I read some parts of the novels with Google translation, and I don't think either of them is toxic—sure, they do have flaws, mental problems and their own struggles but never really toxic.
Ooooh, my expectations for this grows higher and higher
(≧w≦)
Yeah that’s why I mostly read Alpha x Alpha and Beta x Alpha pairings in omegaverse and I’ve only read one guide because it just felt to me like they took one of my favorite action types and turned it into a remix of omegaverse. I only picked this one up because the ML on the cover looked different than most so I got curious.
This is the first time I've been properly invested in guide verse. Not curious, not hopeful, not even just intrigued, but actually invested.
This has an interesting plot and, even if it goes for toxic, it seems like it will do it in a nouveau way.
Guideverse always just felt like omega verse in a different wrap, with all its typical problems:
Forceful relationships; double standard vague normalization of rape; amatonormativity; illogical need for sex (when often a hug would cover a bigger contact area since than the positions they use, in ABO is the disregard for other heat/rut symptoms); reforcing relationship hierarchy; binarization of romance (AND heteronormativity! omega×alfa, guide×esper, sounds an awful lot like man×woman, not to mention the character design, where often it's omegas/guides need too look as feminine as possible); disregard for verisimillitude in general, I just can hardly take them serious, specially in webtoons…
Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed reading other guideverses but usually you have to make a lot of concessions — not moral, I have none, just in general if you are reading it as literature/art instead of plain mass-produced porn. Nothing wrong with porn, I like smut comics, I read then often, but I would never say I'm "invested" in a story that sustains itself on the smut (a lot of smut stories do have a nice plot, either serious or comedic ones, though, you CAN have the best of both worlds).
Also, two of my all time favorite stories ARE ABO, very curious that the first guideverse I REALLY like for the plot, not for the sex, is also Japanese. Mitochondria of yaoi fr fr.