#shoujo age gaps... why...

[gravesung]

(rosé vc) i present to u... the ex

haruto was a senior in high school when chiaki was a freshman, so the relationship was ethically rocky at best to begin with. he was working as a T.A. for her history teacher; where the school's staff turned a blind eye to the bullying she dealt with, he intervened. which. for a teenage girl, that was literally all it took for her to fall head-over-heels.

dude's hard to read. even for Me as the writer. he didn't know what he wanted, and the power dynamic didn't concern him, so he kind of went back and forth between giving chiaki attention and icing her out, acting like he was going to accept or return her feelings and then rejecting them, and it left her confused and hurt most days. but she never really had enough confidence to confront him about it, instead letting herself be strung along by the only person in the damn school who seemed like he cared about her. and he... did...? in his own fucked up way? but he's really really out of touch with his own feelings and did not want to handle the consequences of making an actual DECISION. god forBID.

eventually, it was chiaki who broke off... whatever it was between them. a few kisses, a few dates. it just wasn't worth the emotional turmoil, and she finally had an out — she'd been recruited to jujutsu high and was able to leave it all behind.

they'd find each other again later — haruto isn't a sorcerer so she can't talk about where she's been all these years, but chiaki is unfortunately still susceptible to his avoidant-attachment-style bullshit. yes he has a girlfriend now. yes he would cheat on her and/or break up with her depending on whether chiaki knows or not.

[intomybubble]

Nooo this is my third GL manga where the main characters are adults, and one of them is married. It was with Even though we’re adults, Run away with me girl and now Pinky Candy Kiss

Uugh and i was really digging how Pink candy kiss started too bc the chemistry with the FLs were good. Now we have to deal with the straight obligation before we get the happy lesbians

[acrookedvulture]

Yknow I'm gonna say, to each their own but when i found out usagi was in middle school and mamoru was in COLLEGE, AT THE AGE OF 8, I WANTED TO DIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE

[ayaraabaporu]

Shungiku Nakamura importance

Shungiku Namakura is a mangaka who started her career in 1998 with Yaoi stories. She is signed in the manga topic with a lot of famous stories like Junjou Romantica (Pure Hearted Romance), the Junjou Romantica spin-off called Sekaiichi Hatsukoi (The World's Greatest First Love) and Hybrid Child. Her manga stories also have age gaps between the couples.

However, she is coy about her art style even it's still being a big influence in the manga arts nowaday.

Hybrid Child

The history is about three couples. There are android childrens and their owners who afterward fell in love with them. Also, all the couples are connected in some way that we could call fate. Hybrid Child is for the tragedy-hearted lovers, since it has moments when the characters need to face the death.

Junjou Romantica

It's the most famous Shungiku Nakamura's manga. Release in 2002, Junjou Romantica is about adult lovers. The couple's stories are divided by Junjou Romantica (Misaki Takahashi and Akihiko Usami), Junjou Egoist (Hiroki Kamijou and Nowaki Kusama), Junjou Terrorist (Yoh Miyagi and Shinobu Takatsuki) and Junjou Mistake (Ryuuichiro Isaka Kaoru Asahina).

The first couple apresented for the reader is the Misaki and Akihiko. In the beginning Misaki discovered that Akihiko was in love with his brother and he feels pity for Akihiko since his brother is going to marry in a stable relationship.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi

The story scenario is in the Shoujo manga publishing with the main couples being Ritsu Onodera+Masamune Takano, Shouta Kisa+kou Yukina, and Chiaki Yoshino+Yoshiyuki Hatori.

Since Sekaiichi Hatsukoi is a Junjou Romantica's spin-off there's easter-eggs mixed in the chapters.

After all, why Shungiku Nakamura is important for the Yaoi community?

The answer is: she is a tremendous phenomenom. And when we are talking about he 2000s this is very significant. Some years earlier, in 90s the public was debating about the Yaoi stories and if it could be an awful thing for the present and future.

Nevertheless, after the Internet boom between 95 and 00 years the Yaoi content started being acessible for the mass and reached overseas like America and Europe. Shungiku Nakamura was the precursors Yaoi mangas that touched the hearts with her light, romantic and dramatical love stories.

Finally, her manga is still on top sellers and a big inspiration for the current Yaoi manga (especially her art style).

Shungiku Nakamura will always be a good reading for everyone who loves good romance with some angst. There's no better advice than recommending a Shungiku Nakamura love story.

Thank you for reading this far :).

[nica-my-beloved]

Things I Love and Dislove About Ikemen Games

These are my opinions!

CONTAINS ADULT CHARACTERS

You don't know how much this means to me because most of the time I try finding shoujo mangas I end up with stories that involve high school kids.

I'm a die heart fan of demon romance but majority of the shoujo manga that explores supernatural beings involves a 1000 year old demon king falling in love with a 16 year old high school girl. This sickens me not only because of the age gap but one of the party is a freaking minor.

As an adult, I'm so happy the Ikemen Games doesn't involve younger characters or at least characters that are 'minor' as a romantic partner.

MC's ONLY JOB IS TO SIMPLYFY THE STORY

I have said this before, MCs are just props to simplify the story and characters to us because the writers think we're too dumb to understand what the character is saying. They're like Paimon so that we don't use our braincells to understand the characters better.

