Back to Elena_YU's Profile Elena_YU's Profile

This manga is amazing. When I read it, I get the impression that tMnR mind-melded with me when I read Citrus, saw all of the things I disliked about it and set out to write a sister (or rather step-sister, in both cases) story that made everything right again. Even if you're not a part of this mind-meld along with us, Tatoe Todokanu Ito da toshitemo depicts a much different, more serious and more realistic take on the "girl falls in love with her step-sister" premise that is captivating to read.

Our cast of characters this time around consists of Uta, an ordinary high ... school girl, and Kaoru, her childhood friend who she was always close with. She marries Uta's brother, Reiichi, and on their wedding day, Uta comes to realize that her feelings for her all those years were feelings of love. The three of them live together as a family, and the story is dependent on the family dynamic from chapter one. Uta and Kaoru's dynamic is so sweet and heart-shaking that it actually made me cry. Multiple times. Uta apparently has a dark past and doesn't feel loved or accepted by her family, not only having left her main family but considering herself a freeloader at Kaoru/Reiichi's place and being always worried that she is just getting in the way, but nevertheless, her love for Kaoru is deep and unconditional. Kaoru is an angel, to the point where honestly, I have trouble thinking of anyone else in any series who I've just ~felt~ for as much as her. You can just feel her desire to make Uta feel loved and welcome, to ease the pain from her past.

The series hits hard and the atmosphere of it is generally dark. The bulk of it so far has been about Uta's angst as she struggles to sort through her feelings, and plenty of other not-so-bright stuff has already happened even though it's currently only on the 11th chapter (and it seems to be gearing up for a medium-length run if I had to guess? I hope it ends up being longer, though). The series does venture off for a little bit into the relationship of Uta's friend, but that isn't even out of place really, since Uta was staying at her place at the time and we see how it ties back into Uta and Kaoru's situation later.

The art style here doesn't stand out too much, but it serves its purpose very well and has sort of a soft, delicate feel to it, particularly the way the characters are drawn. I'm not the best at describing this, or judging artwork in general really, but either way I like it.

Final verdict -- This series needs more attention. I don't have any clue who the mangaka, tMnR is and as far as I'm aware it's her only serialized series at the time of this review, but she has entirely captured my heart with just this one series. This series is on pace for a 10 rating, and I don't fear it'll slow down or lose its spirit (which is what I'm usually the most wary of with series that start off well like this), though expect this review to be edited if it does so. I have went back to reread it even though it is still in progress and it is as good the second time as it was the first time. She knows what she's doing with this story and I want more.

I first read this a few months ago and had a positive experience with it. Now that it's over, I'm revisiting it. Netsuzou Trap, in my opinion, does not deserve the near-universal hate it seems to get, but I will say that it is most definitely not for everyone and has a lotttt of stuff that may break the reader's engagement, so in this review I hope to not only talk about why I love the series, but point out to the cautious reader exactly where the series may go wrong for them, instead of leaving them to rely on more polarized advice ... one way or the other.

First off, NTR reads exactly how it's intended: like a soap opera with lots of yuriyuri tied into it. It is a ride of emotions first and foremost. If this isn't your thing or if you don't like drama, you're not gonna like it. Also, if you don't like cheating, also obviously stay away from this. Myself, I don't have any issue with either of these things and the yuri element is exactly what I needed to get invested in a story like this (hetero is of no interest to me, ehe). Moreover, it very overtly warns you that this is NTR genre/cheating, so really, if you don't like it, you've got ample chance to just stay away from it. The series depicts thickheaded Yuma trying to navigate her feelings as she is seduced by her friend Hotaru, going against both of their relationships - however, even though it's saturated with drama, it avoids the all-too-common pitfall of becoming completely mindless. The substance is very much there if you know where to look. In Yuma's case, her storyline is nothing out of the ordinary, however even though Hotaru, the aggressive partner doesn't get much direct focus, it's shown implicitly why she acts the way she does, and she is actually a really deep character. I didn't fully understand her beahvior until my second read and the more I understood it, the worse I felt for her.

The drama, the main focus of the series, is amazing. Despite the fact that her story in and of itself is nothing special, NTR shows Yuma's actual struggle to navigate her feelings clearly, and I wound up finding myself really invested in it-- throughout the story, I felt all her lows and highs, her confusion, her disgust at herself when things weren't going so well, and I'd cheer when things went right. In terms of sucking me in and making me live and breathe all the ~drama~ as I continued on, NTR was a complete success. The drama does not hesitate to stray into darker territory: NTR makes absolutely no effort to hide that Hotaru is suffering domestic abuse at the hands of her bf, for instance, and that is only the first example out of many. And of course the whole premise of the series is about cheating. I like the fact that this series, which mostly functions as a yuri, is adventurous enough to go into all of this stuff.

The series, in my opinion at least, does an excellent job at showing the two's raw lust and desire for each other. It does not hold back with the lewd moments. And honestly, it's one of the most wonderful and unique things I've seen. These moments are not out of place or forced upon the story, as you might expect with this sort of stuff. The way it's done here, NTR instead shows that a girl can, in fact, enjoy seducing, or being seduced by, another person who happens to be a girl without attempting to place their love on a pedestal or jump through a billion hoops to justify the fact it's between two girls - the only reason the two need is that it feels good. A lot of people call it "pandering", and for a lot of readers, the high dose of lewd may be a turn-off (which I can't blame them for) but I personally don't feel that assessment is fair. The fact that there's a lot of people out there who will be into this entirely for all the girl-on-girl action, in my opinion, does not and should not take away from the premises of the story or the style in which it is told (which is actually fairly usual for Kodama).

There is one thing that the series didn't do quite so well, however, and that's the ending, which I think is rushed. I can't really get into this without spoiling anything, but after the sequence of events leading to the ending, there was so much potential for the story and the characters (particularly Hotaru) to develop further. While it does explain a lot of the stuff that wasn't made explicit throughout the series, which was a concern I had at the time of my original read, it all ended so abruptly, and I'm left feeling a little bit left out in the cold. Had Kodama actually continued on with this series and taken it along the path implied by the ending, it would have had so much potential, and it might have claimed even a 10 rating (an ultra-rare drop) from me. But it wasn't to be, I guess, so I'm instead left with a still-good-enough story that remains squarely focused on all of the drama that led up to that path.

Since I don't have any better place to put this, I will also say that the art style generally has a cute feel to it, particularly the way the characters are drawn. That is a + in my book.

Final verdict -- I think a lot of people who stumble into NTR largely end up falling into one of a few groups and hating it as a result: people who are used to cute/innocent romance who hate the premise of cheating or otherwise get pissed off at the drama, people who like a greater focus on substance and don't appreciate Kodama's drama-focused approach, and people who see all the lewd moments the series throws at them and can't help but feel like it's just nothing more than an ecchi/fanservice series.

If any one of these applies to you, then I'll say it straight-up: you will not enjoy this series. If not, though, you'll find what in my opinion is a fine experience, loaded with lots of Kodama's signature soap opera-esque style of ~drama~. Sure, it's not perfect, but that's not the point: the point is to let yourself get absorbed into and thrown around by all of the drama and emotions going on. And indeed, NTR accomplished this very successfully, at least for me. If you're up for it, then give it a shot.