too, he called it the "demon me." Everyone has anger and violence and desire and scorn in them as part of their survival instincts. That's not even a purely "demonic" thing. Rin forces the embodiment of those feelings, demon!Rin to yield and stay put. He doesn't understand why demon!Rin lashes out so strongly nor why he wants to take over.

Uhmmm sounds real healthy right? *Checks watch* demon!Rin should be back any chapter now~ It really begs the question, is demon!Rin the evil one for wanting to break out? Or is human!Rin the evil one for forcing demon!Rin to keep seething in jail?

Going back to the topic, it seems that Rin doesn't want to become the Demon King this time but he also isn't sure what to do. He knows he needs to do something about his burning questions and he knows the key to truly taming himself lies in knowledge and understanding. He has only caged himself, and has yet to reach Yuri's level of taming. Demon!Rin will come back. He'll always be there to protect Rin when he needs him the most.

While I sure love me some villain and anti-hero AUs, I do hope my beloved Rin Gone Wrong to stay in those chapters. He deserves a happier True Ending than becoming a Demon King 🤧

Well, there's some of my thoughts on Rin as Demon King and the plot. This got super long and was actually longer before I cut out all the unnecessary rambling.

Tl;dr he scares me

[emily-nightray]

Problems I Have With VnC

Spoiler heavy so find it under the cut.

Amusement Park aftermath

As someone who went to a public school in the US, I have seen my fair share of petty fights and how people make up after them. Vanitas and Noe nearly killed each other and yet they made up like US high school students.

"Dude, I'm sorry about that."

"Yeah. Me, too."

BEST FRIENDS AGAIN!

There wasn't an in depth conversation about it. It seemed to just be brushed off. So much should have been said and yet it wasn't.

2. Where is Misha?

Misha is obviously very dangerous. He has one of the books and has Teacher using him. He wants to bring Luna back from the dead and believes he's able to do so. He's brainwashed Domi and almost caused at least one death.

Why did they just let him go? Misha didn't need to become a new member of the main cast, but where is he? Capture him. Send him to child jail. Do something. You shouldn't let this crazy teenager run around unsupervised.

3. Plot going off course

After the hiatus finished, it seems like VnC just went everywhere. We get Astolfo's full backstory. We did not need that. Introduce new characters some other time.

We have Lady Archiviste for some reason. Then we see her and Teacher tell us Astolfo's story. Why do they even know it and why do we care?

Now we're going with the dhams. Oh now we see Lady Archiviste is here because she's Marquis Machina. Crazy. Wild. Annoying. That isn't needed. What does this do? Why are we going into a minor thing with the dhams? This is not helping Vani die.

4. Arcs seem to not matter much

The entire arc with Chloe and Jean-Jacques seems to be in the background. We learned important things but it seems like it didn't truly matter. Chloe and JJ have disappeared and no one talks about it really. Bring them back and it will fall into place.

5. Lady Archiviste

I cannot begin to explain how much I loathe the "Last of their kind" trope being ruined by "Surprise! Another one is alive!" No. We don't need that. Or show it later on. It's so pointless. Hopefully this doesn't happen again.

And why did Noe see her and then just not do anything? They saw each other. Noe was surprised. He said nothing. He did nothing. Unless he saw her in the future after the events with the dhams are finished taking place, it was stupid for them to see each other. Do something with that.

6. I feel like we're going nowhere

It's been nine years and I feel like we've gotten nowhere. I've read a manga that was 18 chapters. It wrapped everything up in 18 chapters while still being interesting. How have we gone nowhere in nine years?

There are many, many more, but these are the main issues I'm having now. After the hiatus, I feel like this just went downhill.

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Bimonthly Media Roundup

- Gurdians of the Galaxy 3 (Movie) - Family movie night for the last Marvel movie I'm willing to watch for a long while, I did enjoy the film although I think it's largely the weakest of the Gurdians trilogy, though in fairness that's in large part due to things outside of the writers control given what happened to the characters in the unrelated Marvel films. For the good parts I'm glad the characters still felt like they cared about eachother, with Nebula and Rocket in particular getting to show a lot of emotional growth, I loved to see more Mantis overall, it had a pretty good sense of humor, and I'm glad that the central cast all got narratively satisfying endings. For the not so good parts I really didn't enjoy alternate Gamora even if I do think they did the best they could with her in the sense of not pairing her off with Peter and letting her do her own thing - I just don't think she should have existed in general as it takes up such a weird space in the film. It's especially a bummer given how big of a role her and Nebulas sibling relationship played in the prior film only to have that all erased with very little interaction between the two here. Rockets backstory is appropriately tragic and the villain being a CEO playing god mad scientist is good but to be honest I didn't really buy his friendship with the other experiments given how generic their "we are friends who love each other" dialogue was. A lot of the big emotional beats just didn't hit like I felt they should, and the ending in particular had a lot of "they are doing this to set up cameos for future movies" moments that felt really in-organic. I don't know, the film is pretty well received so maybe it'll hit differently for me on repeated viewings but for now it kinda feels like the franchise that started with a bang and rose even higher in the sequel ended with a "eh, it was alright'.

