Rack - 13-kei no Zankoku Kikai - Vol. 1 Ch. 1 - Iron Maiden

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Clearly belongs to the "so edgy I cut myself" genre of fiction, which I can sometimes get behind, but not when it utterly emasculates, humiliates, and diminutizes the MC just to sell the authors stupid, stupid premise.

Seriously, just one chapter in, and I can't get over how thoughtless this whole setup is. The author spares no thought on the notion that there might be practical reasons why torture is no longer a standard interrogation method, like a chronically high false confession rate or something. I guess since the torture method is magical, all the practical issues associated with real torture, and the interesting plot threads you could base off it, just magically evaporate right along with the victim's wounds.

And of course the moral aspect of torturing people for information is completely handwaved away, because the bad guys are evil and always deserve what's coming to them, whereas the protagonists are the good guys, whose determination to serve the greater good not only absolves them of any true wrongdoing, but totally legitimatizes the way they mock a teenager, who was willing to throw away every scrap of dignity on the chance of saving people he didn't even know as weak and cowardly, all because he reacted like a normal person to the sight of a dude getting methodically broken by a psycho wearing barbed wire and a dress.

If I can't have a good story, then at least give me good characters, but when the plot is bupkis and everyone is an asshole, sticking through a single chapter feels like such a chore.
 

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