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Barbarities #1
Barbarities, vol. 1
Con el fin de proteger su vida de las amenazas, la familia real impone al misterioso Lord Montague la escolta del vizconde Adam Cunning y sus hombres. Aunque serio y hábil con la espada, este joven noble se muestra alegre, despreocupado y hedonista al margen de sus tareas. En una fiesta, Adam conoce al sobrino de su protegido, Joel, un joven que lucha contra la corrupción existente entre la nobleza, y se encapricha de él.
¿Caerá Joel en las redes de Adam o logrará mantenerse fiel a su misión?
¿Caerá Joel en las redes de Adam o logrará mantenerse fiel a su misión?
242 pages, Paperback
First published January 17, 2023
12 people are currently reading
457 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 103 reviews
February 23, 2024
I find reviewing average manga really difficult????
What is there to even say???
This exists.
It told some story that is very forgettable.
I love the art style, and Joel and Adam are sweet but pretty much nothing really happens in this volume and I think I will continue to read it to see what’s up..
But would I recommend?
Probably not at this stage.. It’s just not that interesting? 😂
It is very early on, and seeing the relationship between Joel/adam and the side character king/guard develop could be very good if done correctly!
Pray for this one 🙏🏼
Also pray it gets much more NSFW because it was very tame and I’d like to see some 🍆💦 in later volumes IF IM BEING AN HONEST GAL 💅🏼
Going from manga where dicks are practically main characters to like… 1 taint touch in a whole volume, is so underwhelming 😂😂😂
What is there to even say???
This exists.
It told some story that is very forgettable.
I love the art style, and Joel and Adam are sweet but pretty much nothing really happens in this volume and I think I will continue to read it to see what’s up..
But would I recommend?
Probably not at this stage.. It’s just not that interesting? 😂
It is very early on, and seeing the relationship between Joel/adam and the side character king/guard develop could be very good if done correctly!
Pray for this one 🙏🏼
Also pray it gets much more NSFW because it was very tame and I’d like to see some 🍆💦 in later volumes IF IM BEING AN HONEST GAL 💅🏼
Going from manga where dicks are practically main characters to like… 1 taint touch in a whole volume, is so underwhelming 😂😂😂
October 19, 2023
Joel and Adam are our main characters and the romance centers around them. They couldn't be more different. Joel is solely focused on his work and won't let romance distract him. Adam on the other hand is a playboy, with seemingly everybody falling over him. Except he's met his match with Joel, who rejects his every advance. Which is unlucky for Adam seeing as he's head over heels for Joel.
I enjoyed Adam and Joel's dynamic for the most part. There were plenty of funny moments between them, but there were a few scenes that were yikes. I'm hoping there's less of that in the next volume.
The worldbuilding was interesting and there's also a romance between two secondary characters that caught my attention, and has me excited to learn more about them in the next volume.
The renaissance Europe-esque setting drew me to BARBARITIES I . The art style was great and really captured the period with the backgrounds and character clothing. While the main focus is the 'romance', this volume is steeped in political intrigue. It's presence is there throughout and is building to what I imagine with be explored more in subsequent volumes.
I enjoyed Adam and Joel's dynamic for the most part. There were plenty of funny moments between them, but there were a few scenes that were yikes. I'm hoping there's less of that in the next volume.
The worldbuilding was interesting and there's also a romance between two secondary characters that caught my attention, and has me excited to learn more about them in the next volume.
The renaissance Europe-esque setting drew me to BARBARITIES I . The art style was great and really captured the period with the backgrounds and character clothing. While the main focus is the 'romance', this volume is steeped in political intrigue. It's presence is there throughout and is building to what I imagine with be explored more in subsequent volumes.
March 18, 2023
Loved it!
Slow burn Romance as I like/need it!
Beautiful art style.
This is EXACTLY the kind of romantic graphic novel I'm always trying to find.
Thanks Rosa!
Slow burn Romance as I like/need it!
Beautiful art style.
This is EXACTLY the kind of romantic graphic novel I'm always trying to find.
Thanks Rosa!
February 26, 2023
The art is gorgeous and I'm intrigued by the story so far. And Adam is so funny! Let's see where this goes.
March 7, 2023
Conflicted about this one. I think it has too much non-consensual kissing for me, but at the same time I'm curious to see what happens to the characters. I'm also maybe more interested in the secondary couple. xD I think I might read vol 2 online to see if it's my thing or not, to decide whether to get the physical mangas or not.
Rep: pan main character, ace/mlm (???) main character
Rep: pan main character, ace/mlm (???) main character
January 15, 2023
I adored this one. Adam and Joel are the classic grumpy/sunshine pairing, and while Adam falls for Joel almost immediately, Joel's feelings are definitely a slow-burn. I'm very much rooting for them. Couple this with gorgeous art and a surprisingly complex political plot, and I'm sold.
