#yaoi recs

[caluette]

kainess x rope (1948)

[the-bloody-sadist]

in case no one else has asked, please list your top 10 BL manga/manwha? 👀

i am. very interested in what other media you enjoy, especially BL

Combining these two bc I didn't wanna leave the second out!

(I wasn't a big fan of Blood Bank personally but I'm so glad it helped you with your world building Lil Whale!!)

I'm hoping some of these are unheard of for you guys because THERE ARE SO MANY BL/YAOI AND I READ THEM CONSTANTLY BUT NOT SO MANY ARE FANTASTIC AND MIND-BLOWING AND SPECTACULAR AND DEEPLY PSYCHOLOGICAL! I'm pretty sure I'll end up listing WAY more than 10, mainly because I want to highlight ones I feel like a lot of people haven't read. ALSO because I read so fucking many of them that I've collected a stash and NOW IS MY CHANCE TO YELL ABOUT THEM.

Just a disclaimer, these are not in any sort of order, as they're all about the same level in my head, just grouped. I'll list the "big name" BLs that I adore after these! First up are the ones that either have a quiet fandom or aren't well known! Since there'll be so many, I'm not going to say much about them, just know that usually no BL/Yaoi is perfect to me, since there are many bad psychology tropes here and there or unnecessary cruelties that aren't exactly realistic etc., but overall, I like the way that the story and characters are handled and/or love the art.

Here's the top five of my top ten that's not a top ten bc there are so many (I just said I wouldn't group them but I lied my ass off apparently):

Jealousy [Scarlet Beriko]: This is one of those that emotionally hits so hard that it will stick with me forever and I will usually tear up just a tiny bit when I think back to the moments that made this one so beautiful. A lot of times a story with major hurt, angst, and tragedy won't wrap up with enough to make me scream and cheer at the end. But THIS ONE DID. And I stopped reading for a while when a big event happened because I thought it would end horribly and I'd have to suffer three weeks of fiction-induced depression for a man who wasn't even real. BUT NAY. The themes you get in this one revolve around loneliness (huge draw for me, it always hits), mafia-connected characters and the rivalries from that, self-destructive prostitution, and characters who have difficulty receiving love without freaking out. Are those even themes idk. OH WELL. YOU GET THE POINT. I want this one on my shelf. You might've heard of it, but the fandom is silent so I never did. T_T OH ALSO THE ART ON THIS ONE IS GORGEOUS I FUCKING LOVE IT.

Hitori to Hitori no 3650nichi [Hitomi]: First of all, favorite manga artist. FAVORITE MANGA ARTIST. I'm never exactly sure if the artist is also the writer or if the writer is never the artist or...BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER. Anyway! I listed this particular title because it was the first that I found by this person - but then I discovered it was a part of a bigger series, and there are like I DON'T KNOW FIVE DIFFERENT MANGA?? OR SOMETHING??? Related to this one. I don't know which order, I just know that I read them all in a frenzy. THE CHARACTERS. OH! OH THE CHARACTERS! Oh my gods, it's so good. LMFAO. The arcs these characters have are fantastic, and I loved the fact that the abuser in one is shown to be the victim of abuse in a prequel story, and that his anger issues and other elements of his personality came about to affect him and destroy him. Just...I don't recall the details, READ IT. That's all. Spectacular depictions of nuanced trauma within abusive relationships.

The Beast Must Die [Lee Hyeon Sook]: This remains one of my favorite depictions IN ANY MEDIA of a psychopath, because it's SO accurate and I'm SO fucking proud of the author for doing their research and OH MY GODS YOU GUYS IT'S ABOUT TO GET A DRAMA CD LET'S FUCKING GO! This story is so good. It's so evil. It's so psycho-thriller. It's so WELL DONE. It features a dark academia-ish secret society within a college setting who hunt people for sport, sometimes. LIKE. Come on. And the psychopath (dark hair) IS THE MAIN LOVE INTEREST! You could literally hear the summary and go "oh this is for Sadist". And I don't get a lot of those that deliver this well. SOMETIMES the art makes me twist my head a little but YOU KNOW WHAT I DO NOT CARE OKAY? It's just SO good. There's murder, there's kidnapping, and - most importantly - a main character who doesn't just DEAL with whatever the psychopath does. He's smart, he fights back, he learns to understand psychopathy to determine if he should remain with the love interest...it's fantastic. That's all. I will stop. *BANGS THE WALL*

