otakulys's manga / #tragedy(83)

Yeah, that was way too rushed, so it ended up being silly and disjointed. Pretty art, too bad the story sucked. I mean, I've seen way worse, but it could have been so much better.

This is... really weird. I cry very easily, and I figured I was taking a risk here, but the stories are so quick and shallow that it doesn't have much of an impact. I gave it three stars so far, instead of two, just because the third story was actually kind of intriguing despite its silly premise. The first one's ending made me laugh out loud because it was so abrupt. They had an opportunity to make these stories powerful, but they really missed their mark. If Harada has a piece in here, it'll no doubt be awesome, but I don't know what to expect from here on out.

Gaaaaahhhhh. Okay, unlike the one I just read by the same scanlation team, this one freaking killed me. I cried so hard over that first story. Wtf, why do all of these things have really sad or bittersweet endings? I wanna read more about these character's, damn it. I have to say that, aside from the endless rape-to-love in most of the Omegaverse stories, I really like the setup. It has its flaws (like even if you're married to a beta, if you're an omega and an alpha rapes you, then you're with them forever? What?), but I would love to read more stories surrounding it. Less rapey would be nice, or at least less rapey from the guy he ends up with, at least.

The translation is awful, and I've always wanted to go back and clean it up, but I actually like the story. It's been a while, so maybe I need to re-read it, but I actually like the darkness of the ending. I think some of the explanation was lost in the translation, but I don't think it was as black and white as people are making it. Ultimately, the boy just wanted to be free, to be his own person, rather than someone kept by one man or another. The obsession of another crushes out his light, until both the boy and his captor are trapped.

Very sad, some more than others. I think this anthology showed strengths and weaknesses among the mangaka involved. Short stories can be challenging, writing something satisfying that fills in the blanks and makes sense in such a limited amount of space. The first story broke my heart into a million pieces. I was ugly crying and my cat came and forced me to hold him, which made me cry harder, so there's that. I was super bummed to see that mangaka has yet to produce anything else. I hope that just means she's new and we'll see a lot more from her in the future. Several stories were a little brief and rushed, but the ones that hit you hit you hard. Definitely a sweet but very heartbreaking anthology. Obviously, haha. But it was a good kind of sad. It felt real and emotional. The stronger stories, at least.

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.

Hm. Kind of abrupt, though I do like that the he was deeply in love with his wife. I hate how yaoi just tosses aside female characters like they're placeholders. I really hate "it's okay if it's you" type stuff with a straight character, so I'm kinda glad it... went the direction that it did. Sad, but it didn't make me cry, which is unusual for me with emotional stuff. I guess I just couldn't really connect with the characters. But it was unusual, so three stars.

Aw, that was really sad! I knew it would be, but damn. It wouldn't have made me so sad if he hadn't wanted a friend so badly. His reactions were what got me. Definitely a downer.

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.