March 5, 2023
Buddy read w/ Brigi
August 4, 2024
2,5⭐️
I have developed quite a few doubts about this volume: the relationship between the main characters didn’t started in the best way possible and the bi representation (especially since regards one of the two main characters) doesn’t sit quite right for me at the moment (i hope it’ll get better later in the story). I also would like for the characters to be more loveable, since i didn’t get attached to anyone in particular nor am I interested in anyone for now.
The story hasn’t developed too much yet but it’s the first volume, so it’s understandable.
However, I really liked the art style but i’m not sure if i’ll read the subsequent volumes.
I have developed quite a few doubts about this volume: the relationship between the main characters didn’t started in the best way possible and the bi representation (especially since regards one of the two main characters) doesn’t sit quite right for me at the moment (i hope it’ll get better later in the story). I also would like for the characters to be more loveable, since i didn’t get attached to anyone in particular nor am I interested in anyone for now.
The story hasn’t developed too much yet but it’s the first volume, so it’s understandable.
However, I really liked the art style but i’m not sure if i’ll read the subsequent volumes.
June 18, 2023
I adored this manga! I picked it up because at first glance it reminded me of the Nightrunner series by Lyn Flewelling and it does indeed have some similarities. But this isn’t a medieval fantasy, just a medieval romance! There's debauchery and political conspiracies and a rather new culty religion all making trouble for the little kingdom of Lorraine.
Joel is a well-respected advisor to the king, a cutie hiding behind a dusty old wig & beard while Adam is appointed to be his new guard. Flirtation and seduction ensue with Adam leading all their romantic entanglements while Joel stands firm in his belief that he's much to busy to engage in such lewd endeavors. How will things move forward now that Joel's firm rejection has set Adam's promiscuous heart ablaze? I wish I knew too, looks like I'll picking up the next volume!
Joel is a well-respected advisor to the king, a cutie hiding behind a dusty old wig & beard while Adam is appointed to be his new guard. Flirtation and seduction ensue with Adam leading all their romantic entanglements while Joel stands firm in his belief that he's much to busy to engage in such lewd endeavors. How will things move forward now that Joel's firm rejection has set Adam's promiscuous heart ablaze? I wish I knew too, looks like I'll picking up the next volume!
January 29, 2023
- bodyguard/nobleman
- grumpy/sunshine
- slowburn
- western historical
- gorgeous art
- playboy/virgin
TW: there were some scenes that felt a bit too aggressive but nothing explicit happens without consent.
- grumpy/sunshine
- slowburn
- western historical
- gorgeous art
- playboy/virgin
TW: there were some scenes that felt a bit too aggressive but nothing explicit happens without consent.
February 3, 2023
Really unfortunate. The art is gorgeous, but the plot is boring and reverts back to old school yaoi tropes. This manga really just takes the topic of consent and throws it out the window, which really just is not something I like.
July 7, 2023
Where the consent in this manga?! It's so rapey. I wish I didn't buy 2 volumes...
January 20, 2023
Todo iba bien estupendo maravilloso hasta que descubres que el novio del rey es su esclavo y le obligó a *. Eso le ha bajado bastante la puntuación aunque sea trama secundaria.
October 24, 2024
Adorable and sexy slow burn. I enjoy seeing the Viscount struggle with falling for the only person that’s ever rejected his sexual advances and doing whatever he can to get closer to the super reserved lord Montague who is trying to keep the Viscount at a distance and out of his bed lol. Funny seeing the viscounts confusion and not knowing how to handle that lord Montague does not want to have sex with him when everyone else immediately throws themselves at him. The viscount for the first time experiences love, rejection, longing, jealousy and more, thanks to the cute lord Montague who doesn’t understand his own self worth. And lord Montague is having trouble believing the viscount wants more than just sex with him and his flustered reactions to any advances are adorable. Poor viscount is struggling lol. The art is beautiful as well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 9, 2025
No me desagrada pero tampoco me encanta. Creo que me pilla en un momento donde el aspecto político no me intriga tanto como debería quizá? Idk, pero le eché un vistazo al siguiente volumen y quizá eso cambie so.
Also voy a seguir en gran parte por la pareja secundaria porque me llama muchísimo y le tengo fe, que la principal está bien y tal, aunque algunos comentarios del Adam los voy a ignorar, pero no es lo mismo y siendo como soy pues mi preferencia no es sorpresa tbh.
Also voy a seguir en gran parte por la pareja secundaria porque me llama muchísimo y le tengo fe, que la principal está bien y tal, aunque algunos comentarios del Adam los voy a ignorar, pero no es lo mismo y siendo como soy pues mi preferencia no es sorpresa tbh.
January 22, 2023
4.5 /// i think i’m in love with the art in this
August 29, 2023
I found the plot to be uninteresting and there was no clear indication of consent.