I wish they didn't do that and have MCs backstories that describes their personality. I mean, all the MCs want to 'prove' to the male leads that they wanna be 'strong' but I'm tired of this trope.

Why does MCs have to always be innocent and prove themselves? Why does she always want to 'understand' the male leads? Can't we...for once have a romance that doesn't involve MCs teaching male leads true love?

Also STOP give MCs odd jobs! Book stall employee...letter carrier? I mean who is happy and satisfied doing this? How about giving the high-paying jobs like Auditor or Businesswoman or Scientist or etc etc...I know Mai is a fashion designer and businesswoman and Mitsuki is a travel agent turned maid. Alice is a baker and Yoshino is a pharmacist. The only MCs that continues to follow the path of their dreams is Mai and Yoshino.

MATURE ROMANCE

I enjoy seeing two adults slowly fall in love.

There is something different about teenagers falling in love vs adults falling in love. The romance is more realistic. They don't talk about how they're gonna plan their future together or which college they're going to go instead their chat is much more deep and that's refreshing.

NO BAD ENDINGS

Happy endings are nice. Everyone deserves one! But when there are no bad endings, the story won't have stakes.....and when there are no stakes, I can't take any gunshot sounds, blank screen and MCs saying 'Is this the end?' seriously.

Just stop being cowards writers! Put some bad endings!!

FAIR SHARE OF ROMANCE

Although I have played my fair share of Maiden games, majority of them are not that romantic.

I love cute romance moments to lighten up the mood and I really need them. Ikemen games delivers that too well....way too well...

I do have some criticism for random steamy scenes, I don't mind as long as they have context and mood.

The story is not so story focused all the time and also has time for mischievous romance which I like! It helps in calming me down and enjoy at the same time.

BULLSHIT GACHA SYSTEM AND NON-EXISTING GRINDING SYSTEM (Not very F2P friendly)

Even though Genshin's gacha system is shit (you need mf 90 wishes to get a guaranteed 5 star and 180 wishes to get the limited 5 star you want!) I still think it's ways better than the gacha system of these Ikemen Games.

Yes I agree that both the games are different in genre, one is an open world anime rpg and other is a maiden game with gacha mechanics. But that doesn't mean that I have to always pay to buy limited gacha tickets!! At least genshin gives us an open world to explore and grind primos (even though its time consuming)

Yes they do give limited tickets when you enter an event or complete the mission board but that's only ONE TICKET and you need 50 LIMITED TICKETS to get your guaranteed limited 5 star card. On the other hand, they give out many standard tickets but what am I gonna do with it if they aren't gonna update the standard banner?

These games are NOT F2P friendly and if you wanna...like say, want rank no.1 in an event you'd have to save a lot of items.

Ofc I know about the subscription thing and you do indeed get a lot of items, but the most essential thing for me is limited gacha tickets and diamonds because I wanna collect as many beautiful cards as possible and you don't get them from these monthly subscriptions. It's a waste of $5 very month. I'd rather buy a nice hair care or skin care items from that.

INTERESTING SETTINGS

I have my criticism in some of their stories but I can't deny that I LOVEE their story settings. Their premise for each game is solid to the point it makes me wanna actually try it.

This is something I find very rare in 'shoujo' genre.

For example, I don't like Vampire themed games because they suck! (both figuratively and literally) but Ikemen Vampire interests me because they take real historical figures and makes them vampire, which is a really cool idea! You don't know but I'd die to get myself in situation like that because it would be an honor to meet some great historical figures, chat with them and make them lose all their brain cells just like me. I would die to meet especially Isaac Newton and grill him for making those torturous physics theories that gave me brain tumors in my school.

Very cool setting! I can't wait to see what's in store for us in the future!!!

EVENTS ARE INSANELY BORING

I've never enjoyed a single story event from Ikemen Villains. They are boring and makes me fall asleep immediately at chapter 1. I think that kinda spread to Ikemen Prince because I barely open Ikemen Prince app now.

I honestly don't find the stories of these events interesting at all. It always feels like 'I have seen this before' maybe in some other game or some other manga.

And the Collections events.....yeah, I hate them! I wish they never existed!!! They keep the fan-loved characters at the butt-end of the list where 90% of the players don't even make it unless they burn their whole month's salary. I know that's why they do these anniversary elections because I bet if Sariel was the most voted character, his story would have been the most expensive one to get.

VERY LIKEABLE MALE LEADS

This is a personal thing but I love charismatic male leads a lot! Male leads with a lot of suave and beauty! Yes I care about these things when I play gacha games okay! I play gacha games to look at hot guys (because I know I'm never gonna get one in real life!)

But I also love that the devs puts an effort to make them feel good too. So I wanna give a shoutout to them!!! 'KEEP GOING!!! JUST DON'T MAKE TRIGGERING MEN WHO SAYS 'I'LL KILL YOU'!!!

[jascurka]

what's please save my earth about? I keep seeing you talk abt it and I'm like 👀

"Please save my Earth" tells the story of a pack of highschoolers and a 7year old boy, who thanks to their connected dreams find out they have been living as alien researchers, studying and watching over the earth from their base on the moon in their past life. They have been reincarnated as humans and have to come to terms with the complicated relationships they had in their past lives.

And oh boy it gets interesting.

