#i believe okuda waku is a woman so i've been using she/her pronouns. if not then whoops

[herotheshiro]

[cw for this review: rape]

finally read the eng translations for anti alpha and i’m honestly kind of pleasantly surprised that it’s not how i thought it was when i read only the raws a year or so ago? i had been purposely not checking the translations bc my impression of anti alpha was that it was (emotional) torture porn, basically the omega main gets raped and used by the alpha bc the alpha wants only to dominate the omega and somehow the omega still falls in love with the alpha in the end which is a p common trope in abo BL stories so i mean it’s natural (sadly) to assume that. but that’s not actually accurate ?? i mean there is still rape (no clear consent in some of these scenes) which is inexcusable but i was surprised to find out that the alpha (sena, might as well start using their names) actually kind of had feelings for/was interested in the omega (kamashiro but i might just use his first name rei from now on bc i’m too lazy to type the entire last name out every time) before finding out rei was an omega. and he fucks him not really bc he wants to see rei as an instinctual omega during sex but more bc he thinks it’ll get rei to like him back (??? unclear but i’m going off of BL logic here) i mean rei’s struggle abt accepting his status as an omega was p clear in the raws despite me not knowing japanese but idk i guess the manga sits better with me knowing that sena kind of has pure intentions and isn’t a jerk who’s trying to brute force what he wants. and i’m glad i was able to confirm through ppl commenting on the manga that the childhood friend’s (seino? forgot the name lol) rejection of rei was amicable bc i was a little afraid that rei had been terribly rejected and he basically crawls back to sena with his tail bw his legs.

anyway overall a surprise and i’ll be following the eng translations from now on. i was surprised bc even though okuda waku does have some more fluffier works (itonaga-kun), i just know her for that one yakuza piece (cw: heavy rape, implied age gap) and that other piece that didn’t rub me right abt the main who is hooking up with someone but then falls in love with someone else, also that first someone hooks up with the main’s younger bro who is also kind of sketchy bc he wants the main to be below him? i mean it’s nothing compared to the yakuza piece but it didn’t sit right with me. anti alpha isn’t exactly fluffy per se but i def thought it was humiliation-heavy and i don’t really like reading that kind of stuff ... it still kind of is here with my new understanding but the vibe is different. despite all that, i feel like it’s still okuda waku-like bc of the kind of abo world she chose to do ... like when they were like ‘yeah the school nurse is the only omega in the school and thus has to satisfy all of the alpha students’ urges when the need comes up’ .... that’s fucked. i was like this is so messed up and that nurse better be getting paid big bucks for having to do this but alas you know he isn’t bc of omega discrimination.

but also looked at the raws for the 2-ch sequel (not the actual spin-off anti alpha another) and yeah that’s where okuda waku went off the rails lol. i understood the stuff abt the uncle bc yeah you prob want to conclude his asshole story but her adding in the stuff abt rei’s fam ... jesus. also the scene where the uncle tries to rape rei but rei basically close to bites off his finger in response and it’s like ... idk spanish (that was the language of the raws) but it was basically like ‘haha that’s my violent omega’ (sena) and i’m like bro we ain’t gonna talk abt the system that’s being normalized here and instead be like ‘good for you for being violent when you’re fighting off a rapist’?? i mean idk spanish so maybe i was interpreting it wrong but i can’t really see how it’s gonna be any better even knowing the english translation.

on a more general note, abo stories are always so whack sometimes ... like. they live in a world where abo-blood is normal and has been the norm for literal centuries. wouldn’t they have developed medicines/suppressants that actually work and have also worked on campaigns to stop normalizing alpha rape of omegas? like even if you take out the actual racism aspects by making everyone the same ethnicity/skin color ... there can’t possibly be no alpha families who haven’t spoken up against this shit. and omegas just as a whole accept all that too? sure, even if it’s a reflection of things like ‘oh rich/celebrity ppl can get away with anything’ ... irl there are still elite ppl who do fall out of favor in the public due to certain behavior (i mean it is on the rarer side but). like i get it, we all just wanna see the sex but ... bro. it really should be at the point where it’s like abo-blood doesn’t exist, but just social conflicts happen bc of abo in name only (i.e., you may not be emitting alpha pheromones but you’re an alpha in blood so you should be top). and pheromone stuff should be like periods, just stuff you have to deal with every so often but it’s able to be handled relatively easily (assuming a certain social and money norm). i know that’s asking a lot of BL and abo BLs where maybe all you wanna see is just someone coming in someone else but ... dude. i wanna see good writing in addition to ppl getting it on ok. this is also ignoring the other abo trope which is fated pairs which, gut instinct, i like bc i love soulmates and that kind of shit; but on the other hand... makes no sense if you think abt it from a biology standpoint. again, i guarantee NO ONE is thinking about it like that but as someone who used to major in STEM ... come on