May 12, 2024
Damn. It's good
September 21, 2025
lots of groundwork being laid for a court-intrigue story; curious to where it’ll go. Characters are enjoyable
October 13, 2023
Ok I enjoyed it. And the spice was pretty good and the flirting for the side couple was great. I enjoy the side couple a little bit more but they get like 5 pages max probably. I am interested in the main couple and the dynamic is good but the blond guy is a little pushy. SPOILER- basically since the dark haired guy won't date/marry him the blind guy is refusing to be friends at all and has basically ghosted him and started sleeping with other women. I'm not a huge fan of that and him saying he's super in love with him but goes and does that. I'm curious to see how the dark haired guy warms up to him. I know it's a slow burn for him so we shall see.
March 3, 2023
The main character was completely insufferable, cheers
October 28, 2021
Coup de cœur Yaoi ! Vraiment très cool !
October 25, 2023
Picked this up based on the nice art and alternate historical fiction feel, but it's just another yaoi of the rapey category (why is it so hard to find non-rapey BL?!?).
A paper-thin plot serves as the excuse to feature a beautiful but incredibly immature, promiscuous pansexual bodyguard assigned to a young lord. The bodyguard becomes lustfully infatuated with Lord Montague and proceeds to force intense kisses and groping on him in a constant drive to get him in bed. At one point he spends a short time in prison, where he basically sleeps (and cheerfully rapes - and this is treated as a joke) his way to the top, and all those dudes send him love letters after. *facepalm*
Then we get a side-plot with some other dude from some other court who is creepily sexy with his manservant/slave, but I had lost interest by then. It's a shame that art so good didn't get writing or world-building strong enough to support it.
Content warnings: sexual harrassment, rape (treated as humorous)
A paper-thin plot serves as the excuse to feature a beautiful but incredibly immature, promiscuous pansexual bodyguard assigned to a young lord. The bodyguard becomes lustfully infatuated with Lord Montague and proceeds to force intense kisses and groping on him in a constant drive to get him in bed. At one point he spends a short time in prison, where he basically sleeps (and cheerfully rapes - and this is treated as a joke) his way to the top, and all those dudes send him love letters after. *facepalm*
Then we get a side-plot with some other dude from some other court who is creepily sexy with his manservant/slave, but I had lost interest by then. It's a shame that art so good didn't get writing or world-building strong enough to support it.
Content warnings: sexual harrassment, rape (treated as humorous)
March 12, 2025
Me encantó!!!
La dinámica entre los protagonistas es muy chistosa porque son completamente opuestos, Joel es un tipo serio centrado en su trabajo mientras que Adam es una persona super coqueta y encantadora. Ya quiero ver cómo evoluciona la relación de este par, por ahora solo puedo decir: Adam!!! No renuncies a Joel >:(
Al principio estaba un tanto confundido con la trama política, pero luego lo fueron explicando mejor. Es interesante el conflicto entre dos formas de gobierno.
También quiero saber qué pasará con la pareja secundaria y su reino.
PD: a parte de una trama interesante y del romance, el estilo de dibujo es precioso!!! Se ve bastante detallado lo cual ayuda al contexto de la historia.
Relectura 2025
Me he reído mucho con la pareja principal 🤭
Ahora entiendo mejor el conflicto político.
La dinámica entre los protagonistas es muy chistosa porque son completamente opuestos, Joel es un tipo serio centrado en su trabajo mientras que Adam es una persona super coqueta y encantadora. Ya quiero ver cómo evoluciona la relación de este par, por ahora solo puedo decir: Adam!!! No renuncies a Joel >:(
Al principio estaba un tanto confundido con la trama política, pero luego lo fueron explicando mejor. Es interesante el conflicto entre dos formas de gobierno.
También quiero saber qué pasará con la pareja secundaria y su reino.
PD: a parte de una trama interesante y del romance, el estilo de dibujo es precioso!!! Se ve bastante detallado lo cual ayuda al contexto de la historia.
Relectura 2025
Me he reído mucho con la pareja principal 🤭
Ahora entiendo mejor el conflicto político.
Read
May 24, 2023Abandoned. Couldn't get into it
May 31, 2024
J'adoreee tout!!!
Le dessin est géniale, les persos super mignon et intéressant et l'histoire est génial !!!
Le dessin est géniale, les persos super mignon et intéressant et l'histoire est génial !!!
May 9, 2025
TLDR: shallow hackneyed characters, sloppy writing, a tour of every overdone yaoi trope from the past 30 years, sexual harassment presented as humor. Good art, one interesting character design (Joel), and a premise that is actually pretty funny (Joel's disguise) but does not deliver beyond that. I DNF at the start of book 3 and suggest reading something else.