- I'm in Love with the Villainess (Manga) - Caught up with the recent releases and uh hmm. I do like the central couple, the gimmick of a bully being unintentionally bullied by their victim being really into the bullying thing is quite funny and beyond that the two of them have heart and interesting personality traits, so that's cool. When the story is just them interacting it's great, particularly later on when the two become more familiar with each others eccentricates. Beyond that though the plot is kinda losing me with it's not exactly supportive portrayal of a class revolution. While the narrative doesn't seem to think the commoners are 'wrong' per say for wanting a more equal society, it does seem to be pretty wishy washy on how they should behave as 'violence isn't the answer' and 'can't we all get along' messages with a largely nice noble cast of characters and not particularly sympathetic commoners leads to a sorta pro nobility message overall which. you know. not great. Not that I particularly expected the lesbian medieval escapist series to be pro revolution, I just assumed they would stay away from politically relevant topics. I guess time will tell to see if they have something more nuanced and interesting to say than I'm giving them credit for given how early we are into the series.

- ENNEAD (Webcomic) - Twitter tells me that the most recent chapters feature a Horus face reveal which I'm hyped about, but the pages haven't been translated yet to my misfortune.

- Trash of the Count's Family (Webcomic) - Second season updates have arrived and I've missed Cale, nice to see him. The art style has changed a little so that the backgrounds and clothing are more detailed which is cool but I do have to say I miss the larger eyes of the old style that made the characters a bit cuter overall, even if the comic as a whole looks fantastic either way. Anyway Toonka's cool I like seeing him too.

- The Locked Tomb Series (Books) - Finished up Nona and man do I immediately want to go reread the whole series with all my gained context now. I've really enjoyed each novel in a totally different way, and truly love all the weird and interesting characters with the dramatic and yet very difficult to describe in a serious way plot points. I do so hope the books get a TV adaptation if for no other reason than to see so many of the actors pull double and triple duty in portraying all the body sharing antics going on. I need to highlight my favorite quotes on the second readthrough given the series has the nerve to be both hilariously clever and stunningly profound. For favorites I'd say Camilla and Gideon have my heart but really everyone is a joy in their own way, and I'm desperately hoping that Alecto has a happy end for at least most of them.

- Lego Monkie Kid (Cartoon) - Welp I binged through the rest of the series and I will say that seasons 3 and 4 addressed a lot of my issues with it in terms of narrative progression and introducing individual character backstories and arcs. Season 4 in particular was pretty great with the demon brotherhood plot introducing Azure as a competent and sympathetic villain and showing how flawed of a mentor figure Sun really is, as well as featuring some nice character (and design) growth for MK. I like pretty much everything about Macaque and his bitter divorcee vibes with Sun, Red Son and Mei teaming up was a surprisingly cute development, Pigsy and Tang remain as solid and adorable father figures, and I feel like the settings and overall animation looked stellar overall. I do have complaints that I don't really feel like voicing, but as a whole I quite enjoyed this show and will be looking forward to the fifth season - It is really excellent to see a Journey to the West successor actually utilize the series format as opposed to the attempts to cram it into a movie.

- Ace Attorney Investigations 2: Miles Edgeworth (Video Game) - Completed! I do think I liked this one more than the last one, largely because Sebastian was a fun and interesting little shit, though I'd still say it's on the lower end of the Ace Attorney games as a whole - There was just a lot of time wasting and unnecessary appearances of unlikable characters. I also liked a few of the new side characters and the overall look of the designs, though the actual villain motives were very questionable overall, even for the insane universe that is Ace Attorney.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Getting a little worn out with the sheer amount of content this has to be honest, I liked exploring the castle and fighting the ganon clones as well as the temples in general but theres still so much to do. That's not a bad thing exactly, but the burnout is hitting and I might have to pick it up later and do more of the final quest and post game content. I did like the physical appearance of the sages helping you in the castle though, that was nice.

- Project Runway All Stars (TV) - As a general rule I don't tend to like All Star as much as it'd predecessor, but this season has been pretty solid actually. The challenges have been fun and creative with solid looks across the board, and while I don't usually agree with the judges favorites we've at least been on the same page when it comes to the worst looks, so my faves have been mostly spared.

Listening to: Sway Cover and Eat Your Young Cover by Reinaeiry, Insane by Black Gryph0n, Wrecking Ball by Mother Mother, Comfort Zone by Fukase, Two Princes by Spin Doctors, World's Smallest Violin by AJR, Never Love an Anchor by The Crane Wives, Bad as the Boys by Tove Lo, Adore by Jasmine Thompson, Undress Rehearsal by Timeflies, Self Esteem by The Offspring, Lent by Autoheart.

[tsubaki3192]

I was thinking about this too. It definitely does feel like an ending.

But then also, the more I thought abt it, the more unanswered questions came up.

(Apologies for the long analysis post, the rest is under cut xD)

Like:

Suo's backstory??? Kiryu's too? Heck, even we don't know why Sakura lives alone, and that minimalistically. (Aside from being rejected by society.)

And then theres Kotoha and Umemiya: in his small flashback arc, (from memory) we don't actually see Kotoha at all, and she said she was from out of town, so how did they meet, and why is she so mature?

But then also, the original main goal of the story, Sakura reaching the top, hasn't actually been achieved/another goal hasn't been outlined. Not to mention the character development (esp. Sakura) often goes back and forth (as in self-doubts and then some progression of belief and back again, like it does in reality tbh), which is also the reason why I dont think the manga will be finishing with such an... unstable ending, character development-wise.

It really does feel strange to have an arc that's like 60 chapters long and still running though, considering all the other arcs have been much shorter (not to mention this is all in 1 night).

There's also this:

I've read all of whats available of the manga, and this is the only time we recieved a direct arc opening from the author. Within the 46 chapters after this, nothing else is said. That being said, this could also just refer to the whole Bofurin and Umemiya's backstory, which was just before this, but it seems rather unlikely.

