#they’re entertaining and they have moments of likability! i like them! but they’re objectively awful 😭

[miamignonette]

“regina george and sharpay weren’t villains they were just strong women!!” they were also bullies? they like, actively sabotaged other people’s lives and insulted their appearances and took pleasure in it? regina george is sooo much worse given that she’s from a movie that isn’t geared toward the disney channel demographic and she can call girls ugly sluts in every scene. this conversation isn’t actually that serious, it’s mostly just funny, but it’s incredible how people manage to miss the point that badly 😭

[theonceoverthinker]

OUAT 1X20 - The Stranger

Hey, stranger!

Meet me under the cut to read my thoughts on this episode!

Press Release August promises to enlighten Emma and take her on a journey that will show her how she can beat Regina, and possibly take custody of Henry; and with Mary Margaret returning to work, Regina puts a plan in motion to seduce David. Meanwhile, in the fairytale land that was, with the Evil Queen’s curse about to strike, Geppetto agrees to a plan that will save Snow White and Prince Charming’s daughter, but with a proviso that could also save his own son. General Thoughts Past Gepetto is the shining beacon of this episode. I love the lengths he goes to to protect Pinocchio and the dark places he goes to in the process. I also give the episode a lot of credit for showing so much of Gepetto and Pinocchio together in the earlier bits of the flashback. We see the selfless nature of Pinocchio that grants him his humanhood and seeing the two of them bond a bit make Gepetto’s blackmail so much more tragic and understandable. That said, while I love the way he emotionally blackmails Jiminy into helping him out, I do feel like it would’ve been a touch stronger had we seen their friendship a bit more in the second flashback scene. Wow, that scene with Pinocchio really didn’t do it for me. See, I get that Pinocchio left Emma and I can understand why. He was roughly 7-9 years old and a baby is a big responsibility, especially when you’re in a new land and are a kid. But I wish that we had seen more of a lingering effect of tension with Pinocchio taking care of Emma other than just one guy who was mean to him. I feel like an additional flashback scene would’ve come in handy here - one with Pinocchio taking care of Emma and one of him being exhausted after some time had passed, being told off, and then having the offer to leave. Because as it stands, Pinocchio only has that one bad encounter that takes maybe ten seconds total with a nothing character to take him away from a baby he cares about and a promise he made to his Papa. Present I find that the scene at the tree between Emma and August was a better version of Jefferson’s speeches from “Hat Trick.” Because August - in addition to being an established character, now ten episodes in the making - is Emma’s friend. Because he’s already earned a great deal of her trust and is implementing evidence (Something that he knows will better help her believe), it feels more like an earned discussion. And while I’ll take my objections with it in the next episode, I find that August demanding that Emma step up and be the Savior works better because his motivations are more selfish.

