#bl post

The story follows Akane, an alpha, and Aoi, an omega, alternating between their adult life with their young daughter and flashbacks in which they tell her the story of how they first met. As delinquents from rivaling schools, they actually start out in opposition, because Aoi successfully beat up a bunch of the underclassmen from Akane's school, so Akane goes to challenge him directly. They're both known as the best fighters at their respective schools, and they really start their first interaction by just beating each other up--but, shocking nobody, Aoi is conveniently going into heat right when this happens. Akane, because of the heat pheromones, starts attempting to assault Aoi, but punches himself in the face (???) to snap himself out of Aoi's heat pheromones after he realizes that he's only been fighting people in this area to protect a stray cat, and then leaves.

From there, Akane brings Aoi some cat food as a peace offering and they start hanging out at this abandoned shack that Aoi cleaned up, getting on better terms. Eventually, Akane kisses Aoi and asks for his number, leaves, and then decides to ask him out for real so he goes back to the shack. Meanwhile, Aoi is going into heat (he suspects that him and Akane are "true mates" or basically just soulmates/really compatible because his heats have become much more severe since they met) and some beta guy from Akane's school has come to fight him as revenge for beating a bunch of people from their school up, and Aoi can't fight because he's in heat I guess?? Akane returns to the shack to find Aoi incapacitated and the beta kinda threatening them both, trying to get Akane to assault Aoi due to his heat. Aoi insists that Akane is too good for that, and Akane, true to form, resists his heat and instead starts beating up the beta. Then both their friend groups show up and are like hey don't kill that idiot, we're fine with you guys being friends and/or lovers despite the school rivalry! And then Aoi also beats the beta guy up. Akane confesses for real but assumes that he'd be causing trouble by being around Aoi and making his heats worse, so he leaves before he can really answer, and they don't talk for a bit until Aoi shows up to his graduation to confess to him and they officially get together! There's a sex scene which honestly I just skimmed because it was a LOT and did not seem especially plot-important, but Aoi asks Akane to bite him, making them official mates, presumably forever.

There's a second volume in which they're both at different universities, making friends and working through their relationship, but in which the main conflict is that an alpha from a gang gets obsessed with Aoi because he's a good fighter and he wants to have "good quality children" with him (EW), so he KIDNAPS him while he's sick and too weak to fight (see a pattern?). Akane fights his way through all the gang members to save him, they talk through a miscommunication they've been having, and decide to have kids, basically.

My thoughts on this series are pretty mixed, honestly. I liked the parts where they're adults and interacting with their daughter the best, as those were very cute, and I thought the development of their relationship was decent aside from a little too much miscommunication. However, I was hopeful that the delinquent aspect/the fact that both main characters were competent fighters would disrupt the gender norms more than they did.

In particular, I felt like it was very unfortunate that this manga goes out of its way to establish that Aoi is Akane's equal in physical strength, that he's a renowned fighter and known as a scary "lone wolf" type, and that he has a strong sense of justice and is willing to protect others--just to have him routinely incapacitated and in need of rescue. This is true when he first goes into heat and it leaves him unable to fight off Akane, then again when his heat allows the beta to attack and threaten him, and finally a regular old sickness (induced because he's stressed about his relationship) allowing the gangster to kidnap him. Each time, Akane is the one who saves him, including from his own attempted assault, and while Aoi is allowed to be pissed or fight his attackers AFTER he is saved, the narrative goes out of its way to make him vulnerable just so Akane can look like a hero. It was very frustrating for me to see that we as readers are TOLD that Aoi has all this agency and ability to protect himself, but then we are repeatedly SHOWN that this is not the case. He's given the opportunity to protect a stray cat and some classmates who are being harassed by gang members, but is then relegated to the role of, basically, a damsel in a tower so that Akane can shine as a hero in each volume's main conflict. It would be one thing if the manga was interested in exploring in depth the way that Aoi feels about how his body and hormones lead to a lack of control and even limited physical strength in his daily life, or the fact that the strength he uses to protect others is taken from him by factors outside of his control, but these factors are largely irrelevant to the manga. This rescuing thing is a big trope across romance media generally, and definitely appears a good amount in omegaverse where the alpha character swoops in and saves the omega when their heat draws in other, more threatening alphas or leaves them unable to say no. In all its forms, though, this trope is often used to make the main male/alpha lead appear better by juxtaposing him to outright threats or rapists, making him seem like a better, more wholesome romantic prospect because at least he's not THOSE guys, which is a very low bar.

Speaking of low bars, the scene in which Akane punches himself to break the hold that Aoi's heat pheromones have on him is really highlighted throughout the manga as evidence to Aoi that he's really the guy for him and is framed as a great show of restraint and good character. Again, this is juxtaposed against the alpha gangster and the beta attacker in the other scenes. While I get that, being charitable in the context of omegaverse, this could be a genuine show of overcoming the intense instincts involved in heats that lead to a loss of control, the fact that a basic respect for consent is framed as the end-all-be-all of a decent guy is just really bleak. I think this fact is further highlighted by the discussion in our "Between BL and Slash" reading of how normalized rape was/is in Japanese BL's history, a context which makes even the most basic respect for consent--especially in the biologically-heightened world of omegaverse--something exceptional and worth lauding, rather than the norm.

In fact, considering our discussion in class and the mentions in that same reading of omegaverse through a feminist lens, the omegaverse aspect of these attacks really makes things even more disheartening. The framing of alphas, or men, in this society as driven by uncontrollable sexual urges due to hormones that naturally make them driven to rape, impregnate, and permanently bond omegas, or women, contributes to harmful ideas around the nature of men's sexual desire that are, frankly put, used to coerce and guilt women into sex. This narrative takes the blame for assault away from the perpetrators, treating them instead as beholden to desires outside of their control, while placing the responsibility on victims for not managing these uncontrollable, natural sexual urges the right way. Again, this factor frames prioritizing consent as, like, noble and exceptional instead of the bare minimum, in a way that the text seems not just unconcerned with but entirely unaware of.