Aporia [Seontae]: ALL HAIL THE HEALTHY BDSM RELATIONSHIPS THAT STILL HOLD TENSION AND EMOTIONAL WEIGHT AND SPEAK TO ME!!!!!!! HELLO!!!!! This is my favorite BDSM-themed story. Everything is consensual, but is everything safe??? Not when it comes to the main character's emotions and tendency to sacrifice his wellbeing for a partner. BUT NOT TO WORRY, HIS SADISTIC LOVE INTEREST IS CONSIDERATE AND ATTENTIVE AND CARES ABOUT HIS FEELINGS!! This is, perhaps, one of my favorite depictions of a REAL sadist. A real one as in a realistic, irl BDSM-relationship sadist. Someone who is just as worried about taking care of his partner as he is about hurting him JUUUUST right. ANYWAY! THAT'S ALL! READ IT! HE'S LITERALLY ME!

Royal Servant [MasterGin, Chungnyun]: Okay, we were talking about healthy BDSM in the previous one, now let's talk about TOXIC BDSM-THEMES THAT I LOVE. Lmao. DO YOU LIKE MASTER/SLAVE DYNAMICS? DO YOU LIKE STORIES WHERE THE ARC LEADS TO THE ABUSIVE MASTER EVENTUALLY LEARNING TO NOT BE ABUSIVE AND LOVE THE SLAVE? YEAH ME TOO. I DON'T NEED TO DESCRIBE THIS ANY FURTHER. AUTHOR OF ANGEL BUDDY, THIS IS THE ONE THAT I KNEW HER FOR FIRST.

A bunch of other good ones you may or may not have heard of (I won't describe every one of these unless I have something particular to say, so enjoy the pictures from them that I snatched):

Love me in the Wilderness [Wang Tao]

Neon Sign Amber [Ogeretsu Tanaka]

Zetsubou ni Nake [Shinou Ryo]: Guys. This story is UNIQUE AS HELL. I had to say something about it. The premise is that a man who was raped turns around and goes back after his rapist and rapes him back, and then they fall in love. IT'S....the amount of times my jaw dropped was insane on this one. SOMEHOW IT'S WRITTEN SO WELL. SOMEHOW THEY NAILED THE STRANGE REALISM OF IT AND HAD ME TEARING UP OVER THE INTENSITY OF THE RAPE SCENES. VERY WELL-PACED, VERY TRAUMATIC IN A GOOD WAY. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. The way they come to love each other after this crazy foundation of mutual rape is IMPRESSIVE. Kudos to the writer.

Love or Hate [Yeongha]: This is a very well-known one but there's like zero fandom so I think it fits here. Also a lot of hate going around for it? Which I never understood, fuck those guys. This remains one of the most beautifully-written that I've ever read, and I mean that purely in like...the ACTUAL writing on the page. I'm talking poetry, purple prose. I just recall being blown away by that, and no manga before or since has ever reached its level. For once I felt like the writer was also a novelist because of the way that they put things, and had a clear voice in the style. Did the main boy end up with someone I didn't want him to end up with at the end? Yes. But I felt like it fit pretty well, and it was sort of a tragedy, and it was supposed to hit you painfully in the gut. A lot of people were mad at the main character for that and I don't really think it's fair. In any case! A beautiful story with complex characters and intriguing dilemmas. Highly recommend it.

Shangri La no Tori (Birds of Shangri La) [Ranmaru Zariya]

Two in Six Billion [Denzou]

The Pizza Delivery Man and The Gold Palace [Upi]: Great story and character-building so far! I will say that once it became porn, it dove a little too heavily into it for me. Like I only needed one scene of the porn, I was enjoying the panic attack scenes much more. BUT YEAH, IT'S ONGOING, SO WE'LL SEE WHERE IT GOES! But the panic attack scenes were the reason I read it and yes, I did tear up.

Sleeping Dead and Living Dead [Asada Nemui]: I RECENTLY FOUND THIS ONE AND ADOOOOOOREEE IT SO MUCH. I DO NOT CARE THAT IT'S AN OLD SCIENTIST AND HIS ZOMBIE PATIENT. NORMALLY THAT WOULD HOLD NO SWAY OVER ME, BUT OH GODS, THE ART IS SO PRETTY AND THE STORY IS SO GOOD. I LOVE THE LITTLE ZOMBIE MAN! I LOVE THE LITTLE ROMANCE THEY'VE GOT!

Private Lessons [ANCO, Mongya]: It's cuuuuute what can I saayyyyy it has BDSM and threesomes and I liked it. Very entertaining. Scratches the BDSM itch and the little SUB WAS SO CUTE. Anyway.