Also, I like how Emma’s desperation is playing out in the background of the episode as Gold and August continue to fail her, culminating in such a crazy and off the charts decision to abduct Henry. It’s a great moment where it’s completely indefensible both in-universe and to an Emma fan like me and the fallout in the next episode is so well-earned for a WTF decision like that, making me feel like the writers knew damn well what they were doing. Insights -That is the coolest door lock ever and I want it soooooo badly! -”My kid needs me. I don’t have time for faith.” Say what you want about Emma, but my girl has her priorities in check! -I know people have their problems with OUaT’s effects, but they’ve always managed to capture water so well. Whether it’s practical or in CGI, it’s both realistic and beautiful. -Alongside those lines, the Pinocchio wooden toy is so expertly crafted. Given how it’s only in a handful of scenes, it’s really impressive that they went to such efforts to make it tangible. -Regina, making everyone use those old school phones that take forever to reach someone was the most vile part of this curse! -There’s such a great stark contrast between Mary Margaret from the pilot and now. Back in the first episode, she could barely talk to Regina without getting barked at, but the tables have turned so drastically. It speaks to her development over the past 19 episodes, and what’s even better is that she retains her ability to forgive, an aspect of Snow that is such a big part of her, especially in later seasons. -Damn! Henry’s determination is really something else here! While I definitely feel for Regina (It must be awful seeing the child you raised turn on you and call you evil, not matter how true it actually is), Henry has clearly reached a limit and given that Regina actually did frame Mary Margaret, I can’t help but feel some catharsis out of that speech. -Gold, you bastard! That was so douchey, and I am cracking the fuck up! It’s probably some more catharsis, and not unjustified catharsis given August’s ploy in the last episode! He’s now just having all the fun in the world dicking around with August and while I love August, it’s so entertaining to watch! Oh! And when you see the clock, it all gets so much sadder! SO MANY FEELS! -To be fair, Pinocchio, I don’t blame you for tying up Jiminy. -Emma and Rumple just have the best discussions! I like how blunt Emma is with her demands and like Henry, she’s determined as hell! -I wonder if Regina got that rocky road from a certain Snow Queen. ;) -It only occured to me now that August’s presence was foreshadowed in the first episode. Why else would Gepetto speak of not having a child when in the previous scene in the pilot, he clearly did? -Regina’s fake story about finding David is like the evil version of Michael’s letter to Jane in Season 3 of “Jane the Virgin.” It reflects on themes of meant-to-be and coincidences. Also, I have to wonder how much of that story was improvised and how much of it had she planned beforehand. -The effects are on a roll here! I love how the tree in our world all but cracks open as Pinocchio enters our world. As a side note, it’s really lucky that humanity hadn’t built over his landing spot. Imagine that happening to Pinocchio at a Starbucks! XD -There’s such a sad contrast between the “fake” reunion in the past episode and the real one here. The “fake” one while...well, fake is so honest and upfront. You just know that that’s the kind of reunion August would want with his Papa, and in this episode, it’s so calm and lowkey, but tragic because it’s on a bed of lies. -Oh, Emma. That was a terrible idea! I get where you’re coming from girl, but...no! Arcs The Mystery of August Booth - Finally, all is revealed! I’m glad that they got the reveal out of the way earlier in the episode so that we could spend the rest of the runtime exploring his past and present relationships. It really helped to define August as a character. As for the reveal, it was always an engaging mystery that revealed just enough to make August’s character engaging, but not enough that the answer would become obvious. This may just be one of the most underrated twists in all of OUaT for that reason. Favorite Dynamic August and Gold I love how much resentment Gold has towards August and the petty and hurtful ways he lets it out. At the same time though, the two begrudgingly work together knowing that they’re the only other padults that they have on their side, and they’re surprisingly good at doing it. Because of that, how they work together and interact is so amusingly petty and yet coopertaive all the same and it makes me wish we could have seen more reluctant team ups between them. Their relationship is definitely a proto Season 3 Golden Hook, albeit toned down significantly due to circumstances. Writer Awww! It’s Andrew and Ian’s last episode of the season! These guys were a real treat. Their dialogue is fantastic and their theming, while it doesn’t match Fruit’s, works well here because both the latter past segments and the present segments show how far he’s fallen from his virtues and the emotional as well as physical consequences of that. But, they do a good job keeping August likable by showing just how much effort - genuine effort - he’s making to get Emma to believe here. Additionally, these guys know how to use just the right character at just the right moment. Nothing ever feels over or underused. Rating 9/10. We got an excellent exploration of character here. August comes out of this episode fully fleshed out and his dynamic with Emma really pegs home the danger that everyone is in going into the final two episodes. The pacing of the story gives us a fun adventure and every character featured has something to do or contribute to the story. I took a point off for the weak scene in the foster home as that’s supposed to be so much better than it ended up being.

()()()()()()()()()()()()

Thank you for reading and to the fine folks at @watchingfairytales for putting this together! Next time: We talk about fruits. How about apples?

