Nise x Koi Boyfriend - Vol. 2 Ch. 5 - Nise x Koi Boyfriend lovely 5

[MangaDex]

 

[mirewitch]

I really liked most of this story. I found the two leads charming and their dynamic was cute. I also liked the way they centered the conflict on how Inugami's self-loathing and insecurity hurt his relationship to Satoi. Everyone has doubts about themselves, and there's nothing wrong with occasionally wanting your partner to reassure you. But Inugami is constantly talking himself down. That understandably pisses off Satoi, since hearing your partner constantly question if they deserve a relationship makes it feel like they don't respect your feelings. Especially when your partner is avoiding you and bailing on dates because they don't feel they deserve you. Seeing Inugami come to terms with his insecurity and believe in himself was nice.

I also enjoyed the positive way the author depicted crossdressing. There are no tragic backstories or contrived explanations for why Satoi crossdresses (e.g. I want to cry with you on Thursday). He just crossdresses because he likes it, with the rest of the story being focused on other drama. Likewise Inugami becomes supportive of Satoi's crossdressing soon after learning about it. We don't waste hundreds of pages on him debating if he can love a crossdressing man (e.g. Prunus Girl).

That said, my praise only extends to ~90% of the story, because I can't talk about this manga without talking about chapter 4's terrible sex scene. The chapter starts out promising, with Satoi showing up to confront Inugami about distancing himself, and about the situation with Mifune. Inugami admits he saw Mifune confess, and tries to convince Satoi that he would be happier if he was with Mifune. Satoi is understandably quite upset by this, and agrees with Inugami that the way he is now, Inugami is a worse partner than Mifune.

If the author ended the scene there, I think this would have been a really good "lowest point" sort of chapter, and would have led well into Inugami's character development in ch 5. But instead Satoi seemingly decides that the best way to communicate his anger is to force Inugami to have sex with him. Inugami resists, so Satoi threatens to break up with Inugami if he doesn't do whatever he wants. After they have sex for a bit, Satoi stops, explains why he's angry, and walks out of the apartment. I hate all of this. It is completely at odds with Satoi's character up to this point, which has been far more kind and empathetic. I can believe Satoi would be angry at Inugami given what he's said, but I feel Satoi would react to that by yelling at Inugami that he's self-involved and hurtful. He wouldn't try to rape Inugami.

I assume that was there because the chapter was otherwise rather serious, and the author was afraid people wouldn't read if there wasn't fanservice. And I get that there is a big portion of the audience that doesn't give a shit about anything I said above and only read yaoi for the sex, so I can live with occasional contrived sex scenes. But can authors at least make the sex consensual? And not forget about the characters' personalities? I can enjoy the manga if I pretend this scene does not exist, but it really undermines the story.

 

[makkii-sen]

I really liked most of this story. I found the two leads charming and their dynamic was cute. I also liked the way they centered the conflict on how Inugami's self-loathing and insecurity hurt his relationship to Satoi. Everyone has doubts about themselves, and there's nothing wrong with occasionally wanting your partner to reassure you. But Inugami is constantly talking himself down. That understandably pisses off Satoi, since hearing your partner constantly question if they deserve a relationship makes it feel like they don't respect your feelings. Especially when your partner is avoiding you and bailing on dates because they don't feel they deserve you. Seeing Inugami come to terms with his insecurity and believe in himself was nice.

I also enjoyed the positive way the author depicted crossdressing. There are no tragic backstories or contrived explanations for why Satoi crossdresses (e.g. I want to cry with you on Thursday). He just crossdresses because he likes it, with the rest of the story being focused on other drama. Likewise Inugami becomes supportive of Satoi's crossdressing soon after learning about it. We don't waste hundreds of pages on him debating if he can love a crossdressing man (e.g. Prunus Girl).

That said, my praise only extends to ~90% of the story, because I can't talk about this manga without talking about chapter 4's terrible sex scene. The chapter starts out promising, with Satoi showing up to confront Inugami about distancing himself, and about the situation with Mifune. Inugami admits he saw Mifune confess, and tries to convince Satoi that he would be happier if he was with Mifune. Satoi is understandably quite upset by this, and agrees with Inugami that the way he is now, Inugami is a worse partner than Mifune.

If the author ended the scene there, I think this would have been a really good "lowest point" sort of chapter, and would have led well into Inugami's character development in ch 5. But instead Satoi seemingly decides that the best way to communicate his anger is to force Inugami to have sex with him. Inugami resists, so Satoi threatens to break up with Inugami if he doesn't do whatever he wants. After they have sex for a bit, Satoi stops, explains why he's angry, and walks out of the apartment. I hate all of this. It is completely at odds with Satoi's character up to this point, which has been far more kind and empathetic. I can believe Satoi would be angry at Inugami given what he's said, but I feel Satoi would react to that by yelling at Inugami that he's self-involved and hurtful. He wouldn't try to rape Inugami.

I assume that was there because the chapter was otherwise rather serious, and the author was afraid people wouldn't read if there wasn't fanservice. And I get that there is a big portion of the audience that doesn't give a shit about anything I said above and only read yaoi for the sex, so I can live with occasional contrived sex scenes. But can authors at least make the sex consensual? And not forget about the characters' personalities? I can enjoy the manga if I pretend this scene does not exist, but it really undermines the story.

I really enjoyed your first paragraph, I've been both on the giving and receiving end of "I don't deserve you" and yes that shit hurts.

I'll disagree with you on some parts though, first off I don't think Inugami accepted Satoi 100%. While he doesn't mind Satoi being a crossdresser and that, he sees the two of them as different people and treats them differently. From my POV he didn't even like Satoi romantically the first half of the story, he only liked "Meguru chan" and was definitely a lot more ok with sex with "her". While it's completely fine to have a preference for how your partner dresses, I do find it a bit uncomfortable he sees them as different people(yes I know they're practically children and incapable of critical thinking) but I'm glad he eventually did warm up to Satoi even when he isn't Meguru.

On to the rape scene. When I was reading that chapter I was thinking to myself that Satoi probably wants Inu to tell him off. The whole reason that conflict happened was because Inu was a wimp that doesn't stand up for himself or for the person he loves, which of course pisses Satoi off. I'm not condoning Satoi's methods but he was rightfully pissed and did a stupid thing. I was hoping Inu would resist him then assure Saito he would do better, but no he's a wimp and that was the point. Again not condoning the actions, just my take on why that scene wasn't so bad.