
Is there really nobody of you who has ever heard of sadomasochism? Better go and get some life experience, instead of reading stories that you're to immature to understand...

S&M usually comes from an agreement between two parties who were already interested in it, not manipulatively pushed onto the uke (who you can clearly tell did not expect this sort of outcome.)

No, you're talking about s&m as an erotic game. This is love story: 2 men who love one another, one cruel, one submissive. It's supposed to be real life: in reality, things rarely happen the way we expect. Although the cruel one allows guys to use and humiliate his lover, he hates them: he's jealous of them, for he loves his friend, and the latter loves him back, else he would leave. This is about passion, not about toy handcuffs and leather boots... But it's still a dominator/dominee-relationship. That's what I meant.

Passion is when love is really intense. That's why when somebody is tried for murdering his/her lover because the latter cheated on him or he thinks he did (Othello-wise), in Law this is called a "crime of passion". Love that's so heavy it becomes a matter of life & death.
Or did you mean the passion in this here manga? You can tell it's about passion because of the use of violent feelings like jealousy, anger, pain, self-sacrifice... that kind of thing. Love with a capital L, so to speak. Get my drift?

I bet the drama isn't half as good as the manga... they never are

I guess with such a good theme, there is hardly a chance to completely ruin it. But it has happened that even with a great plot anime's or real-life drama's can be completely worthless compared to the manga they're taken after. Not so much because the movies are so bad, but because those old mangas were soooooooo good
Wow! After having read this, all other manga will look ugly and clumzily drawn. I'm totally spoiled for ever! This mangaka sure knows how to handle his pens and brushes...