Note that the aliens I'm talking about are basically some sort of humans but upgraded. They just come from different planets apparently and have powers like communicating with plants or straight up ESP. And small spoiler but for some of them their powers activate again during the series when they're human.

The original manga by Saki Hiwatari was published in the 80s and 90s and the 6-episode OVA came out in 1995. You can watch it on YouTube although I wish I had access to a better quality of it. Personally I think the anime adaptation left some things kind of unsolved, there are implications to what happened but no deep dive into it, which is why I started reading the manga! Hopefully I'll find out more about what didn't make it on screen. So far I really like it, it's been a while since I've read shoujo, it has some humour in it and apparently it starts getting more serious and dark later on.

If you saw me posting about Jinpachi and Issei - they're kind of a subplot, the main character is Alice (Arisu) and Rin, the 7 year old menace. Their relationship is complicated and takes various turns.

Lastly for possible content warnings: there is an age gap relationship in please save my earth. It is also complicated but nothing too... shocking (??) for someone who isn't used to seeing stuff like that talked about in media. It's very tame if you ask me, you'd need to find out yourself orz

Anyways! I think I can recommend giving it a shot, it's really short but the artstyle of the anime is so ahh delicious, the characters feel so solid and shaped, I love that. And the animation is very nice as well!

(x), (x)

[aihoshiino]

can i interest you in a penny for your thoughts about aqua and ruby's relationship in the current stages of the manga? ruby's clearly projecting and im pretty sure aqua is kind of blocking that entire conversation? hes acknowledged it but i think hes avoiding thinking too much about it (in part due to *waves hand at entire movie arc* all that)

gosh since you've twisted my arm i have NO CHOICE...

But yeah, I think Ruby is pretty clearly doing a lot of projecting here — the consistency with which she's started calling Aqua 'Sensei' really jumps out to me and it makes me pretty certain she's basically completely overwritten Aqua with Gorou in her brain, completely discarding the 18ish years he's lived as her brother in favour of just viewing him as the doctor who supported her.

This is a two-part process of denial, imo. The first and most obvious is Ruby trying to convince herself that her supposed romance with Gorou can still happen and it's not the first time her sort of naive stubbornness on that topic has come up — we saw this before during the Private arc when it came to their age gap.

Like girl, I respect the cope but he would be nearly fifty old by now. That man would be old enough to be your dad LMFAO.

If Ruby can delulu herself about an age gap of that size, she can easily also come up with an excuse for herself as to why she would be able to date him now he's her brother. I mean, if you think about it, they're not really actually twins, right? They're just strangers who happened to be born together! Since he's really Gorou and NOT!!!!! her brother, there's nothing wrong with it!

It should go without saying that this is a pretty absurd justification and imo, not one I think the manga is wanting the reader to uncritically buy into. Ruby's feelings here are, I think, intentionally being portrayed as naive and pretty childish. The framing around Ruby when she talks about Aqua in this regard is consistently exaggerated and comedic in a way that is a pretty clear signal, at least to me, that she should not be taken seriously.

This could only read more plainly as shoujo brainrot exaggeration if Aqua's chin was seven inches long and sharp enough to cut glass...

Beyond the denial of convincing herself that this romance still has any chance to happen, I also think this is denial in the sense of grief, too. In a very real sense, by entirely superimposing Gorou over Aqua, Ruby is denying that his death has happened at all. She doesn't want to acknowledge the possibility that he could be different now, especially not in any way that is emotionally inconvenient for her. Because acknowledging that this change occurred and that Gorou is no longer the Gorou she needs him to be would force Ruby to accept that her beloved sensei really is gone forever.

It should go without saying but this erasure of Aqua's identity is, of course, cruel. It's a dehumanizing rejection of his personhood. That's not to say that Ruby is A Bad Person for doing this— she's a fucked up kid dealing with a INSANELY fucked up situation and I think it would be unreasonable to expect her to handle all this entirely gracefully. But I also don't know that Ruby is even aware that she's doing what she's doing, because she doesn't quite get that her relationship with her identities and her reincarnation is different to his.

The continuity of identity between Sarina and Ruby is more or less entirely unbroken— she sees herself equally as both girls. More specifically, as Ruby herself puts it in 115, Sarina and Ruby are both 'roles' played by the 'real her'; both equal in weight and authenticity. I think she expects this to be the same for Aqua as well but this simply is not the case, or at least it's not anymore.

My read on Aqua's identity is that while he used to have a similarly unbroken continuity of identity, the trauma of witnessing Ai's death created a split and separated the two. It's not that Aqua is entirely separate from Gorou or entirely unaffected by his past life but Aqua himself & the supporting framing of the manga draws a pretty clear line of distinction between the two of them that does not seem to exist for Ruby and Sarina. In fact, Gorou is explicitly portrayed as a negative, invading force, an unnatural encroacher whose presence in Aqua's life is actively preventing him from finding happiness and stability.

To Ruby, it seems natural for these two identities to comingle, or for one's priorities to cancel the other's out. For Aqua, this same overriding of priorities is the thing that causes him anguish. In fact, I don't think it's too much of a leap for me to say that Aqua does not want to be Gorou full stop.

With all that laid out, I think you can pretty easily see how that conflict starts writing itself. Ruby ignoring and erasing the 18 years that Aqua has lived as her brother to assign him the identity of a man he doesn't want to be... the discomfort of someone he has only ever had familial feelings towards projecting romance onto him... the Squick of it all... no wonder Aqua is doing his best to just not deal with it. I can't really blame him.

