Ayakashi Amori's Topics (629)

That might be but I think hes just flustered because she keeps everything herself and from his pov he might think hes just a side chick because she never really open up to him on what she truely feels and only come to him to doll him up

She won’t. Believe dark/deep obsession will always leave that 1% to love themselves more ╮(￣▽￣)╭ only true love would get to 100% and we all know who that person will be ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

Honestly they could never stand on an equal standing so this should be better. Getting someone obsessed over you just doesn’t do good like getting someone loving you wholeheartedly. Eclis will always feel inferior staying with FL anyway.

Who? Derek? Lmao

No, but if she runaway she wouldn't be a noble anymore and she can undo slavery contract anytime soo

I wouldn't exactly call this a harem with 1 female romance target.

But every female character is or will have crash on him

Standards? Who are they? Never heard of them!

XD

I have reread this manga a lot and still discover things I didn't catch at first (I'm 25 now) so yeah it's definitely meant for older audiences.
There is a charm to older manga but what I like most is that the trauma Jeremy went through isn't romanticized, ALL (and I'm sorry to say) but ALL BL Manga/Manhwa make it out to be a good thing to be raped if you end up falling in love & become a couple in the end.
It's even justified and a whole generation pretends that a redemption arc for the top would make it okay.
Just the general writing of such stories is awful.
There's rarely a Manhwa where the ML directly rapes the MC and it isn't forgiven later on, not talking about mentions of past trauma or Second leads being violent.

Yeah, I was 22 when I read it now, but I first was reading it when it was still ongoing or freshly ended, so I was something like 13/14 years old and didn't read it to the end because I didn't know english at the time and someone who was translating it stopped very early on. And I remember that I didn't really felt anything while reading it at the time. I was simply lacking imagination to understand how horrible is what Jeremy is going through. And I didn't even go beyond first 5/6 volumes, I think at the time I was so used to see romanticized rape and abuse that the only think I was thinking was "when he start dating his step brother" like wtf little me, that's not the point of the story at all! （/TДT)/ I think that moder media is really toxic for teenagers and young adults, it's especially shown here when you choose "the most popular" and "by views" searching, so much of it is full of gross abuse and toxic relationships. It's not about "people will confuse reality with fiction" because they won't, people aren't idiots, but by reading too much of this kind of story people can become accustomed to "normality" and "commonest" of this kind of types of relationship and won't see red flags when they see them in the real life :(

Same I did discover it when I was still in Highschool and it took me years to read because I couldn't take it all at once (stopped right before Jeremy's confession) & I still mainly read the second half of the story because seeing the abuse happening without anybody speaking up just hurts. English is also my 2nd language but it improved massively over the years.

No shame in being unable to relate especially at such a young age! And modern BL really has ruined the image of healthy relationships, if there's trauma involved, it's almost always a rapist x victim situation at some point in the story.
We rarely see psychological BL stories that question rape, intimacy and love itself because it sadly doesn't sell. Smut sells, drama sells.
A cruel god reigns is an old manga now and it still holds up with the message and horror it portrays, it's impactful but not easy to read for most.

And I absolutely agree with the last part you mentioned! Normalizing these kind of relationships even while being in a work of fiction can still damage your view on normality in private relationships.
I like that you acknowledge how people won't confuse reality with fiction immediately but can still be affected by the unhealthy nature being displayed within them.
It's especially common within the BL community, I wouldn't even take an issue with having toxic relationships being shown but it's frustrating how the main focus is rather on "how will their love develop in the end?" instead of "what consequences will the victim of such abuse suffer?".
It feels like a tool to "spice" it up instead of thinking about the trauma it may cause. This manga is also a work of fiction but I never felt that the topic was taken lightly and seeing how it resonates with so many people who suffered through similar circumstances and find some value & even comfort in this, is what truly sets it apart.
Something I wish we could see more in modern BL.

I agree, I think what difference this work from others is that it's more on spectrum of "piece of art" than "being a comic book" and it's very rare especially those days, where because of digital media many authors for financial reasons use template backgrounds or things that characters use (like every new isekai shojo fl drink at least once from this very specific cup of tea like rose patterned one) and most of the times it really doesn't blend with drawn by hand characters.
Especially later in the series theirs mental state is shown with those very surreal and abstract sections that's add to the feelings of confusion of characters.