Season Tally (176/220) Writer Tally for Season 1: A&E (50/70) Liz Tigelaar (17/20)* David Goodman (33/50) Jane Espenson (46/60) Andrew Chambliss and Ian Goldberg (38/40)* Daniel Thomsen (8/10)* Vladimir Kvetko (9/10)* (* = Their work for the season is complete)

Operation Rewatch Archives

[shoottomiss]

The Worst Ben 10 episode of all time

You know, everyone always considers Fool’s Gold and The Widening Gyre contenders for being the worst Ben 10 episodes, not just in UAF but overall (i am unsure if anyone considers an OS episode as bad as they do those ones). But you know what actually might be the worst episode from any one of the 5 series? 

Breakpoint, from Omniverse.

A fitting name in itself, it was the final straw for me for Omniverse. Now anyone who knows me knows I... dislike this series, to put it lightly. I saw too many problems with them when they tried to “fix” things, Ben’s character was even worse than before, it had the opposite problem of UAF in that it never felt serious even when it wanted to be, had romance so terrible I’d cringe less if I was watching the first season of Korra, and overall felt like a hot mess. But I can understand why people like the show, and don’t think I’m better than people that do. 

However, y‘all have to admit this was the worst that OV had to offer. At least you could find some fun wondering what they were thinking for Fool’s Gold, or some entertainment in how The Widening Gyre felt as preachy as a typical Captain Planet episode. But here? There’s no fun to be had.

I suppose I should start with the plot. See, there’s criminals going around committing crimes while looking like Ben (wearing the ID masks, you know?), and the plumbers don’t exactly know who is under them. Ben seems to think it’s Fistrick, because the one giving orders is doing curls, so for some reason he decides to go undercover... eeeeven though they already know it’s Fistrick and would merely have to track him down to end this. Grandpa Max is reluctant about this, since it takes self control and doesn’t think Ben is capable (which says a lot about this series’ Ben, but it gets even worse).

So Ben has the Omnitrix lock him into an alien so he can get close to Fistrick, “hangs out” with him and his mooks, and figures out they’re gonna hit Billions Tower. Ben and Rook soon intercept said hit, where Rook shoots off their ID masks, revealing them. So, undercover mission over, as well as the episode, right? I mean, they get away, but Ben knows where their headquarters are and have the proof they need to arrest them and have a squad of plumbers back them up. Even finding the stolen tech ultimately doesn’t require Ben to be undercover, especially since we see he never does find it, nor does he make it his objective, later in the episode. But nope! Ben keeps going with it, causing what was left of the logic of the plot to break into teeny tiny pieces.

But that’s not what makes this episode awful. No, see, when Max talks about self-control, you would assume he talks about keeping up the disguise, right? (which makes no sense when you remember Bullfrag from the incursean arc) But no, they take it into an even stupider direction.

Ben gets too close to the case.

BEN. GETS. TOO CLOSE. TO THE CASE.

...Excuse me for a moment.

Yes, after all the villains he encountered, the tricks he’s known them to pull, and how terrible he knows they can be, this is the time Ben gets too close to the case. More specifically, he gets close to Fistrick in a friendship kinda way. I’m sorry, what?

Why?! It’s not even like Fistrick is possibly redeemable or even likable either. He held innocent Megawatts captive, attacked Rook’s peaceful home planet Revonnah, infected Rook with “bro essence”, is all around your typical “black and white” weapons dealer villain, and worst of all, is a “bro” type of person to the point where he replaces parts of words with Bro (that alone deserves jail time). Why out of all villains is this the one that Ben is tempted to be buddies with?

Worse yet is that this really says volumes about how bad Ben’s character has become, both in universe, and on the writing side of things. He was already insufferable before in this show, either because he could be even douchier than he was in the worst parts of UAF, or just plan idiotic. That he can’t even prevent himself from feeling like becoming Fistrick’s friend though just sends those traits through the roof. Especially since he begins to snap at Rook when Rook points out how he’s changing. Though I guess I’m impressed the writing team set a new standard for how low they can make Ben’s character go. Props for the new record. The new, awful, terrible record.