Something I also think is informing Aqua's behavior right now is guilt. As he puts it to Memcho in 130, he's using everything he can to ensure the movie's success and I think this also includes manipulating Ruby.

We get some hints at this idea from Crow Girl both in 123 and 127. She sardonically notes "aren't you glad?" that Ruby seems to have reacted so positively to this reveal and explicitly ties Ruby's wellbeing to Aqua being able to make the movie. Later, after Aqua's just witnessed the final script be delivered to the B-Komachi girls, she notes that Aqua has the expression of a person who has made the choice to "hurt people and to get hurt".

Ruby's shoujo brain reads of Aqua's intentions also are important in establishing this, I think -- these clearly read as intended comedy beats to me, both in their exaggeration and the fact that she is so obviously misreading Aqua's character and his intentions because of her rose tinted glasses. As that Netflix show about the cartoon show once said, the thing about seeing someone through rose tinted glasses is that all the red flags just look like flags. In keeping Ruby happy, Aqua is making sure she herself doesn't become inconvenient to the movie's creation.

I think you can see that idea of like, guilt and discomfort manifesting as avoidance in the twins' first proper on-page exchange since this reveal, in 132:

I didn't catch this initially (so sorry to the person on the OnK subreddit who did -- I completely forgot your UN!) but not only do we never get a proper unobscured look at Aqua's face during this exchange but he also never once looks directly at Ruby as they talk. His body language & expression at the end (literally averting his gaze!) just screams discomfort to me.

That's not to say that Aqua revealing himself to her was entirely cynically motivated -- I think he completely genuinely loves her both as her brother, Aqua, and as Gorou, the man who cared for a deathly sick child when she had no one else in the world by her side. But that's just the problem— Aqua's love for her is the thing that makes his manipulation of her so painful. He's taking advantage of his sister's emotional vulnerability and their unique connection to use her in a way that completely betrays and desecrates the bond of trust they should otherwise share. And he's aware that if (or, as I'm beginning to worry, when) this comes out, Ruby is going to crash even harder as a result.

[olderthannetfic]

/727435364306976768

Anon I am agreeing with you so hard. I am a big eastern media fan and the amount out complaining and US centrism in the English speaking sections of these fandoms is starting to kill me. I am like, exclusively on reddit, tumblr, and ao3. Reddit is hell its full of nothing but complaining about age gaps, enemies to lovers, and characters that aren't always making the right and moral :tm: choices and if you try and point out that it's a authors job to tell a perfectly moral story but and interesting one your comments will get deleted buy mods. It feels like people just moved from Twitter to reddit.

And like so many of the stories they are complaining about are historical fiction/fantasy and they seeth and foam at the mouth over age gaps. Like if they hate them so much why do they keep reading them. It's so exhausting I just want to enjoy my eastern comics with other fans in peace not sit there through a bitch and moan fest. I now have the threads blocked cause I just can't take all the negativity anymore.

Like no I don't care about this adult/minor ship in this shoujo, it's a shoujo they are just like that. No I don't care that a royal in a historical story is rude to the FL and doesn't trust her on sight. No it doesn't bother me that this manga/manhwa has a slave character in it, it's just a plot point. No I'm not bothered that characters are being constantly manipulative because the plot has stated its either that or death. I'm not going to care that this adult yakuza is dating a high school girl that's like the most minor of the illegal things he's doing honestly. Like the idea of holding fictional characters to the same standards are living breathing people is frankly ridiculous.

And God so much of it is just so incredibly xenophobic like I am not going to expect a jp/kr author to write for an American audience that's fucking stupid. Frankly all of the above is also exactly why I like eastern writing more they can write a story that's actually interesting without being hung up on all this bullshit. Puritans are fucking exhausting.

-@botanicbones

--

[sasukeuzumaki-uchiha]

You can ask me whatever you want

Hey, how are you? I'm happy 😁

Please be nice, don't send any hate towards me or anyone (It's not nice to be mean)

If you have any questions ask me in the comments, i will try to respond when i can

Fandoms i will do:

Naruto (I just started the manga 😁)

Demon Slayer (A masterpiece 😍)

One Piece (The Live Action, i read the manga but did not watched the anime)

My Hero Academia (I stop at the half of season 5, the anime became boring)

Sailor Moon (The first real anime i watched entirely, and when i was young my mom came in the room and saw me crying because all the sailors were dying😂)

Five Nights At Freddy (Only platonic)

Shoujo Tsubaki (Muchisute only)

Malice Mizer (best band ever)

Characters will write for:

DemonSlayer

Tanjiro Kamado

Nezuko Kamado

Kie Kamado

Tanjuro Kamado (Super underrated 😭)

Zenitsu Agatsuma

Inosuke Hashibira

Kotoha Hashibira (I don't know why she is underrated, she is so cute)

Kanao Tsuyuri

Genya Shinazugawa

Aoi Kanzaki

Sanemi Shinazugawa

Shinobu Kocho

Mitsuri Kanroji

Obanai Iguro (I love him❤️❤️❤️)

Kyojuro Rengoku (🍩🍩)

Giyuu Tomioka

Kanae Kocho

Gyomei Himejima

Tengen Uzui (+ his wives of course)

Tokito Muichiro (Aged up)

Muzan Kibutsuji (🖕🏻🖕🏻🖕🏻)

Akaza

Douma

Kokushibo

Aizetsu

Tamayo

Yushiro

Naruto:

Naruto Uzumaki (Obviously)

Sasuke Uchiha (In the French version they say Uchiwa. NO IT'S UCHIHA!!!)