Kingyo no Ubugoe [Gontaku Nido]

From Points of Three [White Eared]: Threesome dynamics!!

Silent Lover [Qiang Tang, Bai Li Jun Xi]: I STOPPED THIS ONE AT A CERTAIN POINT BECAUSE IT DIPPED INTO WEIRD M-PREG AND STUFF I CANNOT READ. But BEFORE all that, I was deeply ingrained in this one. It has a main character who can't speak (a particular weakness of mine) and he's OH SO CUTE and he's given as a sex slave basically to the emperor (emperor? idk he's a kingly man, something like that), and the emperor is evil but learns to be soft and yet it takes a LONG TIME SO I WAS BAWLING HYSTERICALLY OVER SOME OF THE HEARTWRENCHINGLY PAINFUL SCENES IN THIS FOR THE POOR YUU-ER. A good read until it decided to go the omegaverse-by-magic-potions route. I didn't stay to figure out where it actually ended up.

Yoru wa Tomodachi [Ido Gihou]

Toumei na Ai no Utsuwa [Hitomi]

Re:Birth [Misuaki Asou]: The singular omegaverse story in existence that I actually liked. Hopefully that says a lot. Mostly because it's about the omegaverse elements NOT being present for the main character and him trying to fake it because he's lonely and afraid that his partner (an alpha *shakes off the disgusting label because who the fuck thought alpha was a cool word*) will leave him if he finds out he's just a regular guy (aka beta I guess? ABO is weird idc).

Sahara no Kuro Washi [Soutome Emu]: MASTER SLAVE MASTER SLAVE---

Haru ni Kaeru [Kunieda Saika]

Incorrigible [Bbong]

Well Done! [ANCO, Mongya]

Nemuri Otoko to Koi Otoko [Zariya Ranmaru]

Even If You Don't Love Me [Pando]: It dropped off SUPER hard (it's ongoing still) but damn was it good in the beginning. I am sick and tired of where it's at currently but the psychological manipulation and the horror of a certain twist in the storyline was CRUSHING to me. I only wish that it would have gone a better way after it happened, because it slowly destroyed itself and became like a lot of tropey rape stories. The asshole just keeps being an asshole and it's not really where the story seemed to want to go with that. But otherwise, it started off strong and I'll give it kudos for that.

Bigger titles I'm pretty sure everyone has heard of that I enjoy:

Saezuru Tori wa Habatakanai [Yoneda Kou]: Is it a little unrealistic that literally everyone in this story is gay apparently and wants to fuck one man apparently and/or rape him? Yes, absolutely. Does that matter once you're in the story and it's so good and all these unrealistic cruelties make a really strong bond between the main love interest and this self-destructive masochist who's probably not really a masochist but only interested in hurting himself because he doesn't know how else to handle his trauma from childhood? Ummmm yeah. Anyway! This one had a lot of inspiration and a lot of tears and a lot of obsession from me. I re-read it all the time, I watch the movie over and over, I listen to the audio drama and cry at my favorite scenes. Do I care in the end that it's a little unrealistic at times? No but I do laugh sometimes when I'm about to share it with a new person. Because BL is just like that generally and you've got to put up with a little of those tropes to find your favorite stories. THIS IS ONE OF THE TOP FAVORITES OF ALL TIME FOR ME BTW, IT'S ONLY SO LOW DOWN HERE BECAUSE PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE IN YAOI KNOWS ABOUT THIS ONE ALREADY, AND WE'RE ALL AWARE OF HOW GOOD IT IS.

ENNEAD [Mojito]: I will say that this is basically the best manga/comic/manhua...what's the Chinese word idk ANYTHING OF THIS MEDIA TYPE that I have ever read. It's not done, and people have been complaining that it's starting to fall into the common BL tropes but you know what I do NOT care. Mojito is a genius, Mojito is a master storyteller, Mojito is beautiful, Mojito is strong - I just love Mojito and this work. So much. The action, the horror of rape, the deep-set character conflicts and dilemmas and internal turmoils. Everything, nailed it. Nailed it. And not to mention it's set in FUCKING EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY AND THEY'RE ALL GODS AND THEY HAVE SUCH COOL BATTLES AND COSTUMES AND DUDE???? I'm so hooked. That's all.

