The story was intruiging, and I was curious to how the relationship of the characters would develop, but right as you think you're going to be getting settled in, the climax screeches round the corner and deals a three hit combo masquerading as an ending and you find yourself scrolling through the bonus chapters while your head is still reeling. It was a lot like that jolt when you walk down a step you didn't know was there.
I would like to say that I did enjoy the series until that point. Not so much that I'd go around waving flags for it, but decent enough that I decided to unlock all the chapters on Tapas.
The story wasn't quite long enough to properly develop the characters who started out clouded in mystery, with subversive or vague introductions, but on the other hand by the end you could see the progress in the artist's refinement of their style. The art itself is quite gentle, a bit cute, but also a little unstable. It's certainly not bad, and in fact as a style I like it quite a bit, but it's not perfect, and is still a little rough in places.
There are also some kiiinda major things that got dubiously swept under the rug..and in a way, I can see why some of them would be resolved from the character's perspective, and that it was ineveitable from a storyline perspective. But how that resolution was reached...I think was a bit hit and miss in how well it was presented to the readers. Like sometimes the conflict would completely evaporate before it was fully resolved, if it was being resolved at all. Honestly I kind of wonder if this might have something to do with the translation though, or transferral to a host with different guidelines, as I'm not sure where it's sourced originally.
While the themes of Addictive are certainly explicit, the art never is. The panels are always drawn in a way where it doesn't need to be directly censored, at least on Tapas (I say this because some of the panels had odd cuts that made me wonder if there weren't sections missing - checking back I'm pretty sure it's been cut) and the sex scenes are brief and quite tame, considering the entire series is marked M. Therefore, although it may have tags such as BDSM, Abuse, Violence and so on, it's not actually that graphic, relatively speaking - although who can say for the uncensored version? Regardless, the episodes themselves even have trigger warnings for their individual content, and it's clearly very consierate to the reader.
Overall I probably should have rated this 5/10, but maybe the extra star is a wish for the potential I wanted to see, and the expectations I had for the series. It did initially promise something interesting, even if in the end it didn't fully deliver on that promise, and that intrigue led to a certain level of engagement and enjoyment. Which is why even though it bombed the ending I don't want to hate this series, and I wouldn't discourage others from reading it either. Just don't be too surprised by the handful of cliches stuffed into the last two chapters at light speed...
