Ah, this is the kind of content I love. Toxic, drama-filled Yakuza stories.
I have the same issue I had with this that I had with twittering birds in which I’m getting lost in the who is who and politics of the Yakuza mostly because a few of the higher ups look the same. This one I’m having even more trouble with though. I need like a full character sheet with everyone’s ties and positions written down for me so I can truly understand.
I find the whole situation with Betty interesting and I look forward to seeing his relationship with Yu develop. I think there’s going to be a romance between half brothers in this one that’s pretty toxic and idk how to feel about that quite yet. Love toxic relationships but the incest…. Not my thing.
I feel like this could be a story I end up really liking tho
i usually don't go for yakuza type stories. unless it starts with gokusen and ends with gokusen i usually stay away from the yakuza theme, but gotta fill the void of my fangirl heart until next month's update of shounen no kyoukai somehow, and best way of doing that is to marathon on akabeko's stuff.
man, this was unexpectingly really good. i loved it. makoto and ai are half brothers from a yakuza family. makoto is the older brother who is the junior leader of a yakuza group who's quick to blow up and fight, has mommy issues, a play toy named "betty" he physically and sexually abuses, and to add on to that - he also physically tramples and sexually violates his younger half brother, ai (or used to until he got betty, his new "pet", but he def still beats the shit out of ai though). they both have different fathers but the same mother, and the mother despised makoto and his father. she barely looked at makoto when he was a kid, showering all of her attention and love towards makoto. apparently she ran away from his father and had ai with another man who was not a yakuza, and was found and brought right back. while being ignored by his father, makoto tried to mimic ai in every way to win the love of his mother until her death, but she hated him for the fact he had his father's blood. nothing he could do would change that.
growing up, ai felt sorry for his brother for always being alone and decided to accept his brother whole-heartily. ai is cautious, patient, and overall a good guy - not like his brother at all. when makoto decided to follow his father's footsteps and join the yakuza, ai did the same in order to atone for having what makoto always wanted (love, acceptance) and to be near him.
fast forward to present times, and makoto is pissed betty, his play toy, was sleeping with another man and after beating him, orders him as punishment to wear a fur coat naked while exposing his front out in public. yuu, a naive, innocent bystander takes pity on betty and tries to help him but his kindness unfortunately got him involved with the yakuza much to his fright.
the ero talks and scenes are nothing less than what you would expect from akabeko - other words, great. it's a yakuza story so obviously drama. also, love how akabeko doesn't half ass the incestual piece; so glad they aren't stepbrothers instead (cringe). i'll fucking take half-bros over step-bros any day. i don't think ai has romantic feelings for his bro but more like, is going through all this crap as "atonement" and using him to feel a void of feeling out of place, etc. ai doesn’t belong in the yakuza world after all. interesting to see where this goes. does he stay faithful to his brother? betray him? however if ai didn’t (in a dark, twisted way) love his brother, no way in hell he’d allow his bro to literally fuck him. there were moments i did sympathized with makoto though - thanks mom for fucking him up long-term. though it would be quite satisfying if makoto gets fucked next volume (not literally guys) and loses his ranking, he's such an asswipe.
i'm really hoping yuu and betty gets more screen time together, looking forward to seeing their relationship grow... speaking of which, please be ok, yuu (he's adorbs). hoping vol 2 goes into betty's past.
vol 3 comes out end of next month - concluding this story. going to bulk my order and purchase vol 2 along with it so won't read the con't until march )': welps, until then ~~~
Una història molt tèrbola de yakuzes, amb les típiques baralles internes i traïcions, però amb uns personatges marcats per uns llaços familiars complicadíssims i un passat traumàtic, ple d'abandó, violència i males decisions. En aquest cas tenim dues parelles de personatges fets bocins que encaixen com un trencaclosques en la vida de l'altre, un amor incondicional que superarà qualsevol obstacle. Com sol passar en aquests casos, em resulta molt més interessant l'evolució dels personatges i les relacions amoroses que no pas la trama política de les bandes, que en algun fragment és un pèl confusa. Bona història, però m'hauria agradat veure de manera més detallada el final feliç :')