Mizushiro Setona, After School Nightmare Vol. 1-5, because I can.

[la_vie_noire]

MOST AWESOME MANGA EVER. That's my verdict.

Holy fuck, I hope this ends as a threesome. Seriously.

Kureha and Ichijou clearly love each other; they have sex, Kureha is crazily in love and always saw Ichijou as a boy. Sou still isn't accepting his own sexuality, even if he also is crazily in love with Ichijou. Ichijou loves both of them in a clearly romantic way. His feelings towards Sou seem more 'passionate,' but I think that's because they bring Ichijou so much inner conflict since he always thought of himself as a boy, and the existence of gayness doesn't process in his brain for some reason - so everything he does with Sou is with denial and turmoil. He is obviously happy with Kureha, and that's the relationship he wants to have (as in, not in conflict with any ideal of his), they are cute as hell too.

Again, I hope, they overcome all this. In my ideal world, Sou accepts his sexuality and sees Ichijou as a boy; Ichijou gets over all his awful gender preconceptions and finally sees himself as a whole boy, in peace; and Kureha is always Kureha (of course I hope she overcomes a little her trauma because it causes her so much suffering, but it's not like I could blame her if she doesn't). And they live happily together.

Of course I don't know what Mizushiro has in mind, but I HOPE hard.

Leaving aside hope and talking more about the plot, Shinbashi!!!!! T____T OMG, what was the point of having him in the story at all? I was hoping he could make Kureha happy. He had... the perfect moral there. Poor guy.

Ai. Wow. Way to fuck over gender power-dynamics. Sou was and still is raped and abused sexually by his sister. He even sweats nervously when he sees her again. She says "will you tell Ichijou about this so he will feel pity for you too?" (alluding to Kureha situation). She is... I don't now. I can't remember seeing a character quite like her. You could say she is stereotypical calculating villain-woman who 'blackmails' and manipulates the 'hero,' both in a sexual and emotional way. But she isn't quite depicted as 'evil' (even if her actions are, god damn), I don't think Mizushiro sees her that way. Ai says to Ichijou in the dream that Kureha is stronger than he thinks she is ("pain makes you strong"); Ichijou asks her, "why are you so strong? Because you have been hurt?"; she answers, "because I know who I am." Quite a character. I like her. I know I have no excuse, but I probably do it due to her dynamic with Sou. It's amazing how she has all the power there. And Sou is a bastard and abuses of Ichijou most of the time, so...

KUROsaki-senpai! KUROsaki! I feel so idiot. I wouldn't have noticed if his name wasn't mentioned in the Translator Notes about the relationship between names and colors in the manga. So is he the black knight? Huh. I love how he acts as the perfect, gentle and strong guy; and Ichijou thinks Kurosaki-senpai should be his role model. Poor Ichijou, another deception to come.

Giraffe guy! He had to feel above everyone, he couldn't lower himself to see other people as equals (you know, the uber-tall herbivore: he is still a prey even if he sees everyone below himself). Inferiority complex much?

God damn it, there is so much to say about gender and gender relations in this manga. It's... fascinating. Kureha telling Ichijou she isn't a princess. Ichijou and all his ideas of gender (paraphrasing: "you showed me than men are ruthless creatures!").

And the way the relationships are developed is... priceless. All that shoujo emotion that feels NO WAY over the top.

I'm in love.

I want volume 6. I'm a sad panda.