Going along with this referring to the entre arc from chapter 85-ish onwards (currently chaoter 146), I get the feeling chapters 1 to 85~90 has been a long 'prologue' of sorts, and after this arc, it gets more serious: remember, it does say 'opening act'.

(Also I think we'll get another panel like this later, that probably says 'Great Fires of Extinction; Opening Act End'.)

It's an 'extinction' after all, which implies that Bofurin will have many people try to destroy it.

Regarding 'opening act', I interpret that as a trigger. As in a trigger that Bofurin isn't actually all that strong and destruction is a possibility... As in this entire arc is a trigger for 'the great fires of extinction'/possible extinction of Bofurin, hence why it's an 'opening act' (does this make sense? xD)

I guess that's the other reason why it does feel like a possible ending though: no other antagonist with a direct connection to Bofurin has been announced.

Anyway, this is just my stance on this, and I apologise for the word vomit xD

Again, I could be entirely wrong about this, and both Suo and Kiryu's backstory could all be put into a side story/standalone book (like Sanemi's rise to Hashira from Demon Slayer, for example), as frustrating as it is... though with Suo's personality and the hints of emotion and slight inferiority complex from him, it also seems rather unlikely.

(I could do a whole character analysis on Suo alone, tbh)

so I'm reading the Wind Breaker (Satoru Nii) manga... and uh... I'm in the 120's for chapters and this feels.... like a final fight kinda? Do we know if we're already gearing up for the end?

[8o--o8-deactivated20220523]

I think the reveal in the new "Film Red" Trailer should be seen more as an interesting plot for the movie and not as a revelation for the actual series/manga

Look I in my opinion the potential cannonicety of the movie is a clear marketing tactic and will have no actual impact on the series which I will justify with a few arguments, but before I can do that I wanna mention that I'll refer to the recent movies (strong word, Z, gold, stampede) as "new line movies" so that there isn't any confusion

*SPOILERS FOR THE NEW FILM RED TRAILER, THE LAST 4 ONE PIECE MOVIES (STRONG WORLD, Z, GOLD, STAMPEDE) AND CHAPTERS 1044-BEYOND OF THE MANGA*

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay let's start

The reason why I came to that conclusion is partly because Eichiro Odas (the mangaka of one piece) involvement in the movies has been a marketing tactic before (and still is) but he's involved in everything non manga related nowadays (even the fucking live action show to a degree) so that isn't that special anymore, couple that with recent battle shonen anime movies (like Mugen train or jujutsu kaisen 0) that have been immensely successful mostly because they are 100% cannon and important to the story (the Mugen train movie is literally just an entire story arc), add to that that the anime recently has had consistently movie level animation and finish of that beautiful disaster with the Manga having some of the the most important plot reveals in years with the reveal that Luffy ate the Nika fruit

How are you gonna advertise a movie that has nothing to do with the current arc and has probably the same level of animation as the anime!?!?

You look at your peers, learn from them and lean on the cannonicty!! Make it reveal something about an aspect of the story that no one knows about and everyone cares about aka Shanks backstory

Now you might say : "okay it's a marketing tactic, but just because it's a marketing tactic doesn't mean it isn't gonna be important for the actual story of the Manga/Anime"

To which I say : Look at how important the other new line movies were that had the same level of cannonicty

(I'll skip Strong World for later cause that will take longer)

the only cannon element of Z is that Zephyr exists and the marines had like a head teacher, none of the actual events of the movie are cannon, the fucking endpoints and dyna stones aren't fucking cannon. Again the only cannon element is that a milder less dangerous version of Zephyr exists

If anything about Film Gold is cannon then it doesn't matter, because Tesoro's resort is a giant ship that can be easily ignored and is essentially just a giant casino scam that would have no real consequences on the cannon events of the story

The only fucking cannon thing about Stampede is the reveal that Raftel was actually called Laughtale, which was revealed in the Manga/Anime later on regardless

Now Strong World is interesting. Shiki is cannon, was mentioned in the Manga and it was revealed that he was in the Rocks pirate crew (WAY later than when he was first mentioned) !

There's actually a chance that Shiki will be part of an arc later on, but we are close to the final Saga so Shiki will probably not get a lot to do and Rocks and the story of his crew has been revealed as an endgame flashback for a while

Even if we get ANYTHING Uta (the girl from film Red) related, the most we'll get is 3 panels in the larger Shanks flashback, because Shanks knowledge about and relation to the larger world has been more important in the story than the inner world or actual character of Shanks

Anyway, just see it as a fun movie and remember : Nothing is cannon/plot important until it's in the Manga, Have a nice day!

[sweetcathedral]

Note: Finally revamped this story I had in my docs for a couple of months! I had to buy up all the mangas to fully understand the use of cursed energy & techniques since they contain detailed explanations from Akutami. Also had to take out ‘fillers’ since my intention was to keep it a short story that can either stand alone or could turn into a mini series later on, if I wanted to. My intention with this piece was more about story telling than nsfw, so skip to the last segment for nsfw. Hope y’all enjoy!

⚠️: 18+, backstory, plot, light bondage, fingering, raw, breeding

It was a bright and early morning for you to be running errands, but you were too excited to keep still, since Nanami was able to book a day off for you. You decided to pass the time grocery shopping for the ingredients you needed for lunch and dinner later on. Should I make macarons for dessert this time?

“Are . . . are you, o—okay? . . .” an eerie voice stops you in your tracks.