Hinata Hyuga

Kakashi Hatake

Itachi Uchiha (Daddy!!!)

Orochimaru

Kushina Uzumaki

Minato Namikaze

One Piece:

Monkey D. Luffy

Roronoa Zoro

Nami

Usopp

Shank

Ace (😭😭)

My Hero Academia:

Izuku Midoriya

Shoto Todoroki

Natsuo Todoroki

Fuyumi Todoroki

Rei Todoroki

Touya Todoroki

Kai Chisaki (Overhaul)

Tenko Shimura (Tomura Shigaraki)

S a i l o r M o o n:

Usagi

Rei

Ami

Makoto

Minako

Five Nights At Freddy (Only human):

Freddy

Bonnie

Chica (My favorite in every game except Security Breach)

Foxy (My second favorite)

Golden Freddy

Puppet

Shoujo Tsubaki:

Tokkuriji Muchisute ❤️❤️

Malice Mizer:

Mana

Közi

Yu~Ki

Kami

Gackt

Tetsu

Klaha

Gaz

What i will write:

FLUFF

AU

Smut (Not now but later)

Character x reader

Character x Character (Sasuke x Hinata, mostly)

Sub Character x Dom Reader (We need more Dom reader!!)

Sub Character x Dom Character (Sub Sasuke x Dom Hinata, ect)

For the smut (Kinks):

Rough sex

Losing virginity

Mommy kink

Lactation kink

Pregnancy kink

And others

Things i won't write for:

Illegal age gap

Pedophilia

Yandere

Disgusting kinks

Abuse

Angst

[nozoditz]

To the Coconozo antis, I understand you're holding out hope that the ship will be sunk in the new distant sequel because of the franchise's current direction when it comes to age-gap and power-imbalance ships, but I'm just gonna say... no. No, it won't.

The first reason people cite for their hope is that more recent seasons like HaCha and Hugtto went for "girl has an unrequited crush on a confirmed adult and learns to get over it" plots. Yeah, Toei moved toward those because even preschoolers are watching Precure these days and may not know the difference between fictional fantasy and relationships that are good in real life, so they decided to teach the latter rather than court the former. Power of Hope, though? It's aimed at the adults who watched Yes as children. And, contrary to the belief system of the average anti, if you're not four years old, you've already learned that fiction and reality are not the same and you don't need to be kept sheltered and scolded if you watch a show with something unrealistic that wouldn't be good in real life.

The second point I have is the one that comes up every time puriteens look into the old seasons and gasp in horror (to the point that some callout post going around is making "ships Coconozo or allows it to be discussed" sound like just as serious an offence as, you know, actual problems in the fandom Discord in question). Coconozo was never meant to be realistic. Coco being only a few years older than Nozomi and passing as an adult while being for all intents and purposes an emancipated minor, as well as the power imbalance between teacher and student being evened out by that between mascot and magical girl (or, essentially, helpless and protector), are things that don't apply to real-life teacher/student scenarios. This softens the ship to make it less bad than it would be in real life. On top of that, come this sequel, they'll be adults and won't have been teacher and student for years and years.

Now, people are still within their rights to be put off by it, and some even argue that that might make it worse because kids won't see the nuance. Indeed that's probably a big part of why later seasons had stories like Megumi's and Homare's and changed the focus from selling a fantasy to teaching kids that their innocent age-gap crush will and should be unrequited and how to deal with that. But again, Power of Hope is a late-night spinoff aimed at nostalgic adults who don't need to be scolded for indulging in something that isn't real.

You don't need to ship Coconozo or even approve of it. You might look at the fact that they are consistently written as making each other better people, helping each other grow, and supporting one another's dreams and just brush it off because teacher/student is still by its nature unhealthy in real life, even though they were one of the healthiest and most understanding and mutually supportive canon ships in late 2000s shoujo anime. But making desperate prayers to sink a ship that's been canon for longer than most of these scandalized kids have been alive because "think of the children!" isn't going to do anything, and if you don't like it. maybe watch something else. We've got 20 years' worth of other Precure seasons you could sit down with instead.

[filliteapot]

I am happy to hear you like relationships with age difference cause most of the time I ran into people who see them as 100% bad. Like sure, age gaps have their problems but doesn't all kinds of relationships have, even ones where there isn't age gap? I don't think age gaps are this black and white thing were all age gaps are bad and enjoying them is immoral etc. Btw, what's the appeal of age gap to you and what are some of your fave age gap romances?

Oh, you know, I quite like stories in which people make mistakes, do questionable things, ruin their own lives and make suffer those around them, so that you can't call them "good people" and you're fully aware of how toxic the situation is -- but you cannot take your eyes off it bc it's just FASCINATING IN ITS TOXICNESS AND TRAGEDY. It may concern stories with age gaps too, but it's not actually the age difference that makes it work for me -- it's probably this fascinating feeling of the fall, and my heart aching for people/characters while being unable to do anything to solve their situation.