The humor’s not all that good either. The running gag with Rook and meatball subs gets old very fast. Even if you find it funny, the rest of the episode and it’s broken logic and characters really sucks out any joy you get from it.

In many ways, it’s the exact opposite to what I believe to be the very best episode of Ben 10 overall- The Ultimate Sacrifice from Ultimate Alien. I’ll explain it in more detail another time, but it’s when the Ultimates accidentally become sentient, trap Ben in the Ultimatrix, and try to kill him in hopes that it will set them free. Gwen goes into the Ultimatrix to find him using an astral projection, while Kevin goes to get Azmuth. 

The episode really shows how far Ben’s character has come- he’s open-minded even though it sounds ridiculous that the ultimates have become sentient, thinks of intelligent ideas while fighting the ultimates (like using many transformations to run down the watch’s energy, which will hopefully set him free), and instead of letting Gwen destroy the Ultimates, he volunteers to let himself be sacrificed (even though the ultimates treat him like crap since they think he knowingly used them as slaves). It’s the best that Ben has to offer.

Gwen and Kevin too. Gwen would rather destroy the ultimates than lose her cousin, and Kevin risks his life to get Azmuth to come and fix the watch, admitting that Ben is his best friend. Ben and Gwen even share a tender moment when they think he’s going to die, showing how close their bond has become (platonically, of course). The humor’s good too. There’s some nice gems in here, and none of the jokes ever disrupt the flow of the episode.

The episode makes sure things stay logical too. Ben sacrifices himself because the alternative is either Gwen killing the sentient ultimates, or them possibly remaining trapped. Neither is a good option, and they’re running low on time and any other possible options. Not to mention Kevin is having a hard time getting Azmuth.

But the more I look between these two episodes, the more preposterous it seems that they’re part of the same series. That Ben could go from being a selfless, intelligent hero to a idiotic and selfish one is just too jarring. And I get it, Omniverse is more light hearted and comedic, but regardless of the tone of the show changing, that shouldn’t excuse butchering the main character’s core traits and devolving him.

Breakpoint is everything that ever went wrong with Ben 10, not just in this series, but in the entire Ben 10 franchise, all rolled up into one episode. The decay of Ben’s character, the terrible logic, the weak humor... hell, I could even argue “terrible romance” considering that Ben’s bromantic (kill me, now i’m doing it) one-sided feelings for Fistrick come off as incredibly forced. It’s the lowest point the franchise has ever come to.

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

What is your opinion on the yaoi Zetsuai 1989 and Bronze?

Would you like a Romeo and Juliet but gay, absurdly long,and written way worse?  Then Zetsuai aka Desperate Love isthe story for you!

I have a review on both the original and sequel. The sequel rant is longer cause the sequel is much longer as well.  Let’s start with the original though:

Desperate love 1989 follows Kouji, a young pop sensation, who discovers thetom boyish girl he had a crush on when he was a child is actually a young man(Izumi) with a tragic past.  This crushthen turns into an all-consuming obsession where Kouji hurts himself, hurtsIzumi, and hurts the people around him in really melodramatic attempts toeither win him over or make Izumi hate him.

The story is very much like a soap-opera with manypredictable, over-the-top, melodramatic tragedies.  There are a lot of car/motorcycle accidents,passing out, and threats/actual violence, suicide and murder.  I’m actually a fan of tragic romance but here it’s SOover-the-top, ham-handed, or predictable that you can’t help but just shakeyour head.  The story is also, usuallyvery relentless with the drama so it’s easy to get overwhelmed and tune itout.  Drama is made all the more poignantif they have good times too.  NOPE ALLBAD TIMES ALL BAD TIMES FOREVER.

