Got too comfortable with the soft, fantastical, almost shoujo atmosphere of this manga. But, it slipped off into creepy, mental disorder territory quickly. The MC - ML relationship is nothing but whitewashed grooming. In fact, it's even worse than that. The ML is technically the MC's child. He adopts him when the ML was a recently orphaned toddler and raises him. But, that relationship turning sexual is being treated as completely normal instead of being treated like the psychological medical emergency that it actually is.
You may still be able to somehow detach yourself from that background, which is certainly possible because that father-son dynamic only exists in flashbacks and the current MC and ML act just like two random young people and not really in a manner that would fit their respective character histories. Because their current versions are so out of character given the past that we are told of, you may be able to almost ignore the backstory once it's out of sight, out of mind. That's how I was able to push myself through the chapters by forgetting the fact that the ML is technically the MC's kid, outside of the flashback chapters, the MC acting like a teenager instead of the centuries old dude that he is supposed to be, makes it really easy to do so. And I liked all the other main characters except for the two leads, so I was invested in their stories.
But, the weirdo author wasn't done yet. What made me quit, the final straw that broke the camels back was when during the climax of the story the MC chooses his little groomed lover boy over his sister, over his own goddamn flesh and blood. Bro gets asked to his face if he would choose to bring the ML back to life even if it meant losing all hope of bringing his sister back and dude says yes. And that's hailed as a great, beautiful moment instead of the truly insane, disgusting, brain-dead bullshit that is it. Even the characters I had liked so far are depicted as supportive of that stance. That left such a bad taste in my mouth, that I couldn't keep reading any further. God, what a worthless work!
The only redeemable parts about this story are the dragon and maybe, the angel girl. They are the only two main characters who haven't done or said anything problematic. If only they weren't associated with an all around scummy story. Those guys are meant for a shounen, or a nice, normal shoujo, not the twisted brain rot that goes on in the weird parts of shoujo-josei world and porno with try-hard plot aka yaoi.
This is definitely the best story in yaoi genre and one of the best stories in romance and overall, because it hits all marks. It has excellent art, amazing characters who are both admirable and endearing, has a coherent story line that sticks to logic and doesn't ruin itself for meaningless drama, and respectful treatment of all kinds of relationships.
Most authors in shoujo/josei/yaoi romances try to create an elaborate, complicated plot that they care little about just as an extravagant wrapping for stories that remain basically a simple romance or porn. But the plot is never their chief concern. The plot and even the characters are very inconsistent because they solely exist to create emotionally charged situations as and when convenient.
But this one is an extremely smartly written story. The author did not bite off more than they could chew, paid attention to pragmatic depiction of their theme, stuck to few elements and executed them better than anyone else. A truly magnificent job. One of my favorite things about this story that I rarely find in others is that this is a romance and our main characters are lovers but their relationship as lovers does not overshadow their identities and responsibilities as individuals. As an example, one of my favorite scenes in the story is ch 6 pg 20-26.
Well, it could have been Shizaya had Wachi been a more sensitive man and had reacted to Makio scamming him by throwing a vending machine at him. But I am so happy that this is my beautiful Shinra x Izaya.
Wachi and Makio, themselves, may not be entirely the same as Shinra and Izaya but their main emotional relationships are exactly the same. It's so fun. Wachi's love for Makio is very similar to Shinra's completely devoted (masochistic XD) love for Celty . And, Makio cares for Wachi geatly, maybe already loves him, in the exact same way that Izaya loves Shinra. Both Makio and Izaya (both kuudere) show restrained display of affection, act calm and nonchalant in interaction but will protect the person they love from behind-the-scenes and anyone who dares to harm the one they love will rue the day they dared to hurt them.
Iza-chan, congratulations. Your love for Shinra has finally been requited in another life.
Because it's probably going to be great fun right until the conclusive arc when it might have to sacrifice the character dynamic that makes it so lovely just for sake of prioritizing romance between the main characters. It has such an interesting premise and fantastic characters. I wish it was a mystery-thriller manga with heavy subtext and bromance, instead of romance, between the main characters. Then, I could have relaxed and read this without the fear of having to, eventually, come down from the high. Why am I so paranoid that every time I realize that I'm reading a story I truly love, I end up wanting to read the end first to check that everything will end up fine before continuing?
Bro is annoying, clingy, entitled and doesn't know his place. Honestly, good riddance. The first seme dodged a bullet.
I guess he became this because how he was raised (selfraise - because the parents didn't give a shit for him) , we got some info, that the parents living in their lovely-dovely word and no matter what he done they never paid attenttion at him. He never got praised, nor scolded, they just left averything as was. Sience he never recived proper love, he became like this, and lucky just like this. Like some people can go very far just to be loved /like self harm etc/.