There are actually stories in which age difference doesn't create this atmosphere and any real ground for screams about harm and amorality -- then I just like the story for whatever reason. In my summary of fav dynamics I wrote 'stories with age gaps' just because there are many of them in my faves (ahah) but they are all different in mood and themes and characters' circumstances.

In fact I really enjoy the freedom fiction gives - I seriously don't understand how liking any media makes you good or bad person, neither do I get the desire to have every story fit your - of course - very high moral compass/teach you important life lessons while telling you're a good one bc you support the Right Thing. I actually find this approach quite egoistic and harmful.

Also, does everything have to be morally pure and 100% problemless to be worthy of your love? Does liking a villain or a problematic relationship necessarily mean that you want this for yourself or anyone else in your daily life? Do we really need the story to explicitly tell us what is good or bad to understand what we see as good or bad? It's especially funny to me when people spend much time on threads condemning a story while the story itself shows the problems and their outcomes quite well, just doesn't give you morals openly.

Everything I said above goes for age gaps too - if I find it interesting, I do enjoy this and don't see why I should be ashamed of it.

Personal faves:

Human Disqualification (Lost jtbc kdrama)

Nagatan to Aoto

Otoko no Isshou

I love her (Ikuemi Ryo)

Jane Eyre

Fire and Hemlock

any problematic storyline in old shoujo (Fruits Basket my beloved)

[vampkitty66]

2023 Spring Anime Season: My Thoughts Thus Far

Yamada-kun at Lv999 

Disclaimer!! These are just my opinions

Status: Currently Ongoing

Starting off we have Yamada-kun at Lv999. I will say after watching the first two episodes I immediately picked up the manga. It currently only has five episodes, and the final episode will be the thirteenth. This follows Akane, a college student who recently got dumped by her boyfriend for a girl he met in a online game they both used to play together. Wanting to make him jealous, she attends an event for the online game knowing that he’ll be there and meets a boy named Yamada. Yamada helps Akane out after she tripped and her ex boyfriend spots them together. Turns out her ex is a big fan of Yamada’s, and in an attempt to make her ex jealous she bribes Yamada to say that they are dating each other.  Since I am a shoujo lover myself, I felt super drawn to this series because it feels nostalgic. I think the characters are likeable and despite their age gap ( although I don’t find it a big deal as its only two years apart ) their relationship is healthy. Really enjoying it so far, I think its refreshing to see a romance anime nowadays with little to no fan service. If you haven't, I highly suggest picking up the manga.

Hells Paradise

Status: Currently Ongoing 

Completing the “Dark trio” we have Hells Paradise, I preface that I have not read the manga. With only five episodes so far, I've got to say that this might be one of the best watches for me this season. Mappa has really outdone themselves in my opinion, the animation is crazy. The story follows Gabimaru the Hollow who was captured and sentenced to death. With him practically being invincible, Sagiri, his executioner, gave him an opportunity to be pardoned. To be able to be pardoned he and other death row convicts have to find the elixir of life. I think the story is fantastic and the characters are all interesting. I’m really excited to see what comes next as the series continues, and we’ve already seen some development in some of the characters, as well as some of the backstories. Waiting for my girl Sagiri to be an absolute badass and prove everyone who doubts her wrong. Also just got to say that the opening song is  fire and its been on repeat for me. 

Skip And Loafer  

Status: Currently Ongoing   

Skip And Loafer, another romance anime with only five episodes so far (its very exciting to have so many wholesome animes come out this year) This one also feels like a very nostalgic shoujo, but its in fact a sienen. This one is based in high school and it follows Mitsumi Iwakura, a girl who lived on the countryside her whole life. Iwakura attends high school in Tokyo and even though she thinks everything will go smoothly, it turns out to be quite the opposite. Watching this made me cringe so hard not even going to lie, its awkward and goofy but that’s also what I like about it. Despite having to throw my phone to the other side of the bed because of the awful secondhand embarrassment I got, I'm definitely going to continue watching it. 

Why Raeliana Ended Up At The Dukes Mansion

Status: Currently Ongoing 

This was originally a manhwa that got adapted into an anime. I have not read the manhwa so I can’t base anything off of it, but so far I'm enjoying it. It follows Raeliana who was originally Park Eunha who had died in the real world and woke up to be Raeliana. The world that she is in as Raeliana is based off a novel she had read in her previous life, so lucky for her, she knows what's to come. There were a lot of isekai animes this season and to be honest, this is the only one I've watched. This seemed like an interesting concept, I don’t watch or read too many isekai series because a lot of them feel the same and I find some of them boring but maybe I should give it more of a chance? I digress, I like most of the main characters so far and if I were her, I’d totally jump on the duke bandwagon. The animation is a little iffy but I can look past it, overall I don’t have that many complaints about it.  

Honorable Mention

Oshi No Ko

Contains spoilers!!