Killing Stalking [Koogi]: OBVIOUSLY. I don't really need to say anything about this one except that yeah, some of the psychology is a little off and some of it is just super shallow. But I loved the characters and that's what mattered in the end. I fell in love with Sangwoo too and it ripped my heart out when I read the ending. I was depressed for like two weeks and it was the first story that had ever affected me that way, but I was also younger and this was one of my first yaoi/BLs and yeah. GREAT story though, fantastic storytelling, very lovable characters. Sangwoo was handled so much better than most "asshole/kidnapper/rapist" characters and I will never stop appreciating that, because a lot of writers tend to forget that your villains have to have redeeming qualities if you want us to like them (????). Jinx, I'm fucking coming for you. Suck my dick. KOOGI FTW.

Missing Love/A Married Man [In Hyerin]: Some of the DESCRIPTIONS of how trauma works especially of the sexual nature in this story are SO. SO. GOOD. However, I am beginning to grow VERY ANNOYED at where it decided to go with the most current updates of the story. The author did enough trauma to the main boy, now it's getting so incredibly excessive that it's overdoing it and the author's kinks are showing through. LIKE I GET IT. Okay? I do. But this one became too much and I need him to return to the actual story arc of going through that trauma so he can HEAL with the right person taking care of him.

MadK [Ryo Sumiyoshi]: I am into NONE of the kinks that would lead to me picking up this manga. I hate demons, I'm not a monsterfucker, I can't do extreme guro, and yet I SAW CANNIBALISM. THAT WAS THE ONE THING THAT I THOUGHT I'D GIVE IT A TRY FOR. And then accidentally I got obsessed because the plot is AMAZING and the writing is SO GOOD and who cares if I hate demons and monsters ALL OF THEM ARE BADASS AND HOT (??) AND IT CEASES TO MATTER. Good on the writer for making them appeal by personality alone and expressions and whatever else you signed a deal with the devil to make me like because it worked. Also the guro is beautiful, so it doesn't even matter. Hannibal levels.

Warehouse [Killerwhale]

Painter of the Night [Byeonduck]

Viewfinder/Finder [Yamane Ayano]

Given [Kizu Natsuki, Gusari]

Nii-Chan [Harada] (and basically every other work by Harada)

Sadistic Beauty Side Story [Geumsan Lee, Woo Yeonhui]

Dine With a Vampire [Pangin, Pinko]

Angel Buddy [Mastergin, Chungnyun]

My Partner's Tastes and Fetishes [Deok Hwa]

Interview with a Murderer [KJK]

On or Off [A1]

Steel Under Silk [Snob]

The Pawn's Revenge [Evy]: It was going to be SO GOOD! And then it dropped off harder than a boulder from a balcony and I have absolutely no idea why the author took it the way that they took it, but go off I guess. It's boring as hell now but it started off with promise and I enjoyed the art and character designs. Too bad, I suppose.

Caste Heaven [Ogawa Chise]: An old classic with all the sticky sometimes icky mostly ridiculous BL tropes but hey, it's cute. It's sexy. It's fun. I don't care.

Wet Sand [Doyak]: We're still in the beginning stage of this one but I'm excited to see where it goes! Plus the art SLAPS ASS like nobody's business.

19 Days [Old Xian]: I hate comedy, I hate fluff, I hate buddies that never become lovers, but none of that mattered when I picked this one up. The duality of man. Bite-sized chapters and ACTUALLY AN EVENTUAL ROMANCE that none of us thought we'd ever get.

Legs That Won't Walk [Black Apricot]: Although this one dropped off hard for me and I'm really just following it to see if it picks up again and does something interesting (it probably won't) I did enjoy it in the beginning. I just get tired of the "asshole just keeps being an asshole and nothing else but woobified slut keeps coming back to him??" without the strong and realistic undercurrent of Reasons Why Someone Would Come Back such as manipulation or threats or unhealthy attachment. Perhaps it was sorta there in the beginning with them but now I'm just like why are we still continuing this story.

Pearl Boy [Inking, Zoy]: *Awkwardly scratches neck* It's not the best okay? It's not. It's really not. I don't like half of the things that occur in this one, but the ART, bro. THE ART, BRO? That's what got me into it and what kept me into it, PLUS I do like little Jooha. I stayed for Jooha, too. Dooshik drives me a little batty most of the time and looks ugly for half the story to me, but when he's badass, he's pretty badass, so I can forgive him. I really don't know why he has such drastically changing appearances because I thought he was someone completely different for a bit LMAO. In any case, I have to admit I like the uhhhhh danger that Jooha gets himself into and the crazy things that make no sense but you know what he gets hurt and then there's comfort and rescue and they cry and I cease to care that it makes no sense. (Sorta, I don't actually cease to care I just laugh awkwardly and go okay sure that's how it works because it's so hard to find stories that don't do this LOL I'm beating a dead horse) BUT WHY DOES HE CUM PEARLS? WILL WE EVER KNOW? WHO THE HELL THOUGHT OF THAT AND WITHOUT A SUPPORTING MAGIC SYSTEM IN THE WORLD TO MAKE THAT MAKE SENSE? IT WENT DOWNHILL SO FAST AND THE ENDING IS TERRIBLE BTW. THE VILLAIN SUCKS.