A cursed spirit hovers over the rails on the bridge ahead of you. You pass through this bridge often and the cursed spirits you encounter were usually no more than grade 3 at most, but this one was a grade 1. Nanami never let you anywhere near a curse that was more than a grade 3, probably because he didn’t want to risk the chance. Although you weren’t a Jujutsu sorcerer like he is, he trained you as if you were one.

You look to see if there was anyone around. No one. Carefully, you approach the curse, who’s taking no interest in you,

“I’m sorry,” you softly muttered. Upon absorbing the spirit through the brush of your finger, a series of feelings and memories flood your mind. Sadness, anger, jealousy, regret, anxiety, depression, mourning, resent. A funeral, a woman jumping off the bridge, failed tests, a child being burnt by cigarettes. The feelings and memories were never this vivid to you. Ah, I should’ve ignored it, you thought to yourself as your vision began to blur. But the last time you ignored one was back home—when your ex decided to take their own life. Everything went black.

It was only a fly head, but as time passed by it slowly grew on your ex, taking a toll on their physical health, then their mental health. After finishing their university degree, the job they finally landed was at a black company. The more hours they racked up at work, the less time you spent with each other.

“Sorry, I’ll be coming home late again.”

“Can we reschedule?”

“I’m afraid I can’t make it today.”

“How about another time?”

“Sorry, I need to take this call. It’s for work.”

Day by day they became distant and unresponsive to you. You were probably just as frustrated as they were. A feeling you’ll regret when the company calls to inform you of your ex’s body being found outside of work. They had jumped off the roof of the building. When you arrived at the morgue, a cursed spirit you haven’t seen before was latched to their lifeless body. The fly head you last saw had grown into a curse during the time they were away from you. Without hesitation, you absorbed it through the palm of your hand and all of their emotions and memories clouded your mind. Pain, stress, pressure, anxiety, depression, resentment, jealousy, anger, frustration.

“We’re on a tight schedule this week. I need this done by the end of the day.”

“You don’t have the luxury of a break right now.”

“What do you mean you can’t get it done? Do you know how important this is?”

“The meeting wasn’t a success. I’m gonna have to demote you.”

“Better than being fired.”

“Hey, if you do this for me I’ll put in a good word for you.”

“Thanks to your hard work I was able to get promoted.”

All of their darkest memories played through your head, all the way until they walked to the roof of the building and jumped off. When you got back home, you broke down and cried in guilt and shame. You should’ve dealt with it before all of their feelings accumulated past the point of saving. The company.

After your emotions calmed down, you changed into a simple black outfit: a baseball cap, tee, jeans and your leather boots. That same night, you decided to break into the company and out of pure anger and regret, you take on every curse you saw in your path.

“Emerge from darkness, blacker than darkness. Purify that which is impure,” Nanami chanted.

The veil spills over the building, where a numerous amount of employees committed suicide. Branding it as stigmatized.

“There was a recent suicide report this morning,” Ino looks over to the stained silhouette on the pavement before following Nanami.

The duo entered the building and scanned through each floor up until the roof.

“Hey, isn't the building supposed to be crawling with curses? Cause there wasn’t any on my way here,”

“Something’s not right,” Nanami thought for a moment, “Ino, did you bump into anyone on your floors?”

“Nope. They emailed the president to make sure that the building was empty,”

“Are you sure?”

“You wanna double check with me?”

Nanami and Ino make their way back down, this time examining every single room and closed door. There was no trace of residuals either. Usually there would be a few fly heads here and there, but it was spotless—a complete ghost town. Nothing?

“NANAMI!”

Without hesitation, Nanami sprinted to where Ino shouted. When he flung the door open, Ino was being engulfed by a large curse, similar to that of a human centipede. This must be the one that ate all the other curses.

“Ino! Hold still!”

Just as Nanami aimed his technique, you absorbed the curse from behind, freeing Ino and pushing him out of the way. Resulting in you being hit by Nanami’s cursed energy across your upper body. They quickly rushed to your side,

“We have to get her to a hospital!” Ino panics as he puts pressure on your wound. You were out cold and unresponsive, but you still had a faint pulse. Nanami immediately takes off his blazer and bundles it up, applying it to your wound.

“It’ll be too late when she reaches the hospital,” he closes his eyes to think for a quick moment. Shit! “Tell Gojo to get Ieiri here!” he tosses his phone to Ino, already dialing Gojo’s phone. Please, don’t die. Your pulse started to fade and your body went cold. Please . . .

Before Gojo was able to answer, your eyes flutter open and you look around to see Nanami and Ino hovering over you in shock.

“Huh? Who are you people?” you slowly get up and notice your ripped top covered in blood, “eh? EH?!”

You patted yourself in a panic. You’ve seen blood before in movies, but never this much blood in real life. There was no sense of pain and the gash was gone, leaving no scar behind. Nanami swings his blazer over you,

“You stained it, but it’s better than nothing,”

“Stained? I stained it?” his blazer was soaked in blood. “Wait, this is my blood?!”

“Um, yeah, . . . you kinda died,” Ino responded from behind him.

“Hellllloooooooo! I picked up, you should be grateful!” Gojo’s voice shouts from the phone.

Nanami takes his phone back from Ino and hangs up.

“Can you stand?” he averts his eyes back to you.

“Um,” you look down and wiggle your toes to see if your legs were injured before standing. No sign of pain, but they were trembling so you kneeled instead.

“What are you doing here? ‘Cause I doubt you work here.”

Feeling caught, you frantically try to make up a quick excuse.