On one hand I want to feel some level of sympathy forKouji.  He’s horribly self-destructive,deals with thoughts of suicide, and very obviously hates himself.  He appears to be dealing with severedepression.  Problem is, no matter whathe does he has no consequences for it. Despite being a pop sensation, which would normally be tied tounrelenting schedules and to not ruin a rigorous and constant ~image~, thereappears to be little pressure…for any reason. He works, when it pleases him,with no consequences for skipping out and he regularly engages in scandalous behaviorthat is blown off.

He gets himself severely injured multiple times, but healsin days with no lasting side-effects or rehab.

He also habitually displays 0 empathy for others and has anasty misogynistic streak.  He won’t singfor a dying woman when she begs him, he uses women for sex and gifts, hehumiliates and taunts women just trying to be nice to him, and rapes a loverival out of spite.  None of this hefeels any guilt for.  It’s even worsewhen it comes to his object of affection. He behaves hot and cold with him, is physically and sexually violentwith him, manipulates him, and blames his own behavior on the fact that Izumiis ~nice.~  He makes Izumi deal with hisself-inflicted injuries.  He regularlymakes alarmist statements about how he’s going to kill himself or how he wantsIzumi to kill him.  This is like SUPERtasteful for a guy still healing from watching his mother murder his father infront of him.

To me, Kouji’s freaky obsession with Izumi is not one out ofgenuine affection but one born out of his need to demonize himself.   Loving a man is gross and wrong, so he’sgross and wrong.  This love drives him tobehave like a fucking lunatic which feeds his fucked up little cycle ofself-hate. “I’m a bad person.  As a badperson there’s no need to stop myself before I do a bad thing.  DID YOU SEE!? I JUST DID A BAD THING! I’m abad person….,” so on into infinity.  Hedoes a few nice things for Izumi they either feed his interest in gettingcloser to him OR feed his self-hate…So it usually rings hollow.  Not to mention the bad he does vastlyoutweighs the good.

It sure was nice when Kouji comforted Izumi when his dogdied… but then Kouji spite rapes Izumi’s girlfriend and blames it onIzumi….okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay then.

Kouji also has some tragic backstory and is apparently theson of a Yakuza mob boss?  This you onlyfind out in the extras. These extras seem to be from an entirely differentcomic.  Way to go there!  Turns out it wasn’t really the Yakuza it wasjust written so poorly I thought it was. HAHA WHATEVER!

Izumi, quite conversely, is a very likable character.  He works very hard, and cares a lot about thepeople around him, even reaching out to help his stalker.  Don’t get me wrong he’s not a perfect guy.He’s defensive, angry, stand-offish, takes out his frustrations on his fellowsoccer players, and is himself self-destructive.  Yet because he shows empathy and is shown toface LEGIT instead of “I have a crush on a boy” hardships he’s a solidcharacter.

Most of the side characters are pretty underwhelming to behonest.  They impact the plot very littlemost of the time.  Yet allow me to give aquick shout-out to Izumi’s ex-girlfriend. Yes the one Kouji spite-rapes? After Izumi apologizes to her she’s immediately demonized as ashort-sighted, petty, homophobe which is like super tasteful.  No we shouldn’t dwell on what apreposterously fucked up action because this 16 year old girl is kindaignorant.  HAHA FUCK YOU WRITING!

The only other side character I want to talk about is Izumi’smother. HAHA this fucking…PHEW OKAY! Izumi’s tragic backstory is that his mother went to kill hisfather.  Izumi, aged 3 or so, tried toprotect his father and got stabbed by his own mother and was not able to savehis father.  Izumi was under theimpression she had then killed herself.

At the end of the 5th volume RIGHT on the heels of thefucking abomination that was the spite rape conflict Izumi finds out his mom isstill alive.  She proceeds to spit someinane platitudes about love and gives an incredibly flimsy excuse formurder.  She then walks her ass right offa skyscraper and when Izumi tries to stop her, Kouji tells him to LET HER DOIT!  After that Izumi’s younger sisterbabbled on about how STRONG she was because she stayed alive for an extra 12years just to explain that dribble to Izumi. There’s so many things wrong with this scene it boggles me.

