Tbh all of the stories had an age gap. The second one was tolerable bc we never got the young ones age, but I’ll pretend he was 18 bc they did have sex.
The third one, where we explicitly learn the younger one is 16 is a yikes,,, especially when they kissed, but Phil or whatever said he was gonna wait for Eli and come back when he’s an adult. I can respect that. The older character, Eli, didn’t force it and was fine to wait the two years.
Like I can’t even say grooming happened bc they interacted with each other for at most a month before Phil said “I’ll be back when I’m an adult” so I can respect that one too. So I wouldn’t call the last one pedophilia.
I’d probably call the second one that bc he was clearly high school aged but it’s fine since that one took place in Japan and I’d probably put the young one at 16/17 which is legal in Japan.
I felt the exact same!!! I completely skipped the third one cuz I couldn’t handle the fact the child was 16 and for the second when I found out he was a high schooler I was disgusted. Which is such a shame cuz the first story is actually so good. If they wanted age gaps why couldn’t they idk NOT USE MINORS
exactly lol why is it so hard for authors to age their characters up to 18 if they want an age gap... oh yeah because they WANT that highschooler x adult trope and ugh... not even gonna talk about the implications of that regarding how japan views consent in children
yeah i personally don't like the "i'm willing to wait so when we get tgt you're legal" bc thry started acting on the attraction when he was still a minor anyways... And irl it doesn't really make a difference and can actually be a way for groomers to ged rid of the blame. I mean i get your point but personally i really can't.
Also yeah the second one is actually as bad, i was just blinded bc i thought both characters were closer in age
first story was rlly cute (and i love Tomo's characterization his introversion and awkwardness w communication and love are rlly relatable), second story was tolerable bc for a good portion of it i stupidly thought blondie wasn't in highschool anymore, so when i realized i was still willing to ignore the age gap for the sake of the story. But that third one.... Naw this isn't right lmao that's a kid getting involved w some 26yo dude... he's literally 16 and the other one is an adult how in the hell is this being considered an option and passed of as a joke And ik high-schoolers and age gaps are common tropes im (unfortunately) kinda desensitized to it and just generally avoid anything like that or don't comment on it as to not incite debate but in this case it's baffling to me bc like why does the story get so deep regarding certain psychological aspects of the characters (ie their trauma) but then completely skim over the fact that it's literally p*dophilia im concerned