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Dec 3, 2024
It's an addictive read. The two characters, Haoru and Shun, match each other's crazy.
This is a story about two high schoolers who love fighting and the bond they obtain over the admiration from one to another. It's short, silly, and full of good chemistry. The side characters are well constructed as well, not lingering too much or causing misunderstandings but also becoming important where necessary.
The running theme of the story is how "simple" or "quickly" things happen. Shun accepts the Haoru in the first chapter. Haoru is very receptive to affection given him despite it being his first relationship. Shun doesn't question his feelings
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that much when he realizes he likes Haoru; he just becomes even more attached. It makes the plot progress and does not feel unnatural with how the main characters' personalities are.
The greatest quality of this story is how naturally Haoru and Shun intertwine. They're both very receptive of the other's advances. The chemistry is amazing. Also, they're both quirky green flags. Nothing happens without consent, Shun and Haoru both checking multiple times that the other partner is okay with certain behaviors. Even Shun's growing possessiveness is something that receives consent, something most yaoi (unfortunately) lack.
The biggest disappointment was how short the manga was. It was a nice short story, sure, but I feel that this could've easily had multiple manga. There's so much more information about the characters we could learn and environments we can see them interact in. Ending it with reciprocated feelings doesn't capture all the potential interaction that they could have.
If you like reading stuff with s/m undertones and equally obsessed characters while retaining comedy and lightheartedness, this one's for you.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Oct 18, 2024
As somebody's who has now completed the entire thing and only has side stories left, I'd like to leave an honest and thorough review.
First of all, yeah, the ML's a bad guy.
Second of all, that's not all there is to the story.
(Heads up, tw for mentions of suicide/suicidal ideation and SA/r@pe)
The premise of the story is that there is a man named Kim Euihyun (the MC), riddled with his father's debt, who would rather die than have to live with the issues life has dumped on him (with a young child to boot that he's been caring for since he was born). Taeju (ML), the
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thug whom he owes money to, sees him trying to kill himself with the kid and pulls him out. A situationship ensues. The end result after much storyline and frustration is a healthy relationship and a baby to boot.
Now, how do we get there?
(I'm going to step-by-step this, so bear with me.)
There are definitely unhealthy parts of this story. It begins with a major power imbalance (the debt is pretty much impossible to pay off unless Euihyun sells his body...which doesn't go to well and ends up resulting in a several scenes of sexual assault and one rape scene). We are constantly playing with feels, and Taeju (ML) doesn't know what to do when he falls in love and ends up traumatizing Euihyun (MC) repeatedly in the meanwhile. They're messy. Euihyun's pretty violent and sassy for an omega and doesn't take any shit laying down. Bro straight up fistfought Taeju (ML) during sex or kicks his ass more than once. They're rough odds and ends. Taeju (ML) is selfish to the point of self-sabotage. Euihyun (MC) is selfless to the point of irrationality.
Highlights of this series are honesty, bonds, and realism.
Honesty: Taeju (ML) never once denies his nature other than when he's fighting himself. He admits he's awful for Euihyun (MC) but cannot stop pursuing him. Euihyun (MC) finds his earnesty nice but rejects his bullshit for a good bit until he realizes he's bonded with him as well. It's a stupid little dance of people too afraid to love because someone gets hurt the moment they let down their guard. Spoiler: The back and forth does eventually end and settle in a satisfactory way.
Bonds: The relationship between Euihyun (MC) and his baby brother is precious and really makes the reader understand why he'd do all that he does. He is mother, father, and sibling to that child, and he would die twice to make sure his childhood is a childhood. Never once does he stop protecting him from the world. He has always been first to him, even after he falls in love.
Realism: Euihyun (MC) is in an awful place mentally at the series' start. If you read to the end, you get to watch a man go from zero self worth/suicidally aligned to seeing someone care else care for him so much that he wants to try again. Taeju (ML) is written in a way rarely done in yaoi, where he acknowledges his mistakes and has the guilt eat him alive until he actually tries his best to fix mistakes. He gets traumatic flashbacks from Euihyun (MC) trying to kill himself a second time and relives them on such a regular basis that he breaks down and begs him to not kill himself even in situations where that's not actually the topic.
They're a mess, but in the end they become each other's mess, and forgiveness is given in a way that doesn't brush over the awful things that happened. It might be too much angst for others, but for me this was a wonderful messy yaoi I'd read again if I could.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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Nov 25, 2023
Blood Bank is something any fan of yaoi should sit down and read sometime. The story starts off a bit questionably due to the power imbalance and active trauma in One's (the MC) life, but the story progression and development as it goes along massively makes up for it. The main pairing cannot be considered sunshine and roses the entire time, but they work through their issues and find each other on equal standing by the end of it all.
Please note, many deep topics are touched such as: racism, classism, internal corruption, sl@v3ry, child @buse, gr00ming, and xen0ph0bia.
Despite the numerous sensitive topics the author
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successfully addresses, you also will see a well-written romantic and sexual relationship develop between the main pair. The backstory of the world and characters is fleshed out enough while not dragging on. Many readers have recorded crying during certain parts. It is equally tragic and happy. The conclusion is very satisfactory despite the losses.
The reason it is not rated ten by me is because the ending feels complete yet simultaneously not enough. You will understand what I mean if you ever read it.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jul 16, 2022
First off, they did many characters dirty with lack of development, using them as cannon fodder, and doing stuff to them because plot rather than logic. These are reviews for the manga, not the anime. I can think of several characters who I would have liked whole series on, yet they got so little writing done on them that I can see. Even more were killed off unfairly. I'm mad that I sobbed over these characters that deserved more. I would have cried more if you just fleshed stuff out. I can't even remember half of the Hashira's names!
Second off, the story/world building could have
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been much better. The author focused too much on the end goal and forgot to add the details. For protagonist's POV, there was much unanswered or left to debate. He didn't know much about the demon slayer corps. How many years did the entire journey cover? Exactly. Back up with saying it was just fast paced. Even insignificant slice of life filler would be better than lack of content completely. How did Tanjiro... the training... perfect place to fill us in on traditions, hierarchy, the basics at least??
Third off, the heavily debated epilogue was expected but just too fast. That needs a whole series just to talk about the after effects. Under the assumption the master cleaned up completely on the civilian portion, whre there truly too many killed ships to not even see glimpses of the love lives? There's a big question of who, how, and why (insert certain character) had descendants/a partner. The reincarnations would be so much better off in the junior/high school AU than just popping in random stuff with no context and re-used personality.
Despite these issues, I love the fact that you can tell the author did try. Emotional attachments to characters happened. Don't be deceived by the hype or the hate, and just read this as it is.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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