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insanenekoI had to bitch, plain and simple. XP
I started reading Tatoe kinjirareta koi de attemo by Itou Yuki and illustrated by Monchi Kaori with low expectations...And got worse than crap. God, what an awful book. It's the sequel to a book I had read and wrote about a while back (in this post), in which the uke suffers and despairs a lot at boarding school. That was a bad book, but at least it was mostly enjoyable. Unfortunately, this book was full of the bad kind of "WTF? how stupid can this get?" for me.
So at the end of the first book uke and his tormentor finally manage to clear up the terrible misunderstandings that led to all the angst and pain, and join together in love. Where can the story go after putting the uke through that much crap and giving him a truly happy ending except to take some stupid turn to dump the uke back into the swamp of despair? That's why I had such low expectations...That were too high, as it turns out. Uke and his brother/BF go back to school, where they are joined by another boy the same age as uke who was a neighbor to the uke's family. He'd grown up with the uke's brothers and was like a little brother to them. Turns out he'd been in an awful accident and had been hospitalized throughout the entire last term. I was stratching my head about this new guy because I don't remember him ever being mentioned. Hello, close brother-like guy gets into awful accident and misses a lot of school but is never mentioned? What is up with that? But then, it's possible that uke's brothers had talked about the guy when uke wasn't around--which was most of the time (he was off by himself wallowing in angst). In any case, now almost-brother's back and he's stuck like glue to uke's BF. He's friendly and happy and the center of everyone's attention. Uke starts to get along with his classmates thanks to the guy. Unfortunately, the guy sees uke and BF kissing and assumes uke had seduced BF (because BF is too shiny and wonderful to ever stoop to being gay with his own brother!). When uke refuses to break up with BF, the guy declares that he'll make uke leave the school...The guy's strategy consists of faking injuries and accidents and making every incident look like the uke's fault. Of course, he never accuses the uke but his fanclub does. Uke once again is ostracized and persecuted...But this time he has an ally! His wonderful shiny BF! Too bad uke decides that he won't tell BF and will "take care of it himself." We all know that's not going to go well...And it doesn't. Uke gets more and more persecuted and starts losing weight and being miserable. He clings to a silly hope that the guy will come around and stop being so mean....Which of course doesn't happen till the end of the book. All throughout the book the BF is oh-so-concerned but respects the uke's wish to take care of things himself and is pretty damn useless. In the first book I figured all of the stupidity from the BF came from the BF "thinking" with his dick, but it seems like BF is just stupid and ineffectual in general. The most helpful and sensible person in the book was the almost-brother's roommate, who realizes that the guy is staging all of the accidents and tries his best to shield the uke. He tells the uke to talk to his big brother and get his help. He also tells almost-brother guy that he's being childish and horrid (and points out that the guy must know it deep down) and recommends that he get over whatever his problem is.
So basically the entire book is about two children who stubbornly cling to their positions and refuse to get any meaningful help (uke) or face up to the blindingly obvious truth (almost-brother). It is in no way angsty or tragic...It's just plain ridiculous. And not even remotely entertaining.
...Okay, there was one entertaining scene, in which sensible roommate (an American) and uke share laughs over the cliched "bad British food" they don't really care for. When they comment about the bad food, the British classmate with them feels obligated to defend his country's honor. They twist his defense (which I can't recall right now and don't really want to search for in the text) to make another insulting joke, that if you can stomach British food you can stomach anything. I don't think that British food is bad and thus don't find the joke very funny, but it was a bonding moment for the uke and the roommate and a refreshing moment of light-hearted fun in the midst of utter stupidity.
I started reading Tatoe kinjirareta koi de attemo by Itou Yuki and illustrated by Monchi Kaori with low expectations...And got worse than crap. God, what an awful book. It's the sequel to a book I had read and wrote about a while back (in this post), in which the uke suffers and despairs a lot at boarding school. That was a bad book, but at least it was mostly enjoyable. Unfortunately, this book was full of the bad kind of "WTF? how stupid can this get?" for me.
So at the end of the first book uke and his tormentor finally manage to clear up the terrible misunderstandings that led to all the angst and pain, and join together in love. Where can the story go after putting the uke through that much crap and giving him a truly happy ending except to take some stupid turn to dump the uke back into the swamp of despair? That's why I had such low expectations...That were too high, as it turns out. Uke and his brother/BF go back to school, where they are joined by another boy the same age as uke who was a neighbor to the uke's family. He'd grown up with the uke's brothers and was like a little brother to them. Turns out he'd been in an awful accident and had been hospitalized throughout the entire last term. I was stratching my head about this new guy because I don't remember him ever being mentioned. Hello, close brother-like guy gets into awful accident and misses a lot of school but is never mentioned? What is up with that? But then, it's possible that uke's brothers had talked about the guy when uke wasn't around--which was most of the time (he was off by himself wallowing in angst). In any case, now almost-brother's back and he's stuck like glue to uke's BF. He's friendly and happy and the center of everyone's attention. Uke starts to get along with his classmates thanks to the guy. Unfortunately, the guy sees uke and BF kissing and assumes uke had seduced BF (because BF is too shiny and wonderful to ever stoop to being gay with his own brother!). When uke refuses to break up with BF, the guy declares that he'll make uke leave the school...The guy's strategy consists of faking injuries and accidents and making every incident look like the uke's fault. Of course, he never accuses the uke but his fanclub does. Uke once again is ostracized and persecuted...But this time he has an ally! His wonderful shiny BF! Too bad uke decides that he won't tell BF and will "take care of it himself." We all know that's not going to go well...And it doesn't. Uke gets more and more persecuted and starts losing weight and being miserable. He clings to a silly hope that the guy will come around and stop being so mean....Which of course doesn't happen till the end of the book. All throughout the book the BF is oh-so-concerned but respects the uke's wish to take care of things himself and is pretty damn useless. In the first book I figured all of the stupidity from the BF came from the BF "thinking" with his dick, but it seems like BF is just stupid and ineffectual in general. The most helpful and sensible person in the book was the almost-brother's roommate, who realizes that the guy is staging all of the accidents and tries his best to shield the uke. He tells the uke to talk to his big brother and get his help. He also tells almost-brother guy that he's being childish and horrid (and points out that the guy must know it deep down) and recommends that he get over whatever his problem is.
So basically the entire book is about two children who stubbornly cling to their positions and refuse to get any meaningful help (uke) or face up to the blindingly obvious truth (almost-brother). It is in no way angsty or tragic...It's just plain ridiculous. And not even remotely entertaining.
...Okay, there was one entertaining scene, in which sensible roommate (an American) and uke share laughs over the cliched "bad British food" they don't really care for. When they comment about the bad food, the British classmate with them feels obligated to defend his country's honor. They twist his defense (which I can't recall right now and don't really want to search for in the text) to make another insulting joke, that if you can stomach British food you can stomach anything. I don't think that British food is bad and thus don't find the joke very funny, but it was a bonding moment for the uke and the roommate and a refreshing moment of light-hearted fun in the midst of utter stupidity.
