Welcome Back, Alice - Vol. 6 Ch. 33 - Severance

[seaweedmustache]

This is clearly a story about coming to terms with being trans how are yall missing this (also read his .5 afterwords)

 

[lipie]

Same, feels like this series is just going on without focus besides having the same drama that is just repetition at this point.

Same here, not knowing what his main issue is, being gay or using the girl he loves because she uses him or what the hell...

 

[Vahlokdotiid]

This brother needs Jesus. Cutting his dick out is not going to help him, maybe if he cuts his balls off instead.

 

[AkodoRyu]

Chapter 29.5 will give you some answers about it

Honestly, not really. I get what the author tries to show I guess, but I think they didn't do a good job through the first half or so to set it up.

For most of the story, it reads as Yo is in love with Mitani, but then Kei comes back, he is also attracted to him and is confused about his own sexuality. But suddenly, in those latest chapters, he hates the whole concept of physical attraction and tries to cut off his p*nis.

Is that supposed to show that his confusion is not about his sexuality, but gender? Or both? Then what's the point of this talk about going back to "purity", with a lack of physical attraction and/or gender separation: that seems kinda touching on asexuality maybe? But nowhere before was it hinted that Yo is asexual, quite the opposite.

So yeah, I still don't really get what are Yo's issues exactly. I'll just read until the end and see if it starts making more sense I suppose, but for now, it's like rambling with no clear structure, to be honest. The fact you basically have to go into the afterword to even understand what the author is trying to convey is a big no-no to me. Or maybe I'm just too separated from the issue and people closer to it can relate? 🤷‍♂️

 

[muteprophet8726]

This is not a happy little accident.

 

[lenthest]

now the right way for him to approach this is to cut his balls....
but if he's planning to cut the shaft then uh-oh...

 

[muteprophet8726]

Bob Ross turning in his grave. This is not the joy of painting.

He never painted war crimes.

 

[mlgduck01]

Honestly, not really. I get what the author tries to show I guess, but I think they didn't do a good job through the first half or so to set it up.

For most of the story, it reads as Yo is in love with Mitani, but then Kei comes back, he is also attracted to him and is confused about his own sexuality. But suddenly, in those latest chapters, he hates the whole concept of physical attraction and tries to cut off his p*nis.

Is that supposed to show that his confusion is not about his sexuality, but gender? Or both? Then what's the point of this talk about going back to "purity", with a lack of physical attraction and/or gender separation: that seems kinda touching on asexuality maybe? But nowhere before was it hinted that Yo is asexual, quite the opposite.

So yeah, I still don't really get what are Yo's issues exactly. I'll just read until the end and see if it starts making more sense I suppose, but for now, it's like rambling with no clear structure, to be honest. The fact you basically have to go into the afterword to even understand what the author is trying to convey is a big no-no to me. Or maybe I'm just too separated from the issue and people closer to it can relate? 🤷‍♂️

It definitely gets foggy sometimes, I agree. But I think what the author is trying to do is really tied up in like how we define gender. Men are supposed to be strong and sexually active, while women are supposed to be objects of desire that men inact their sexual prowess on. It's two-fold. Mitani wants to be this sexual object, but feels like she isn't because Kei, who is assumably gay, did not return her affections. So she uses Yohei to validate her feminity through sex; all she has over Kei, as she alludes to in one chapter, is her body, and sex; she sees herself as unable to foster the same kind of meaningful connection Kei and Yohei shared as children. As for Yo, we see Mitani constantly policing and trying to enforce his masculine sexuality- she says things like "oh boys will be boys" in an earlier chapter, talking about Yo's desires, and even says that he should "want it," what more can he want from her? in the previous chapter. Yohei is not at ease with this expression of masculinity, and so he feels like "if this is the only way I can be a man, then I do not want to do that." This is basically what Kei says about why he dresses like a woman now- that he didn't want to be a man, but there's not really an option for him to express his gender outside of feminity, so he dresses and tries to behave like a woman. That struggle is the same one I think Yohei is facing, where he sees his sexuality as directly tied to "being a man," and so for him, the way to stop being a man is to repress/remove the symbolic representation of that masculinity- his penis.
I definitely understand that's complicated, but I think the key is not to look at Yohei as either wanting or not wanting sex- I think the issue that he doesn't want his expression of gender to be defined the way it is.

 

[OkayAlice]

Honestly, not really. I get what the author tries to show I guess, but I think they didn't do a good job through the first half or so to set it up.

For most of the story, it reads as Yo is in love with Mitani, but then Kei comes back, he is also attracted to him and is confused about his own sexuality. But suddenly, in those latest chapters, he hates the whole concept of physical attraction and tries to cut off his p*nis.