That's it. I can't talk to much or I'll run out of words but HOPE YOU GUYS FIND SOME NEW READS!!

[puddleofbats]

I need batlantern or superbat fic recs i crave the old man yaoi

[accidental-olive]

i love fiddleford. i love stan. i really truly want to like fiddlestan. however. this IS what i think of every time i see the ship.

[soapbbox]

How the hell do you people draw these guys 😭😭 I saw Transformers one and though “man I better not hyperfixate on this bc they would be ass to draw”.

Alas. Here I am doing anatomy studies of all things on robots. Tf artists have god in their fingertips because how do you do that

[randomyaoimoments]

Manga : MURI MARRIAGE

[localcanadiancreature62]

Y'alls gimme Billford fanfic recs. I have seen every fucking fanart about them on this site and i hunger for MORE.

[lehnsherrrr]

Been reading cherik fics and here are

My cherik ao3 recommendations!!!

First and foremost, I have the most high stakes GUT WRENCHING torture pron slow burn fic you will EVER READ.

Charles is a pilot on a spaceship, and things go to SHIT. Very long, very good, so fucking good. One of those fics where they don’t even acknowledge that they like eachother until like 12 whole chapters in, AS IT SHOULD BE.

If you like it when Erik uses his powers on Charles, or when Charles is weak and beaten down, you’ll love this very very much.

Big warning for non-consensual…situations…. BUT ITS SO BEAUTIFUL

It’s called “The stars incline us, they do not bind us” by Ikeracity and Pangea.

I even made an entire Spotify playlist

I literally spent an entire 3 days non stop (literally until like 5am every night) reading this, it was constant. I did nothing else. I read it during summer and so I literally had nothing else to do. I can’t even remember anything else, I was so freaking immersed.

SECOND,

A fic I read immediately after the last one. LONGER, SLOWER, but wayyy more wholesome, it’s just fucking lovely. But not TOO lovely, there are high stakes, it made me BLUUSSHHHHHH, oh my LAWDDDDD.

Charles has been hired as a tutor for Erik’s daughter. I’m pretty sure it’s based in like the 1890s-1920s but I don’t think it tells you specifically, it’s old anyway.

ALSO, Charles has a cane in this, I also have a cane, made me very happy.

It’s nice to see Charles as a respectable adult man while also feeling like a crushing teenager on the inside, absolutely epic amazeballs.

It’s called “Wrap me up, unfold me” by hllfire

THIRD,

Shorter than the previous, still a whole 13 chapters tho.

Listen, come in real close, I won’t lie, I like it when Erik roughs Charles up a lil, BUT AY, YOU DIDNT HEAR THAT FROM ME.

Charles is kidnapped and taken to the camp of the brotherhood, which Erik leads, but Erik WANTS HIMMMMMM

HEHEHEHE

It’s cute, wished their feud had lasted a little longer but it was still an amazing read.

It’s called “Power and Control” by FuryRed

FOURTH,

Still in the making, only 4 chapters rn but it’s gonna get so good I promise.

Do you like it when Charles and Erik fight with their powers? When the enemies in enemies to lovers means something? HELL YEAH MY DUDE, this is for you.

Charles is the villain now, and Erik has been sent to stop him in exchange for Shaw (meaning he will stop at nothing) but he fails to realise how damn powerful this brat is.

Fighting, leather, masks, high stakes, flirting while fighting, tension, ITS GOT IT ALLLLL

It’s called “Echoes of control” by…

Uh oh, it’s by me….

I BEG PLZ READ IM SORRY IT ONLY HAS 4 CHAPTERS, THERES MORE COMING IM JUST MOVING HOUSE PLZZZZ

Hehe that’ll do it, I’m so good at advertising

Anyway!!!

I BEG you, if you have any fic recommendations that include the sort of things I’ve talked about here, PLEASE GIVE THEM TO MEEEEEEE.