“. . . revenge,” there wasn’t an excuse good enough to hide what you were doing, so you told the truth. The whole truth: from when you first saw the fly head to how you ended up at the company on personal terms.

“You know, you have talent for someone who’s not familiar with curses. Your body unconsciously healed itself,” Ino pointed out. He was comfortablely laying on his stomach, his hands propping his head up and his legs sprawled out on the floor. Nanami was intently listening to you, leaning against the wall.

“Is anyone else in your family able to do that?” Nanami asked.

“No. At least, I don’t think so. I’ve always lived with my grandparents, so I don’t know much about my birth parents,”

Cursed spirits were an everyday thing to you. For as long as you could remember you’ve always been able to see them, it was only until you pointed one out to your grandmother that not everyone could see them. As for your supposed talent, you only learned that you were able to absorb curses a couple years ago. You paid no mind to it, but now that you’ve met Ino and Nanami it’s different now, and confusing.

Ino talked to you about their Jujutsu world. The meaning of curses, cursed techniques, cursed energy, him, Nanami, Gojo, the higher ups, the students, the school, and more. Nanami stood there in silence, listening to your conversation between you and Ino, only interacting when prompted.

“HEY!” a shout echoed through the building, startling the three of you.

“What the—”

“Ino, get her out of here.”

“But isn’t that just Gojo?”

“Leave. Gojo can’t know about you.”

Nanami quickly helped you and Ino up, pushing you through the door before closing them.

“Hey! Who said you could hang up on me like that!” you can hear Gojo through the doors.

“You came here ‘cause I hung up on you?” Nanami asked, not hiding his annoyance.

Ino holds his finger up to his lips, telling you to keep silent as the two of you quietly walk out the building, the sound of Gojo and Nanami’s bickering fading away.

“Man, we’re finally out,” Ino sighs.

“Oh, I still have Nanami’s blazer,” you start to take it off, but Ino stops you.

“It’s fine. Keep it as an excuse for you to see him again. Here,” he pulls his phone out, “if you’re comfortable, I can type out our infos in your phone.”

Without thinking much about it, you hand him your phone. He adds both their contact info before waving his goodbyes and heading back into the building. The whole night felt like a fever dream, but the feeling of Nanami’s blazer around you reassured you that what happened that night was real and that you’ll live to see another day.

“NA~NA~MIN~CHAN~!” Gojou shouts from the door of the lounge. Tch. Nanami sighs from his seat, casually reading the business and stock section of the newspaper.

“What are you doing on your day off? Cause if you—,”

“Nothing.”

“Boo, why don’t—,”

“No.”

“I didn’t even finish what I was saying yet!”

“Declined.”

“. . .” Gojo stares at him in silence before punching his middle finger through Nanami’s newspaper. For fuck sakes. At this point, Nanami’s patience has run out and he rips the newspaper in half, exposing the rest of Gojo’s arm. He kept up with Gojo’s antics for far too long, that even Gojo was surprised he lost his composure.

A series of bickering and material noises can be heard coming from the lounge. As Yaga was about to open the door to see what all the yelling was about, Gojo ran into him, trying to escape from Nanami’s beating.

“Principal Yaga! Perfect timing ‘cause I think you should reconsider my proposal to put that man on a leash!” Gojo points to an exhausted Nanami in overtime mode.

“. . . Get off of me,” instinctively, Yaga had his arms out when Gojo comfortably jumped into them.

“Principal Yaga, apologizes. I’ll clean up right away,” Nanami collected himself and bowed.

“Don’t bother. Satoru will clean this mess,”

“HUH?!”

In the end, Yaga had produced several cursed corpses to monitor Gojo so that he finishes cleaning up and repairing the damages.

“It’s my first time hearing you book a day off. Never took you as someone who lets themselves rest,”

“Working alongside Gojo has made me rethink my decisions,” Nanami doesn’t know why, but ever since he helped you that day Gojo’s been especially clingy to him. Like a little sibling asking to be babied and given attention 24/7, it was annoying and drained his energy every day. Did he find out? The reason Nanami had been keeping you a secret from Gojo and everyone else (except for Ino) was to keep you free from their restrictions and expectations. Knowing Gojo, he would immediately use you against the higher ups, so Nanami chose to stay quiet about you. Keeping you as far away from their world as possible, but conversing with you regularly wasn’t helping nor making it easier for him. He should’ve cut all ties with you the moment you messaged him about his blazer, trying to return it. He had more than enough money to easily replace it, but . . . in all honesty, he just wanted to see you again. Don’t bring personal feelings into work, don’t bring personal feelings into work, don’t bring personal feelings into work, he repeated to himself over and over again.

It’s been a little over a year since you first met, but even if that was enough time for you to move on he still felt guilty falling for you. To Nanami, it felt wrong liking someone who had just lost a loved one, but overtime the temptation of taking a step forward kept growing on him. Suddenly, the vibration of his phone goes off. Ino?

“Hello?”

“Nanami! She won’t wake up, the idiot went and took care of a grade 1,” Ino panicked.

Tch.

“I thought I told you to keep the area free of curses,”

“I did. I don’t know where this one came from, though,”

“I’m on my way,” Nanami hangs up and excuses himself for the day.

Please be okay.

The sound of quick shuffling and frantic mumblings start to get louder as you come closer to waking up. Someone’s here? Nanami? You open your eyes and look around to see Ino pacing back and forth beside you,

“Ino? What are you doing—?” a flood of memories rush back to you: your unfinished errands, the ingredients, the bridge, the curse, collapsing, an unfamiliar figure. Could that be . . . “Hey, how’d you know where I was?”