Status: Ongoing

Note: This is an absolute mess of a review oops

Okay so I’ve only watched the first episode so far (I think there's two or three now??) The first episode was like an hour long and it was a lot. We start off meeting the two main characters in the hospital, the little girl and the doctor. We see Ai on tv and to be honest does no one else find it weird that the doctor is like obsessed with a teen idol? Yes I know its because of the little girl, she was his patient and she died blah blah blah. I just find it a little odd... I don't know, it’s fine, moving on. Ai is pregnant and the doctor gets assigned to her, turns out shes having twins and on the night that she is supposed to deliver, the doctor gets pushed and dies. The doctor and his little girl patient gets reincarnated as her twins but they are fully aware of their previous lives. So now a 12 year old girl and a 20 something year old man are Ai’s twins. Also forgot to mention, didn’t the doctor say something sus to the little girl before she died because didn’t she want to marry him??? Honestly I forget, anyways, fast forward the twins, Aqua and Ruby, get older throughout the episode. Ai has been doing her idol shit and what not and Aqua also dabbles into acting a bit. Ruby is dancing or something and all is swell until it all turned to shit. Ai is I think 20 years old now? There's someone who comes to the door and she opens it, he then stabs her and she dies. Oh and she finally tells her kids that she loves them. The episode is almost over at this point, Aqua asks this one guy to raise him or something and Aqua pretty much figures out that his dad hired someone to kill his mom so he’s in his revenge era now. This was a whole mess but its fine. I liked the characters designs a lot, I thought they were really pretty. I have some problems with this anime but I think I might continue to watch it and then do a whole review on it. Still baffled on how people claimed that this was the best first episode they've seen ( even topped aot ) I think it was a good episode don’t get me wrong and I liked the animation style and there were cute moments but I don’t think it was the best first episode I've seen. Ai’s song was fire though, I will say that.

[neonscandal]

Hi, I'm the one who send this https://www.tumblr.com/neonscandal/744748284319498240/do-you-know-that-the-mangaka-of-wotakoi-love-is?source=share

I also just realized this. But after reading the manga and watch the anime, we could tell that the mangaka also love BL, right? Yes, I have read that GL one shot, love them, wish it could be longer...

Just finished discussing with a few people that think canon BL and GL >> non canon BL and GL (like from shounen & shoujo). I disagree with them, and you know what, I showed them a few posts from various blogs (one of them are your blog). And let's just say, some of them now have also become SatoSugu, BakuDeku, and YumiHisu shipper... 😉

Your answers to asks similar to our discussion also help. Thanks for this amazing blog of yours .....

Hello again and thank you for your ask! Oh for sure. I mean, it's been a while since I last watched it but wasn't Momose a fujoshi? And I'm not saying Hanako being a crossplayer is tangential territory but the girls that get it, get it. 😂

RE: canon BL and GL vs non canon BL and GL, I giggled so much. One, thanks for sharing my posts, it's funny to think they're a catalyst for others to fall into the same brainrot I find myself in, constantly. I think there's a level of drama in the non canon BL and GL that is different from canon BL and GL. Not sure if that makes sense to say.

What I've noticed is that, typically, the drama in MLM and WLW romance stories that I've read is either from coming to terms with their feelings (like a coming of age) or just straight up reconciling trauma. There's a crazy amount of abuse that gets passed off as romance which I take issue with whether they are straight or queer stories. Occasionally, you'll see drama from enemies or rivals overcoming tense relations but, sometimes, even those stories are precipitated by some kind of sexual violence.

Non canon, there's an independent story that is typically multilayered and has nothing to do with romance. But there's enough "give" in these longer running stories to find deeper connections between the cast. There are also enough gaps in a developing story where fandom can fill in the blanks, especially with rich and dynamic characters that have development independent of their relationship with someone else. I think that's why I lean on queer characters having storylines independent of being queer because while that's part of ones' experience that's not all they are. So these stories provide this desperate sort of drama as characters play their role in this unfurling story, right? But then, there's another facet of drama in the "will they, won't they" that we convince ourselves of and it just compounds. Let's not forget stories with an element of danger that isn't caused between a ship.. Okay, maybe I'm finally starting to understand doom toxic yaoi.. 😅

ALSO, don't forget that canonically, Ymir was a queer character who loved Historia. Whether Historia reciprocated those feelings in the same way does not negate that representation. It makes me happy to know that people are having such sincere conversations and that my posts are a means of discourse 😂 because I'm out here smashing my keyboard and screaming into the internet void: "AND YA KNOW WHAT ELSE IS SAD!?" hahahaha so thank you for reading, genuinely, and for including me in your conversations.

[roobylavender]

SO trying to refrain from asking u every single thing on the violence ask game… I’ll settle for 4, 12, 17, and 19? 👀🧡💓

HI HIBA these ones are so good omg

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

aside from people i have personal beef with or football fans i feel like the only time i block people is when we like the same thing but their interpretation of it is insufferable 💀

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

van hohenheim from fullmetal alchemist! i skew a lot towards deadbeat dad types in media for some reason (well.) but i genuinely believe he wasn't a deadbeat dad in any sense of the word and simply had all types of circumstances working against him despite the overwhelming love he had for his family like he's actually everything to me..