Thanks for reading :3

[kissmypoets-hp]

Fanfic Classics (inspired by zeziliazink and bubu0h)

I'm not even exaggerating when I say that these Drarry fics will always be famous to me! I believe I first read these around 2018, and I've reread them multiple times since 🤣 They're hits on AO3 for a reason and I cannot recommend them enough.

Away Childish Things by @letteredlettered

Far From the Tree by aideomai

What We Pretend We Can't See by gyzym

view more fic covers here. art credits below!

Artwork used (in order):

"L'Atre (The Hearth)" by Édouard Vuillard (1899). Credit goes to The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, gift of the Virginia and Ira Jackson Collection in memory of Virginia Jackson.

"Olive Trees at Collioure" by Henri Matisse (1906). Credit goes to the 2019 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

"Corridor in the Asylum" by Vincent van Gogh (1889)

[izel-scribbles]

you know this thing?

this is literally just chapter one of harmony of the hunt, change my mind

oh my god you’re so right @ellamenop

[bowenoke]

something that i think goes really unappreciated about spotify is how over time you develop like a 6th sense for if someone who made a specific playlist is in a fandom. why do you in 2024 have barns courtney AND mitski AND kansas on the same playlist. and how is super hell.

[stardust-falling]

Does anyone know of any good, canon-lore and characterization-compliant Rezhong or Neuvili fics?

[murrpa]

I can’t even fathom the emotions I’m experiencing while listening to Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx as I’m reading my post from earlier

Like yes, hell yeah I’ll make this a fic

[starrynightarchive]

it's so fun to write a fic for a well-known and loved ship. because you will walk inside this fic thinking "oh how bad can it be. eventually they'll kiss and it'll be okay." but then you realize the author is a bastard. and take max damage every time the said characters kiss.

i'm talking about this fic of mine btw

[randomyaoimoments]

Manga : LONG PERIOD

[yellowocaballero]

so! saw you mentioned jjk, so if you wanna talk about it, whats your thoughts been on it so far?

Was waiting to answer this until I finished S2, which I just did.

It's incredible. It's an amazing work of art. Some of the best fighting animation I've ever seen in an anime, some of the best fight scenes period, non-stop gripping and thrilling and incredibly exciting. Gorgeous, cool as fuck, a lot of fun. Binged it and was extremely unwilling to do anything other than watch it. Real 'wander out of my room, rant to my roommates about how good it is, ignore their confused looks and wander back in my room to continue binging' energy.

Beyond that, my thoughts are a bit complex and difficult to put into words. It's great at a lot of things besides action - it has great characters, humor, world-building, everything. I would like to see more of the other things it's good at, and I think that would elevate the fight scenes a lot. I won't go into a tangent about what makes "a good action movie", but basically in good action work the action scenes need to have a lot of weight. S2 was basically 15 episodes of the climax of an incredible action movie, and a lot of the fight scenes would have been stronger if there was greater buildup or a more coherent escalation (Mahito loses every fight, which makes it hard to take his very lengthy subsequent fights seriously)(Gojo himself is a mystifying choice)(My only coherent thought for two episodes straight was 'Mahito just fucking die already'). My personal belief about arcs in serialized works is that they should work as full stories in isolation and have a coherent beginning, middle, climax, and end; one that still slots into the greater narrative of the serialized work and meaningfully develops the characters, world, and overarching plotline. S2 was, again, 15 episodes of climactic fight scene. But the climactic fight scenes were so fucking good.

It's a lot of things that I normally like in theory and are extremely bored of in practice. JJK really lived up to the theory of "what if a shonen action anime was only action and it was so so so so so good". If you do want an example of mangakas who do work that's 95% action that's skimpy on characters/plot/etc but still feel like an extremely complete experience, I recommend Nightow's Blood Blockade Battlefront.

Lots of criticism on a show I fucking loved, but you are talking to someone for whom "they punched so good and then the explosions were so pretty and I pumped the air and was satiated by the violence" is a 5/5 glowing four thumbs up review. The characters themselves were so endearing and fascinating and charismatic, which is an understated but important aspect of an action work. They don't have to be deep or complex, but you do have to get me invested in them and make them fun to watch. It also has incredible and well-utilized women, which esp in male oriented work I do genuinely consider a barometer of quality - not 'badass women automatically makes something good', but 'a creator who can write every character well is good at creating characters and if you can't create all your characters well or feel uncomfortable with portraying half the population then you aren't good at creating characters'.

Geto/Gojo will never be KakaObi and you are all lying to yourselves.