Thank you for the additional context, this was enlightening! I'm trying to delve into older manga and get a sense of the development of various genres. I suspected this was a deliberately teasing piece, and it's interesting to know it was definitely a part of that transitional period to full-on BL.
This comes off as very incestuous in the emphasis on Ogna needing to tell Syra he’s beautiful to win him back from the spirit. It’s not framed as romantic competition explicitly, but Syra sure acts lovesick, and them running away together to parts unknown is awfully elopement-coded.
After reading this chapter, I stopped and looked up the name of the Labubu guy because Zukin’s teeth reminded me so much of the early Labubu design sketches I’ve seen that I thought this might be by the same person. (This is not the case.)
This was my exact reaction 😭 I was like, “Huh, is the melting thing a metaphor for dating someone who a disability or a mental illness and the balance of understanding your/your partner’s limits while still doing the things you love?” And then the murders started.
I don’t fully get the ending to this one. I assume it has to do with the sex toy maker Sakurai murdered — a fox was posing as her father to get revenge on her? Her leg looks like that to mimic the teeth of a trap closing on a fox’s leg? It’s kind of an abrupt pivot to the explicitly...
The shift from interpersonal jealousy, murder, and ghosts to “nothing’s grosser than a CROSSDRESSER!!” is so fucking jarring, especially after how gayness was portrayed sympathetically earlier.
Oh INTERESTING. So Bena is an oni (or something like it), huh. I wonder how Danzo got his hands on him…
I am confused a bit by page 16 - contextually, it seems like “Should I remove the gag?” should be more like “Why did you remove the gag?” since we see the gag removed on page 14.