Is that supposed to show that his confusion is not about his sexuality, but gender? Or both? Then what's the point of this talk about going back to "purity", with a lack of physical attraction and/or gender separation: that seems kinda touching on asexuality maybe? But nowhere before was it hinted that Yo is asexual, quite the opposite.

So yeah, I still don't really get what are Yo's issues exactly. I'll just read until the end and see if it starts making more sense I suppose, but for now, it's like rambling with no clear structure, to be honest. The fact you basically have to go into the afterword to even understand what the author is trying to convey is a big no-no to me. Or maybe I'm just too separated from the issue and people closer to it can relate? 🤷‍♂️

I think what Oshimi is getting to in this manga is an idea he's been attempting over and over and over and over again with almost all of his manga: a rejection of "masculinity".

it's an idea I've grappled with a lot of well, and it's only through reading his other works (Inside Mari, Flowers of Evil) that I was kind of able to flip my perspective. For years and years and years now I've been disgusted by my own sexuality, by wanting women, by jacking off multiple times a day. I had this inner hormonal boy demanding me to have sex have sex have sex, but I really just wanted to be normal and talk to people and treat women like human beings not sex objects. This, compounded with the societal idea that men are disgusting and gross while women are innocent and pure just resulted in a lot of self-hatred. I can't tell you the amount of times I've wished I was asexual or that I could chemically castrate myself. This feeling, this frustration and internal hatred, is what is being portrayed through Yo.

At the same time with all of this self disgust, women are glorified. Both as objects of attraction in a perverted mind, but also as innocent and near perfect beings who dont have to DEAL with this perversion. Mix all of that together and you can't help but wonder, do I want to be a girl? It's not that I hate being a man, it's that I hate men in general, I've been told time and time again that what I am is disgusting, perverted, and dangerous. What if I could be the other? Attractive, cute, innocent?

I think this is part of why Kei seems so "pure" to Yo as well. Within Kei rests the idea of not being loved by a women as man (as an object of sexual performance), but the opportunity of being seen the same way he views woman. To Kei, he isn't a beast of sexual performance, he doesn't have to put on a show and be a man, he just has to be himself. It's as if society falls away, and all the pressure that's been put on him his entire life falls away with it.

I kind of want my own Kei.

In the end, Oshimi is just doing what he does best, taking struggles with sexuality and gender, and pushing them to the extremes so we can see how they really work.

 

[greatninja3]

PLEASE MAKE MY BODY CLEAN AGAIN

Ch 16.89

 

[LiquidTelevision]

el bastardo de las cadenas

 

[mr_jk]

WWTTTTTTDFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

 

[Valhalla_101]

another solution, don’t date. I don’t do it. Only liked someone in elementary school and haven’t liked anyone else since. Tho I do understand how he’s feeling in a different sense, not the whole lust thing but similar feeling to his whole dilemma. Also doubt he’s gonna do it

 

[WangthePhoenix]

panels that go hard

 

[poopymonky]

the long comments a couple of people have left about the themes & ways it relates personally to them are all really really good and true i just wanna add a thing i havent seen mentionned is the sexual violence yo has just gone through. being groped in public, generally being pushed into a lot of sexual situations he didnt fully consent to w mitani (like the no cumming thing was something she decided on and he just rolled w) and so on. its mostly just on the line of dubcon but the scene in the street in front of kei is especially awful for him i think its fair to call it assault lol. but regardless, sexual violence will also complicate feelings about sex and sexuality- a part of his need to be "clean" i think comes from that. "sleeping with you makes me feel dirty" is a big sign to me that he's felt violated in some way about how she's treated him.

all in all i think you either relate on some level to the gender trouble (whether trans or from gender norms being forced on you) the exploration of sexuality, and sexual violence, or you dont and then youd have to think a lot more about what the manga is doing to "get it". the authors afterwords should color the story sufficiently but if they dont then it might just not be the manga for you. i find it very easy to understand its themes and downards spiral (rather than going in circles) i wouldnt know how to explain it thats not just repeating the comments already made above

 

[nonexistent696969]

that's it ,porn can destroy you

 

[jonnywarlock]

Oh. Oh this isn't good.

 

[LordofAlI]

YO NO PLZ NO THAT IS NOT THE WAY! You don't want to be horny, you just want to be happy but cutting it off is NOT THE FUCKING WAY!

 

[nyamcam]

Can we give art girl best homie of the year award I lover her relationship with Kei so freaking much

 

[vikispod]

wtf