Don't Be Cruel

Orange13 May 9, 2021

9

First impression: So far seems like a student x student story that starts with rape and has a redemption arc. It includes some snippets of the story between Keisuke and Aki (Tsuyogari) in the first volume. Edit: Honestly the first volume is an abusive mess. It feels as if the mangaka was playing to try and figure out what to do with their dynamic. The second volume is pure pain since it's when they are coming to terms with their relationship and what they want. After that, it's fluffy as hell. They have a bunch of misunderstandings since, in essence, they are very different but they always figure it out after talking to each other. Also, it is very clear that they really love each other and feel like their relationship is a key part of their lives. They do address the fact that they started out through rape and were very forceful at the beginning but the seme apologizes deeply and the uke says that it's okay (I still think the beginning it's messed up tho). Overall I feel like this story portrays toxic traits, which is not uncommon for BL stories, but I think that it has a lot of redeeming qualities. Also, it's very odd to find such good and long BL manga so I'm not completely mad about how it starts. Lastly, not gonna lie, what makes Nemugasa feel insecure (mainly the fact that he feels boring when he sees himself against Maya) within the relationship really resonated with me so I cried a lot whenever they had misunderstandings because of his insecurities.