Also I double checked and the story was added to mangago from 2011 to 2014, but the original published date was 1992 to 2001 and that's explains a lot. Because it's really give the 90's, I don't know why it's so hard nowadays to find this type of stories but 90's was filled with it, mature content that was really heart breaking, but also very relatable + very beautiful and detailed art, and they had normal noses and semi-normal bodies （/TДT)/ like give them back.

Also it's more of my point of view at manga and anime community in general, but I think there is a big problem how lolis became super sexualized to the point that it feels that there is so much more loli in moder anime (with sexual content) then even a decade elier. Even when anime is supposed be about mature themes, and not every characters is a typical loli, other female characters doesn't feel like adlut woman's (even when they suppose to be). With yoai we can observe opposite effect, where authors deviate from the delicate uke stereotypes, but there still remains of that archetype.

I think it's important to differentiate between using templates to enhance something and solely relying on them, not every work of fiction needs to be ambiguous but it should involve some passion for story telling and a desire to improve in portraying their characters.
I recently started reading Jungle Juice and there's clear templates used for objects but the characters are exceptionally well drawn and except for a few noticeable objects, it looks beautiful. Time and effort went into stylized and dynamic art.
Sometimes it's just the story that pierces the heart, even if the artist is inexperienced, there's still passion behind their work.

Take Hagio Moto, the very artist we've come to love, A cruel god reigns is one of the most beautiful art & story telling she created but she also improved to get to that point. I've seen her in an interview talk about the many thoughts she puts into drawing her characters, what she wants to portray and how much effort went into each stroke, that's passion and I admire her so much for it.

With newer media it's easier to rely on templates, essentially not a bad thing but I think you're talking about people who want to gain financial advantage through their work, I think this is the most apparent in story telling. When I see Q&A pages filled with notes of the author how they wanted to portray their characters a certain way, talk about their wardrobe and hair, it's clear how much thought and love went into it.
It's difficult to grasp the charm of older manga but I wouldn't compare them, I miss those 90's manga too but new Manhwa are just from an entirely different generation and their content has adapted.

Remember the good old "Yaoi hands" we saw 2005-2015? That was a mood xD
One of my favorite manga Junjou Romantica was a poster-child of this art and look how much the artist improved over all those years!
So I know what you mean, it's hard to face that time has changed & I also think new artists should strive to tell a passionate story even if it's comedy, love or psychological horror.

Lastly I agree, Anime/Manga has become about financial gain, as seen with the abundance of Isekai Anime with little to no uniqueness.
There's so many perverted men all over the world & especially in Japan, they prefer woman to look child-like and cute so I think this transitioned into art and in turn to Anime.
There's a whole deep analysis of this issue on the Anime "Miss Kobayashi's Dagon Maid" where the ratio of the supposed adult dragon girls is similar to that of the Loli dragon not to mention the big chest...

I think the main reason why BL has changed their direction is because of Manhwa, it hasn't been that long since they've overtaken Manga on this site.
Different power dynamics and a different art style has contributed to a wider spectrum of characteristics.
"Power bottoms", "beefy bottoms", something that wasn't as present in older BL Manga.
Time has changed but like you said, the core archetype remains in a lot of work, as seen with the mass of CEO x debtor. The bottom is mostly pitiful and the top is either an asshole/cold or sympathetic with ulterior motives (Examples: Jinx, For my Weirdo, Cry me a river and so on).

Lastly I think what's mostly missing is symbolism & hidden meaning in dialogues, rape is romanticized and sexualized because we as the audience become involved and see it happening. In A Cruel god reigns, we see glimpses of the abuse happening to Jeremy, sometimes graphic but it's overshadowed with grim & dark thoughts, clearly telling the audience that this is hell and disgusting. Notice how we only see Jeremy scream at Greg while he moans with Ian? One was rape, the other was consensual although Jeremy wasn't in a good mental state. One might argue about that last point but I think that Jeremy loved Ian to some extent and felt comfort in his embrace.

So sorry about the long ass comment ;_;

Don't be sorry, it was a very nice conversation to have :) your view on the matter is very interesting and honestly I really needed to talk about this series with someone but none of my friends would read it ╥﹏╥
I'm really thankful that you shared your opinion and took time to talk about it with me :)

Likewise! It was really nice to have such an inspiring conversation with someone, I love philosophical topics & discussing them but I rarely get the change to do it with manga since my friends don't read such works either :/
Wishing you the best! Thank you for your time as well <3

Exactly