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

more fanon with obscure love interests taking center stage when their men have gone to war and died. i love the depressed man with dead wife archetype (sorry women but it's tew good) but i also think women should be allowed to use man death as a character development stepping stone for a change like it would be neat

19. you’re mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

akito and shigure from fruits basket in the sense that i don't actually like them like them like they are genuinely horrible people. akito harming everyone in her path so long as shigure refuses to give into her and shigure claiming akito for his own from the time she was in the womb and going on several years later to fuck her mother as payback for her more or less making a concubine out of their cousin rather than giving shigure her attention is very very bad but it's like the kind of bad where you can't really look away bc you are enraptured by how far two people's egomania can go. like "don't get me wrong. i love akito. i love her too much. so much that i want to spoil her rotten. so much that i want to crush her to a pulp" is absolutely crazy. and i have so, so many qualms with fruits basket as an adult now not the least of which is its romanticization of predatory age gap relationships but the relationship between these two in particular is such a frightening horror show that i can never seem to forget about it even though it is obv very bad and reprehensible and akito is in all likelihood as much a victim of shigure's own narcissism and predation as she is of the clan's cycle of abuse. fruits basket is weird bc a lot of shoujo manga include problematic elements with respect to romantic relationships but fruits basket takes it so far sometimes that you are almost horrified at how lacking in self awareness natsuki takaya is like it's so hard to describe and sometimes i remember it with fondness while other times all i feel is disgust

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

[kiiraes]

WHY ARE WEIRD AGE GAPS SO NORMALIZED IN SHOUJO

[otakween]

Head Start at Birth - Ch. 21-30

The mediocrity continues! I feel like I've read newspaper funnies with higher stakes than this plot. Nothing bad ever really happens to the main characters and they always look/act pristine. The character writing is giving Mary Sue/Gary Stu vibes. I wonder if I would like this back in middle school or if I'd have enough brain cells to recognize its blandness?

Ch. 21

Lilia figures out a way to use magic without any magic energy (thanks to Toma). So now she's fulfilled her goal of allowing Elrich to use magic.

I'm not really emotionally invested at all at this point btw. Everything is so bland (especially Elrich who is just like "perfect boyfriend") that how could I be?

Ch. 22

It feels kind of lazy that the bird gets a cool human form and the dragon just gets to be blue!Lilia :/

More random plot happenings...this time the King is under attack and they're asking Lilia to help. Again with the "chosen one" BS.

Ch. 23

I feel like they totally ripped off the "butler attacks with steak knives" thing from Black Butler. Can't get nothin' past a veteran weeb!

Weirdly I feel like this manga could benefit from more characters. Yeslar and Reslar (Lilia's dragon and bird companions) get way too much screentime. They're so boring lol

Ch. 24

Just when I complain about Lilia's spirits they introduce...even more spirits! Why did they just reveal that Toma had spirits outta nowhere like that?

Reslar freaking out at the faerie seemed a little overblown and out of character (what little character Reslar has). I think Lilia and Elrich should have scolded her instead of just distracting her :/

Ch. 25

I gotta admit, the Sage title is pretty badass. And it looks like she gets access to some fancy library/archive? Hell yeah.

I had the though of "instead of pursuing the invention of the camera via magic why doesn't she just try recreating the non-magical engineering it takes to develop a camera?" But then I was like...wait...I have no idea how a camera works. Also, she was just an otaku in her previous life so she wouldn't have that knowledge either.

Elrich seemed low key jealous that his fiance is more impressive than him. Hopefully those feelings don't turn ugly. (Who am I kidding? This manga has no stakes whatsoever).

Lilia's new ribbons are suuuper cute. As I've said before, this manga at least has eye candy if nothing else.

Ch. 26

Can't decide if this chapter was wholesome or creepy. All these old men freaking out over Lilia with grandfatherly love. I guess it's just not a dynamic you see very often lol

Again we have the whole "MC is the super special chosen one who is smarter than everyone in their new world" vibes 😑

While I relate to Lilia being somewhat introverted, I do think she could have been a little nicer to the sages after they invited her so many times. It also felt weird to me that she didn't have the "wait, maybe this could further my research" revelation sooner.

Ch. 27

The age gap relationship stuff combined with the ultra girly aesthetic is kinda giving me UsagixMamoru from Sailor Moon. Not saying that makes it okay, just that this is pretty common with shoujo I guess.

"I like to carry you" is creepy (AKA she's so young you can carry her, dude >:/) but also...I wish I could be carried places lol. Seems really nice.

Lilia's "I should rely on others more" revelation is good, especially since it goes against the aforementioned "OP MC is better than everyone" vibes. I much rather her see her working with the community than just dominating everyone.

Ch. 28

Woah this one was so short? (Yet it cost the same amount, go figure -_-)

I almost thought there was another time skip since Isaac looked so mature, but nope! Zac is a cool nickname for the name Isaac

Suuuuper contrived miscommunication cliche -sigh- weak

Ch. 29

Okay, not gonna lie, that was pretty romantic. She's still too young to be smooching him though lol. (The "become my family" line got me. I'm a sucker for that sort of thing 😭)

Lilia unlocks some kind of new teleport power and they make it all ominous for whatever reason?

King is sus. I wonder if he's going to try and swoop in and have someone else marry Lilia?

Ch. 30

I was completely wrong about the king, they just keep doing these ominous cliff hangers that amount to nothing. It's pretty frustrating.

Lol back to this manga being absolutely zero stakes. They threatened to take Elrich away but were then like "sike, he doesn't have to go!" This is very "makes it easy" story telling.

They had a "The End" fake out...wish it was real.

The writing keeps pointing out how young Lilia is and how it's weird she's engaged to be married (actually married as of this chapter). If you think it's so weird, why did you write it!? No one is forcing you to write about a married 9 year old! -sigh-