“Hm? Oh, your neighbour called me and told me that you collapsed at the bridge. He said that he helped carry you home, but to come check up on you just in case,”

You think back to your neighbours, but no one comes to mind who’d be willing to help you. The neighbours you’re surrounded by are the types to call an ambulance, if they ever came across a situation like that. You don’t even converse with them much, since Nanami wanted your interactions to be kept to a minimum. So over protective. As you get up from your couch a wave of dizziness falls over you, making it hard for you to stand.

“Are you okay?” Ino rushes to assist you and settles you back down on the couch.

“Yeah, just a head rush,”

“I’ll go get you some water,” he runs to the kitchen (not that it’s far).

Ino was like a little brother to you and Nanami, he always kept an eye on you because in his words “if something bad were to happen to you, I just know Nanami would break inside”. You look down at your hands, still trembling from the curse you dealt with earlier, but feeling nothing out of the ordinary. The first time you absorbed a curse that strong was when you first met Ino and Nanami, but there were no signs of repercussions. The amount of energy that cursed spirit held was reversed to heal your wound and bring you back to life. You hear the front door being opened and see Nanami rush into the room, he sighs a breath of relief upon seeing you.

“Welcome back,” Ino says from the kitchen.

You try to welcome him too, but you were scared he was going to lecture you about safety and all that, so you kept quiet. Even though you’re avoiding his eyes, you can still feel them boring into you. He walks over and lowers himself at your eye level, taking your trembling hands into his.

“. . . I was about to lecture you, again, but I’m happy enough to see you alive,”

You finally look up to meet his eyes. Although he’s holding a stern face now, you can tell that he was just worried. Is he still hung up about that accident?

“I’m fine, you know it’s not like last time,” you softly reassure him.

“I know . . . I was still worried, though,” his thumbs brush over your hands.

Ino comes from around the corner with a glass of water, taking a seat beside you on the couch. After both of you fill Nanami in about what happened to you, Ino says his goodbyes, leaving just the two of you alone.

“Man, must be nice coming home to a girl after a long day at work. Good for Nanami,” he says to himself, whistling out the door. He deserves it.

All of a sudden, something latches tightly over his mouth and throat, dragging him into an empty ally. Ino manages to loosen himself out of the grip and turns to see,

“Gojo?!”

“Ya-ho!”

Gojo waves his hand with a stupid grin plastered across his (pretty) face. After finishing (cheating) his duties at the lounge room, he changed out of his usual uniform and made his way back here. His all black outfit consisting of sunglasses, a loose tee, jeans, and oxfords.

“What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“I didn’t know you were the one that’d come check up on her, what a surprise.”

“Wait, how’d you—!” the call flashed in Ino’s mind. “You were the neighbour that called me?”

“Ding, ding, ding!”

Nanami’s already stressed enough. How long has he known?

“If you’re thinking about how long I’ve known, then it’d be ever since the day he hung up on me when you guys were at that black company mission.”

How immature. “Then were you also the one that set up the grade 1 curse?”

“I mean, duh.”

Ugh, crazy. “Just so you know I plead the fifth,”

“Is that an American joke you learned from her? Anyways,” Gojo crosses his fingers and pulls his sunglasses down. “Domain expansion: Unlimited Void.”

“Nanami, wait,” you pull away from him for a moment to catch your breath, but he pulls you back in for a deeper kiss.

Once Ino left and the door clicked closed, Nanami threw himself at you in a heated flash. At first, it was the feeling of his hands tracing your body and now it’s his soft lips leaving marks along your neck and collarbones. He’s sitting on the edge of the couch while you’re facing him, prettily settled on his hips. You slip out of your top and bra, since it was already half way off from Nanami fondling you underneath your clothes. You can feel his bulge as you teasingly grind your hips. His hand grips your hips,

“Keep doing that and I won’t be able to hold back.”

“Then don’t hold back,” you whisper in his ear before taking his hand and guiding it to the wet spot underneath the slit of your satin skirt. Without wasting his chance, he twists his fingers in you, holding you down on his hips and watching you melt into lewd expressions, burying your face in his chest as your hand clenches his shirt. Only gasps and moans were able to tumble off your wet lips as your body twitches from ecstasy.

“That’s a good girl,” his voice reverberates down the nape of your neck. He loosens his tie to bind your arms behind you, switching your position so that your back is facing him now. Knowing what he’s about to do makes your stomach flutter. You raise your trembling hips a little, feeling him brush the tip of his cock along your slick folds before pushing you down on him.

“Haa!” the force of it sends a shuddering wave through your body.

“You told me not to hold back, so don’t you start complaining now,” Nanami grips your face and turns it slightly towards him, kissing your tears away. The feeling of his rough hands slowly drags down to your throat and tightly grips at the sides. He thrusts into you hard as you beg for him to fill you up inside. The tip of his cock kisses your cervix stroking every inch deeper into you.

“Fuck,” he groans. A warm feeling fills you up in your lower abdomen and gushes out onto the couch. You and Nanami fall back, panting to catch your breaths.

“Are you okay? I hope that wa—,” you shut him up with a kiss. Slowly lifting your hips back up, you feel his cum dripping down your thighs. You slip his cock back inside you, his hands embracing you once again as he gets bigger. Unable to focus, you fall into a drunken daze getting lost in his pleasure.