1.)   Why did she have to wait 12 years before shetold Izumi those pathetic platitudes?

2.)   She really doesn’t explain shit. I murdered yourdad cause I wanted him all to myself? It only occurred to me at that specificmoment cause I suppose it would make it all the more tragic for their two youngchildren.  

3.)   Turns out what she explains may very well be alie anyway.

4.)   How comes she only has to explain shit to Izumiand not to her daughter or other son?

The point of this scene was to give some semblance of tragicpast closure to Izumi…but uhhh HOW WOULD THAT GIVE HIM CLOSURE?  She immediately kills herself afterwards andher big speech to them makes no GRAND SENSE. Nothing would have been changed if she simply had died way back when.  All it does is raise more questions!  UGH!

The art isjust hooooo boy.  It’s got that 80’sstink on it.  The characters have superlong limbs, yaoi hands, knife chins, enormous shoulders, the use ofscreen-tones is horrendous, and the paneling is abdominal.  I will say that things look as if they’resteadily improving.

TL;DR

It is poorlywritten crazy melodrama with bad art. You should only read it if you want some context to the early stages ofBL.

Bronze Review!

Bronzemanages to be even more melodramatic.

The thingwith Desperate Love…in general is that it’s so melodramatic characterspractically fall to their knees weepingwhile explosively reciting love poetry….over a fucking hang nail…and it’s notjust the main characters.  A lot of theirramblings on LOVE are things that are SUPER not romantic.  Like saying they want their partner to be100% dependent on him, that he doesn’t want ~the kind of love~ where you wantwhat’s best for them, and a million people dying would be less sad than beingrejected by your crush.  NONE OF THOSEARE EVEN EXAGGERATIONS!  

All thispreposterous melodrama….is kinda the point of this manga.  I think it’s wrong-headed to label MOST ofthis shit as ROMANTIC.  Yet I can’t helpbut find this manga equal parts entertaining and infuriating.  I’m not invested in these shit heads andsometimes its super annoying…but I get a sick kind of pleasure from absorbingthe psycho bullshit stunts they pull. It’s like hearing a friend tell you stories about a crazy relative orex-friend.  You can’t help but want tohear more about all the Thanksgivings they’ve ruined because you don’t have todeal with this person in real life but at times you get angry by proxy.  This gif kinda sums it up for me.

Sometimesit even manages to deviate from being predictable.  However that’s fairly rare.  

What’s newto this series is they add a little humor here and there. The humor is usuallythe awful, “Seme wants sex and uke smacks seme for wanting sex.”  While I’m not a fan of this overplayed humor,it is a good thing they added SOME humor in order to ease the constant tensiongoing on in the story.  Not to say ofcourse, that they fuck this up.  At onepoint Kouji finds an injured Izumi with a forehead wound, which is whatmelodramatically ends a volume.  The nextvolume opens up with Kouji rushing up to Izumi to…lick his forehead.  This is played for laughs and I can’t help asif feel that was a bad usage of said humor.

So let’stalk the progression of Izumi’s and Kouji’s relationship.  At the end of Desperate Love Kouji rapesIzumi.  This sequel acknowledges it asrape and Izumi even has PTSD flashbacks to it in his nightmares.  Izumi confronts Kouji about it.  About how love is supposed to be selfless butKouji has only ever thought about what Izumi can do for him in his twistedversion of forced love.  Kouji alsoapologizes for it!

Oh wow,we’re going on a good track here! So what comes next?  Kouji tells Izumi he’s going to protect himand never do anything to hurt him again! YAY!

…andimmediately after that speech rapes Izumi again.

………greatjust fucking great.

But nowthey’re in a relationship I guess?????????

When I seethis relationship I can’t help but feel as if this utter sociopath managed todrag this vulnerable guy into developing shared psychosis.  Don’t get me wrong Izumi is not an angel…buthe was a decently adjusted young man…just going through some shit and Koujijust made it SO MUCH WORSE!

