Responses
Yesss I think so too.
Calling it grooming without reading about exactly what's going on celeste's mind is sloopy (?) and just misusing the word.
I also have my question about there dinamic. But it was also mentioned how some material live as friend or family. Not exactly romantically.
But as you mentioned that this is romance manga so ╮(╯_╰)╭.
I personally would have liked this to be found-family father-daughter trope but also.
This manga sits in such a weird place for me... like, it's so unquestionably good, but also so uncanny on the raising-your-lover trope... but then also also, Celeste is quite literally a dragon, so I'm unsure if how to thread this when things like his instincts come into play. I'd love it if we could actually play into the aspect of soulmates that *isn't* romantic, and have Yui and Celeste just be fated to be family... buuut this is a romance manga so I doubt it (RIP)
On a side note,
I don't think it sits right to call this grooming, though. Celeste very clearly cares for Yui's autonomy and is 100% aware of and resigned to the fact Yui may still choose to be with someone else once she grows up – all while actively expanding her support system. While this whole "mate" thing does create a very weird environment, and there is definetely *something* up with it psico-socially speaking, chalking it up to grooming is just misuse of the word itself; and it's important not to overuse and twist the meaning of words such as this.
With that said I'll keep reading bc the mangaka is really freaking good and I'm actually invested in how they'll deal with the problematic here, later on.