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

I think I have found an alternative to His Most Favorite?? It's a webtoon called Never Understand and the dynamic is also "ugly" shorty (I think he's cute) and handsome guy. I'm only at ch 18 so I can't say much yet, handome guy is only just in the process of falling in love, but it's nice so far :) (There is some non-con between side characters, but the perpetrator is very clearly shown as an asshole and the victim clearly isn't into it) I hope I'm not gonna get let down...

That’s very sweet, and I’m sorry to say that it did turn tocrap and fast.  But ahhh are we not usedto things being ruined for us?

Never Understand is a series of gay romances that unfold ina high school setting.  This high schoolsetting is a bit darker than most I’ve read without a paranormal twist.  It’s not like edgelord grimdark like CasteHevan.  The dark elements here are a bitmore suited for a high school setting.

We start off with supposed stubborn doofus Jaerim and coldasshole pretty-boy Yuri.  Jaerim joinsthe student council and Yuri is a cock to him because he’s “ugly.”  Oh god damnit are you already getting on yourhigh horse Faps step the fuck down. YOU CAN’T STOP ME!

The thing is…no BL author is going to ACTUALLY get away withmaking any of their characters ACTUALLY unappealing.  The genre is so homogenized that if you givea guy a classically handsome strong jaw instead of a guitar pick for a facepeople will screech about how UGLY they are.

Isn’t that right Maiden Rose?

Jaerim isn’t even that unique from regular ukes in myopinion.  The main thing I notice is thehairstyle is a bit different for being so flat and with no bangs.  So what the fuck ever!

MAYBE LET’S ACTUALLY TALK STORY FAPS! HMPH WELL MAYBE JUSTTHIS ONCE!

So Yuri begins to develop feelings for Jaerim.  I’m not entirely sure why to be honest.  There’s a point where Jaerim is passionatelyfighting for an underdog cause but Yuri pretty much does his best to ignore howviolently Jaerim is getting bullied for it. He doesn’t particularly seem to respect, admire, or feel protective ofJaerim. There’s just haphazard SEXUAL TENSIONNNNNNNN!!!  I particularly despised the 100 or so pageswhere Yuri is trying to grapple with his feelings after the whole bullyarc.  

Why?

1.) I’m just fucking tired of the ~do I like him or don’t~conundrum in BL.  Cause they’re superfucking cliché, boring, and we know exactly where all of this is going, don’tbe so fucking coy.

2.) The arc is superdefensive about how it’s not about Yuri being gay. He just romantically andsexually likes a dude but like for his personality (which he seems to hate mostof the time.) Which just PHEW makes me piles of angry.

There’s then a lot of IGNORE HIS COMPLAINTS BECAUSE HE’S JUSTTSUNDERE creepiness.  This includes suchclassic rape cultures hits of,

We then get a clusterfuck of an arc about Yuri and Jaerimbeing blackmailed by pointless jealousy fodder with a picture of Yuri sexuallyassaulting Jaerim.  Jealousy fodder isout to get Yuri and there’s no real explanation for it.  This also introduces a character I’m justgoing to call “Lying scumbag” who is in a relationship with jealousy fodder butwants Jealousy fodder to be OPEN about their relationship instead of hidingit.  I’m not even really going to getinto it because I don’t have the patience to write out its many, many, MANYlayers of bullshit.  Basically Yuri triesto prevent it from getting out.  It getsout but they manage to play it off as non-legit but immediately afterwards Yurisexually assaults Jaerim while people are looking for them.  So the author forgot the whole point of thearc cause she wanted to get to the non-consensual make-outs.  This somehow magics the two of them onconsensual terms afterwards.  Also wetotally forget about jealousy fodder and his relationship to lying scumbag.  You know what we’re going to do though? Makelying scumbag a main character.  Ithought, “People can’t care about this objectively awful person outside ofseeing a dick up his ass!”  I GUESS I WASWRONG AS HELL!

We get like one chapter of them being a happy couple andthen Yuri remembers his tragic and mysterious backstory and falls into anincurable angst coma.  This is nauseatingfor many reasons. The big problem is the fact that the author tries to cram severalcontradicting slices of sad pie in our mouth at the same time.

1.)   Yuri tragic past involves how he hates how hisfriend was bullied but recently he was totally cool with his crush beingbullied for months.

2.)   Yuri, that cinnamon roll, currently violentlyhates somebody who has nothing to do with what happened to his family and heKNOWS THIS.  But you can’t like confronthim about that because he has special PTSD psychosis.  You wouldn’t want to like damage him furtherby making sure he doesn’t kick the shit out of an innocent person would you?

3.)   Yuri is tragic because he must be a perfect facefor his now deceased rich family but OH like also he has to work 80 jobs causehe’s poor.  People both envy his richnessand despise how he gets the special privilege of working a part-time jobbecause he’s poor.

THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE!?!?!??!

This is only compounded by two major pieces of themost unsubtle bad as fuck writing. Yuri’s PTSD flashbacks ONLY hit when he is putin a position to defend Jaerim.  Eventhough there should logically be absolutely no connection between the two. HOWFUCKING CONVENIENT!  Also the reason whyYuri was conflicted in the beginning about rubbing his dick all over Jaerim isbecause his parents were killed by an ugly person.  Fuckity piss I just….ughhhhh.

We can’t even imply that Yuri is a shallow shit-head he’sgotta have a tragic backstory for every fault and mistake he makes.  MY PARENTS WEREN’T EATEN ALIVE BY A PACK OFRABID BAD BL MANGAS BUT I STILL HATE BAD BL!