Theirrelationship blossoming is pretty much Kouji does a bunch of psycho shit andjust as it’s really stepping over the fucking line Izumi starts to like himback.  But why? I can kinda get why Koujimay like Izumi. (Though as I said previously a lot of it is to find his ownself-matyring psychosis) but it makes no sense why Izumi would like Koujioutside of, “Welp it’d just be easier at this point to date him so he doesn’tkill everybody I know by stabbing them in the heart with his dick.”

Theirrelationship is obviously SUPER UNHEALTHY yet they also kinda pass it off asideal which is a problem.  

There is apoint when the two officially start a relationship which should logically betied with a preposterously huge explosion of happiness from Kouji.  He’s been so obsessed with him and seems asif he never thought he’d get to a point where the two could be together.  Yet despite the innumerable melodramaticexplosions of anger and sadness through all these steps leading up to thispoint….there is no explosion of happiness. That signifies to me that neither of them is actually happy despitefinally jumping that huge hurdle.  Eachtime they seem to jump a hurdle, something else is brought up.  It gets to the point that there is no wayboth of them are going to be happy because the demands are just going to getmore and more impossible.  

There area couple of volumes in the middle where things are going pretty damn well forthe both of them but Kouji constantly whines that Izumi has a hobby.  Nervermind that Kouji commits off and on againadultery but HAHA that’s not as bad as Izumi liking a sport.   However these middle volumes are the best ofthe whole series.  I don’t think they’reACTUALLY GOOD but if I had to pick a couple it’d be these.  Because things are going well for them, Izumiexpresses unpressured romantic and sexual affection for Kouji and the tone ismore one of unease that the good times will not last.  It DOES NOT HAVE Kouji or random sidecharacters acting horrendously toward Izumi for the TRAGICZ!  So it’s the best turds out of a pile ofturds.

Kouji’spossessiveness and need for dominance is a huge fucking problem.  Izumicould be a head in a jar, with robotic parts substantiating him and the roboticfunctions were all manually controlled by Kouji.  Even then Kouji wouldfind something to bitch about.  Like Izumi thanked him with…NOT ENOUGHSINCERITY once.  

So thisisn’t the classic tragedy where two people just CAN’T be together thanks to howtwisted society is.  These two can’ttruly be happy together because their demands of what love should be becomemore and more fucking insane and unfeasible. That is not a problem many can identify with, it’s entirelyself-manufactured, and one I find personally fucking rage-inducing.

This alsoincludes the trope (which I can’t fucking stand) of the seme doing somethingreally shitty to the uke but he only did the shitty thing to make the uke hatehim so it would hurt less when the seme melodramatically sacrifices himself forhim.  The thing with this plot-point isthat for a long ass time afterwards it is contended that Kouji did it justcause he knew the relationship was bad. So the gruesome way Kouji treated him (severe emotional abuse coupledwith nearly killing him through an incredibly violent rape) seem….yanno notbalanced with the just “I wanted to break up with you.”  Crime is not matching the punishment hereyanno?  (By the way a side character who takes him to the hospital says it’s not rape cause they’re in a relationship. HAHA A+ RAPE CULTURE BRO!)  Later it is ~implied~ that Koujidid it because he was going to kill the person who put Izumi in a wheelchairand then himself.  So he behaved awfully so Izumiwouldn’t try to stop him OR WHATEVER! Problem with that is…Kouji totally changes his identity and spendsmonths in hiding before even doing so….Which yanno speaks to me that the realreason is the first and only afterwards are they making that horriblejustification.

