otakulys's manga / #dark(197)

I really loved Demon Flower, which has a bittersweet ending itself, and I know this mangaka's style is to kill everyone as much as possible, especially sweet and innocent characters that stumble into the frame (I've never read a shoujo manga with so much graphic murder and torture of children), but the ending petered out so oddly. I've owned all four manga since they came out when I was in high school, but I only now read it on here, and I have to wonder if she'd meant to continue this but then it didn't work out, because even compared to her other abrupt endings, this was like she walked off a cliff mid-sentence. Plus, I hate it so much when a character is like, "You're all I care about! I don't have anyone else!" when friends of theirs are literally dying all around them to protect them. Seriously, bitch? You have no one else? The ending was a miss for me. It could have been more powerful, but in the confusion it just fell flat. 2.5 stars overall. EDIT: Apparently there's a follow up out there that she wrote in 2007. I had, in my delirious, sleep-deprived state, thought it was a continuation for Demon Flowers, though I'm not sure how that would have worked, and I got super excited. Now I'm a little sad, but I'm hoping it gets translated eventually, because this ending is so random. We need a follow up.

I seriously spent years agonizing over the fact that the publisher went under before releasing the final, translated volume. I thought I'd never read the ending. Then I discovered it had been scanlated about two years ago, and I was so freaking happy. It took them a while to get to it, so I'd lost hope. Thank you so much to the scanlation team! This manga is so sad and screwed up, typical of the mangaka, but at least the ending isn't as depressing as it is in some of her other stuff. Still sad, but it could be worse. I just saw that she wrote a follow up to the series in 2007, though, and I wonder if anyone will ever pick that up. It's been a long time, though, and it seems like her work is less popular in general, so I have no idea if it'll ever be translated. I miss how active scanlations used to be. EDIT: Damn it, I was deliriously tired when I saw the continuation thing, and it isn't for this at all. It's for the other one, The Demon Ororon. I should have read more carefully. But that one should be translated, because that story had such an abrupt ending.

Those guys are so pretty. I'm forced to assume after a long day they go home and make out. I wish this had been longer. It leaves a lot for you to conclude on your own, which is fine, but there was a lot of potential here. Too bad it's a oneshot. That's pretty much what everyone has been saying, of course. Seems a shame to stop here.

This is rather similar to a story I wrote when I was seventeen, haha. I like how pretty the uke is, and I like that you can actually see his penis. That's so rare, I was kind of surprised when it wasn't a weird, glowing orb. I'm sad that my biggest kink (purely fictional) isn't explored more in BL. I hate it in het. You'd think there'd be more stories where the seme is forced to watch the uke be harmed in some way. But maybe other people aren't quite as deranged as myself, lol. EDIT: Holy crap, I thought this was a oneshot! It was marked as complete at the time that I read it, at least. This was amazing! You NEVER see yaoi like this. And yes, this artist is messed up and depressing much of the time, but this was a very interesting story. Man, I wish more yaoi had supernatural action and factions fighting one another and stuff. Mooooooore. I want to read more set in this universe, damn it. All of the creepy things in the storage room, man... There's a lot of material there. It's still marked as incomplete, so maybe we'll get some extras? I'm just bummed that we don't get more of this world. I liked this story SO MUCH MORE than her other full length, Feeding Lamb, which was just disturbing as fuck. I mean, well-written, but mostly just unpleasant given the nature of it. I much prefer her supernatural horror to her serial killer/gore horror.

Kind of jumps around awkwardly, but the art is lovely, and I like it so far. Fingers crossed for it staying awesome. EDIT: After more chapters came out, it quickly became fantastic. I'm really excited to see where this goes. This has so many things that I love and rarely find in yaoi. EDIT AGAIN: So, here I thought this manwha was everything I wanted. We had the dark past with the screwed up, obsessed, gangster lover. We had the new love and the main character moving on. When things went south, I loved it, and I thought this would be a thriller involving them trying to escape and the main character and his sweet boyfriend eventually being together. But the moment it suddenly stopped being about him just trying to protect his current boyfriend, I realized this was just like all the rest. It's rape porn with no real growth on the part of any of the characters. The least it could do was give us the ending these characters deserved. Instead, the main character decides he has to stand by the fact that, after hurting a sweet person, he is never allowed to be happy again, nor is his ex. So, the only way to do that is to get back together? Whatever, they should both just get hit by a bus. I'm so over this crap. It was beautiful art, and it had SO much potential, so I'm endlessly bitter. Why do these things never go a better way?

It's too short to be as impactful as it could be, and it's kind of confusing, but you get the gist of the plot.

Definitely messed up and sad. Seems to imply that the leader was in love with him all along, but clearly had some serious mental issues. It's so brief and abrupt that it's hard to get into, so it reads as torture porn, essentially. It's just there for the cruelty. I wish they'd done more with the concept instead of just ended it there. Also, this artist clearly has a pee fetish, based on her other work.

I hate the animal death. So gross. But it was there for a reason, at least. Unsurprisingly miserable story, but it's an interesting little back story for Itou-san, which was a fantastic manga. For that reason, I'm giving this a four star rating. Definitely upsetting, though, for many reasons. Also, watch out for pedophiles galore.

This is the only kind of incest I can read--the type that acknowledges how sick it is and approaching it with that twisted, psychological perspective. When it's treated as an everyday thing in a story, it weirds me out. (To each their own, of course! It's fiction. Just not my thing.) The story was interesting and well done, and I just love her art. But I'm not sure I buy the twist. The fact that people said there was a twist at all clued me into what it probably was, so I read the story with the assumption that... well, no spoilers if you can't guess. Anyway, I was right, and I feel like it was kind of reaching compared to the other complex stuff. I was a little disappointed that it tried to be extra twisted when it was one of the few stories where a rape victim flat out accuses their attacker of rape. It's like no one wants to use that word in stories, and half the time the victim ends up comforting the attacker. But that's yaoiland for you, I guess. Regardless, it was definitely a creepy, twisted, sad, and interesting read. I enjoyed it, even if the twist was kinda meh for me. It's a messed up story, and it *knows* it's messed up. The intention is never to paint any of this as normal or all right. (The violence, manipulation, and games, I mean.) So yeah, 4.5 stars.

I wish there were more legit kidnapping stories, where there's an actual motive and danger, and the victim isn't a trembling uke who gets yaoi-raped until he falls in love. Of course, this one was kind of weird, and it didn't have much of an impact on me. There was no indication as to why feelings developed, and it seemed too short of a time for anything like that. I do have to say, though, I so enjoyed that gun against his back. I know that makes me kind of sick and wrong, but damn. For that, I raised it from three stars to four.