ANYHOO

Eventually Jaerim breaks through Yuri’s coma through aseries of super unromantic phrases disguised as romance. Including the smashhits of:

Meanwhile, despite being ~flagrantly ugly~ a new hot guy isinterested in Jaerim but like just so he can fuck a girl. Turns out there isthis super evil slutty girly-girl who is out to destroy Jaerim cause her crushon Yuri is extreme.  I thought at firstshe was one of the most pathetic 1-D misogynist attempts at creating a villainI have ever seen.  Then we get some ofher backstory where she was bullied because she tried to defend the superpopular Yuri from….this one girl who inexplicably didn’t like the super popularhandsome Yuri????  However the storymakes it look as if she was a shallow sociopath who learned how to be violentand feminine (in the same stroke case popular????) in order to achieve her aims.  She did this not to defend a defenseless Yuribut to get a taste of that sweeeeeeet dick. So after these scenes I thought she was one of the most pathetic 1-Dmisogynist attempts at creating a villain with a flaccid pointless backstorythat does nothing to make her sympathetic.

I mean…I’m kinda glad they tried avoiding making her astrawman but it did nothing to help the situation at all.

So she manipulates a dude into trying to drive Jaerim andYuri apart through guess what? FILMED RAPE DISGUISED AS CHEATING? HAHA!

Yuri sees Jaerim crying, covered in bruises, it looks likepretty obviously forced assault.  WhenJaerim sees Yuri he even looks relieved. But, of course, Yuri runs off weeping that he cheated.  However a friend magics to his spot and tellsYuri to trust Jaerim.  So Yuri runs backand tells everybody they’re totes dating and that there is nothing NOTHINGJaerim could do to ~escape~ from him. Rapist then beats the shit out of his love interest and Yuri for a whileand I guess the day is saved?

What I do like about this story is Yuri is called out on hiscrappy behavior and he apologizes for it which seems like a low bar but HAHAwe’re talking BL here.  I also like howthey don’t try to blame anything on Jaerim because Jaerim never does anythingwrong.  Perhaps it’s my soft-spot forukes but I do genuinely like Jaerim. He’s thoughtful, determined, and sweet.

What I don’t like about the comic is well pretty much allthe story events.

BUT WAIT there are 3 more couples I can talk about!  I’m not going to touch on lying scumbag andjealousy fodder because the story devotes very little time to them.

The two other couples are Bully/Victim and….bully/victim.Ugh good god.

The first I’ll talkabout is Yumin and Doohon.

Yumin and Doohon used to be anime buddies.  However as they get older Doohon realizesthat people look down upon anime fanatics so he decides he wants to be popularinstead.  This, of course, has to bepaired with Doohon verbally, and physically bullying those he can with theBONUS of sexually assaulting Yumin. Later, thanks to Jaerim, Doohon learns the error of his ways andapologizes to Yumin and returns to accepting his own anime nerd ways.  When Doohon is hesitant about starting arelationship with Yumin after all the unspeakable shit he put him through theytreat it as Doohon OVERTHINKING things because Yumin immediately wants to hopon his dick again.  In most situations inthis story they treat bullying as serious and fucked up.  However when your crush does it, it’s fine!HAHA!

Ugh

Next I’ll talk aboutAyeon and a character I’ll call aDONTis like Adonis but….DON’T HAHA! …Okaythat’s not very good but neither is this blog SO IT’S FINE!

Ayeon was a chubby guy who was infatuated with the shinning,gloriously attractive Adontis.  Ayeonasks Adontis out and Adontis responds with some of the most disgustinglyhateful tripe I’ve seen in a BL manga.  Adontis says how he should know better than to treat those lesser thanhim with kindness because they get the wrong idea.  That he’d never date an ANIMAL a PIG likeAyeon and that he is so disgusted at the prospect he can’t even finish an applethat Ayeon gifted him.

Damn! What a good antagonist for this story most readerswould think.  However all hope is lostwhen reminded that this is a BL story.

Adontis later finds out there is this cold but hot dude whodoes archery and throws himself in wholeheartedly into trying to bang him.  Why yes that is Ayeon after he lost weightand Adontis not only doesn’t realize this but he never does and is never calledout on his previous treatment of Ayeon. Adontis is a hyperactive brat, whose obviously stalker antics are playedoff as cute and endearing.  Ayeon ishesitant and already has a dude who treats him well as a love interest.  However Ayeon eventually succumbs toAdontis.  Ayeon acknowledges that Adontisis objectively a shallow, hateful fucker but like AYEON IS A SHALLOW PERSON TOOBECAUSE HE IS GOING TO GO OUT WITH ADONTIS FOR HIS LOOKS ALONE TOO!  I’m glad they accept that this is actuallykinda crappy situation.  However this hasthe effect of equating “A human monster” and “Someone with no spine” on thesame level of crappiness.  A bully and avictim are not equally terrible.

If you think so, just swallow a handful of lit M80s please!

Also their bonus chapter makesAyeon a slutty cat-boy for reasons and Adontis cheats on Ayeon just to test tosee if it’ll make him upset or not.  Idon’t like the other couples but this one is fucking sprinting to get to thebottom.

TL;DR

Never Understand is like His Favorite except darker and way worse and actually not like His Favorite at all.  The art is fine, Jaerim is decentbut the rest of the characters are pretty unlikable, and the story borders onstupid to repellent.   The upside beingthat (at least in the main couple) if a seme does something crappy they’llacknowledge it as bad and he’ll actually apologize for it.  Otherwise don’t waste your time.  I’ll never understand, never understand.