I’m alsogoing to jam in here the fact that the consequences that Izumi faces are muchmore severe and persistent than any consequences that Kouji faces, which is apretty glaring double-standard.  Not onethat’s shocking, mind you, because Izumi is the bottom and therefore he livesby “POOR DAMSEL” and also “DON’T BE A SLUT” standards.  For instance when Izumi accidentally injuries his legduring a soccer game they spend the time to have Izumi go through rehab formore than 2 pages and he becomes permanently disabled later.  While Kouji intentionally cuts off his own damn arm…forreasons I still don’t fully understand and it’s easily swept under the rug byhis publicist, he gets a prosthetic that he can use exactly as if he never lostan arm (bends elbow, independently moving and gripping fingers, arm can carryheavy weight), and later just gets the new arm. Oh and he doesn’t have to go through any kind of rehab or training forthat. Siiiigh fuck you Koji!

Thebiggest side character throughout the story is something akin to Kouji’schildhood friend and ???publicist???? I guess? I honestly don’t even remember his name, using context clues on Wiki Ithink it might be Shibuya.  Why yes, I’mnot so subtly implying that ?Shibuya? was fucking worthless to the story.  Now, don’t get me wrong, the author TRIES atrandom points to make him his own character. Problem is, he never stops eitherof our ridiculous leads from doing anything and he doesn’t participate in theplot as his own entity.  Okay that’s notfair he does a couple of things… but how to put it…not as his own person butrather because he’s just a convenient 3rd person.  He could pretty much be replaced by a randowalking by going, “WOAH DON’T STRANGLE THAT UNCONSCIOUS GUY! WHAT THE HELL!?!?!?”  His whole purpose is pretty much the straightguy who gives exposition.  Along the linesof, “You just got 30 stitches last night when you injured yourself cause Koujiinjured himself.  Are you sure it’s agood idea to participate in a soccer tournament today?”

Prettymuch all the plot involving Kouji’s family I find super fucking confusing.  The first chapters I read on it I thoughtthey were supposed to be a Yakuza family but no…they’re just a family who own adojo.  When the author wraps up dramawith that family they just write another family members in.  This is done three separate times with randomNEW BROTHER WE NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE than random new SISTER WE SOMEHOW DIDN’THEAR ABOUT BEFORE, and lastly DID YOU KNOW HE HAD AN UNCLE THAT’S ACTUALLYSUPER IMPORTANT TO THE SUCCESSION OF THE DOJO!?!?!?!?!  The villain element of his family is superunbelievable as well.  One villainbrother tries to ruin Kouji’s life out of jealousy…even though Kouji hasn’treally even talked to him in years.  Whileanother villain brother just becomes homicidal out of the blue. It’s prettyfucking lame.

Toward theend of the series I was getting genuinely confused about what the author wassaying about Kouji as a person.  Theyspend a TON of time demonizing Kouji, including saying that he tortured andkilled his older brother’s pets to pass the time.  Are they trying to say he’s a genuinely badperson or comment about how DARK AND INTENSE he is which only makes him sexier?  It’s quite honestly hard to tell because theback-stories in themselves are GENUINELY and I believe very INTENTIONALLYunnerving but when we flash to the future it’s all “Look at how hot he is!”

The verylast volume is a huge clusterfuck.  LikeI hope this was just meant to be like a volume of just extra bullshit becausethe previous volume had a WAY better end and the whole volume feels like a lotof unnecessary vaguely-plotty Kouji-family minutia.  It pretty much felt like the author wanted abig melodramatic Hamelt-eseque end to the series but couldn’t make it work inthe previous volume so she made up a ton of new drama just so she could killoff a lot of recently introduced side characters….Which yanno we’re not reallyinvested in them so it’s a super cheap way to have your dramatic end but notupset any fans. But ugh whatever, it’s not as if the rest of the story had stellar writing.

The artdoes improve a good amount throughout these volumes.  In particular the arty INNER TORMENT LET MEDRAW THEM SCREAMING IN A VOID WITH THEIR BODY SWIRLING AROUND kinds of pagesare much better done.  She still has aton of anatomy problems however.

TL;DR

This timearound it at least manages lame humor, and better art but the characters areawful, and the writing is fucking abysmal.