I’m somewhere on the ace spectrum, though likely not as touch or sex repulsed as Hirano seems to be, and it’s so so nice and refreshing and really emotional for me to read a story where a character struggles with attraction and feeling the “normal” amount or type of it.
That moment where he talks about wanting to feel want was so familiar to me. the liking the emotional closeness of a relationship but feeling the fear of being unable to reciprocate with the same intensity the way you think the other person deserves, it just gets to me man. I cried through a good portion of reading because it’s one of the few romances that I actually felt had a connection to my lived experience, rather than just being full on escapism reading about emotions I’ve never felt.
I don’t know if the author is intentionally trying to write ace representation, but it’s so rare to see anything of the sort in most media. And not to generalize, but yaoi and bl as a genre tends to be rather hyper sexual and take a somewhat… lax approach towards consent quite often. listen, I like smut as much as the next person! but seeing a story take a nuanced and deliberate approach towards desire and the comfort of all parties involved feels very special to me
I’m somewhere on the ace spectrum, though likely not as touch or sex repulsed as Hirano seems to be, and it’s so so nice and refreshing and really emotional for me to read a story where a character struggles with attraction and feeling the “normal” amount or type of it.
That moment where he talks about wanting to feel want was so familiar to me. the liking the emotional closeness of a relationship but feeling the fear of being unable to reciprocate with the same intensity the way you think the other person deserves, it just gets to me man. I cried through a good portion of reading because it’s one of the few romances that I actually felt had a connection to my lived experience, rather than just being full on escapism reading about emotions I’ve never felt.
I don’t know if the author is intentionally trying to write ace representation, but it’s so rare to see anything of the sort in most media. And not to generalize, but yaoi and bl as a genre tends to be rather hyper sexual and take a somewhat… lax approach towards consent quite often. listen, I like smut as much as the next person! but seeing a story take a nuanced and deliberate approach towards desire and the comfort of all parties involved feels very special to me
Tldr; I like this manga very much