Chained Hearts

XiaoMiFong May 30, 2023

6

I'm at Episode 75 as I write this and I have been asking myself for awhile now when the pain is going to end. Mine, not the characters' because while I am usually an easygoing (I think?) reader with patience, this endless parade of identity disorder, jealousy, who is using whom, deceitful jerks, and people trying to hire assassins who don't assassinate that never seems to end is really testing my resolve. At this point, it's the sunk cost theory. I've already wasted so much time on this manga that I am more than halfway through, what do I have to lose by seeing where it ends...but wow so far I cannot say that character in here is believable or relatable.  The story is supposed to examine the difficulty between Chu Jiangye, a man who as a jealous, insecure child, pushed his frenemy Feng Yi into the path of an oncoming car. Feng Yi, who unconditionally loves Chu Jiangye and is unaware of the ill feelings of the other, survives but ends up with a split personality. One is good, pure, loving, tolerant; the other vengeful, jealous, irrational, bitter. The two personalities fight for supremacy even while Chu Jiangye struggles to work out his feelings of guilty obligation toward Feng Yi, with whom he is partnered after having been captured and imprisoned by 'bad' Feng Yi for an extended time. So, from codependence to Stockholm Syndrome, and let's not forget a meddling psychiatrist with zero ethics plus some other unsavory, morally gray or to date puzzling side characters tossed in, it's like a recipe for literary indigestion.  As a writer who focuses on portrayals of individuals/groups in which grievous behavioral health issues take front and center, I am not finding the characterization to be believable; everyone feels very 'two dimensional' to me. My final word is not out but at this point I honestly cannot recommend this carousel of inadequate composition unless I experience one heck of an unexpected surprise ending. I thought I would also begin including a 'heat indicator' since as a newcomer to manga, I have been surprised at the variation in portrayals of sexual content; my preferred genre is BL/Shounen AI though not exclusively. Everything from quite tame to oh, my well then. I guess this has a lot to do with the origin of the manga and whether or not there is freedom of artistry and thought. Even so, some stories that are 'kiss on the cheek' tame and others are 'oh my hello there!' explicit. Chained Hearts: Tendrils of steam, 3/10 for a few kisses, public confession of homosexual relationship, verbalizing that characters will carry out sexual activity.