0 stars. These are *the* worst books I've ever had the burden of reading and I'm genuinely resentful that I wasted even a small bit of my time on Earth on these. There will be some spoilers in this review, but I stopped reading early into book 3 so I can't spoil the ending. Biggest thing that's spoiled is the twist that is revealed in chapter 1.
I got the first 3/4 books of this series in December 2023, read them sometime next January. It's been a while so I will try my best to use specific examples for my criticisms, but I've long since gotten rid of the books so I don't have them on hand to refer back to.
I first noticed the books because of the cover. Classic case of a cover overselling what's inside. The cover art is pretty classy and has a regal, serious and mature sort of vibe. For each book, it's the main couple in fancy period clothing, with some sort of classy prop ie, a fountain, and a totally white background of negative space. The title font is tall, serifed, and bold with swooping shapes and a classical vibe. Everything about this cover is designed to communicate an elevated mood and sets up expectations that will all turn out to be wrong once you start reading. Turn the book to the back, and the blurb is pretty normal, focusing on the relationship dynamic while also putting emphasis on their roles in society (you should scroll up and read the blurb yourself, it's short). Viscount, nobleman, lord's nephew, bodyguard, and describing Joel as "busy rooting out crime and corruption." The tagline on the back says, in bold, that the story is inspired by Renaissance Europe. I love Renaissance Europe! Seems like it's gonna have a pretty interesting story on top of the romance! Seems like something I'll like a lot!
I also want to note right now, the biggest appeal of this book, in my opinion, is Joel's (dark haired main uke) character design. Characters with facial hair aren't that common in BL/yaoi anyway, but one who bottoms? One who has a tsundere-like personality, which is one of my favorites to read about? I've personally never seen it before, and that was the thing that made me decide to give the books a chance. Joel's character design is fantastic, like throughout the book he is the best dressed. Though despite saying all this, I think it's hilarious that there's a scene in this book where Joel has to shave that little goatee and Adam (blond main seme) has a "oh no he's hot" moment. Joel looks nearly identical to how he looks with the facial hair, and it's just ironically funny that I, and I'd confidently assume many readers, decided to read *because* of the beard and here we are getting rid of it for fun lol.
So the baseline idea here is that Adam, a disgraced noble's son from another country, is brought over to be a bodyguard for Lord Montague, but then he finds out that old Lord Montague is actually Joel, a hot young guy who wears a fake beard pretending to be his own uncle because Joel feels that he isn't taken seriously at court because of his youth, despite his capabilities. Adam falls in love, or becomes sexually fixated if you want to be uncharitable. Honestly, this is a funny premise. There are several really good gags about the fake beard.
Sadly, the rest of the author's sense of humor is wretched and it turns out this story is not the intriguing, mature period piece the cover design might lead you to expect. It's a comedy, or maybe a more accurate description would be that it's a drama that the author wrote so unseriously it reads like a slapdash comedy. Are you ready for rape jokes, everyone!? WAHOOOOOO. So many fucked up moments that are played for laughs that made me pause and think, Tsuta Suzuki REALLY wrote this in a year past 2005 (publication in Japan began in 2014 and ended in 2021). Like, there's a moment where it's implied that Adam is such a whore that he fucks/flirts with his distant family member/adoptive father and it's set up like a joke. No one looked at that and suggested she don't do that actually? Her editor??? Even for the 2010s I find it kind of insane. There is a level of Yaoi Bullshit that is just always going to be present in anything and I am used to it at this point, but in these books the bullshit was at an intolerable level. Can't just grit my teeth and move on when it is so concentrated and so much of the early story is structured to make the bullshit happen. Maybe it's a bad translation but I have my doubts as to how much the translators can be blamed.
Adam's whole personality is that he's a sex pest. It's constant. He is always pestering Joel, which is presented as omghotyaoi or as a joke, and it's aggravating to read because it just never ends and, in the grand scheme of all yaoi, is not even a fresh take on this unfortunate character archetype. There's only so many times I can bear to get through a character coming onto a guy who clearly hates it while being told to laugh about it by the author. Additionally, it undermines all the future scenes in which Joel wants to be touched, wants to let his guard down, because it makes those scenes come off as Joel giving in to coercion. And then there's the panels that imply, 'Don't worry, Joel secretly likes it,' are just, yeah of course we're doing that here too. Dunno why I wouldn't expect that. To be fair to Suzuki, there were a few moments that implied she was setting up something, we get a few scenes later on where it's revealed that Adam is exaggerating his behavior as a coping mechanism. I just really wish the foundation for that setup wasn't her presenting this behavior as humorous.
And, to set the record here about non-consent/rape depicted in yaoi, because I know people who spend a lot of time in anime/manga fandom love to waste their time on this useless discourse: no, I don't believe these things shouldn't be depicted at all, nor that they shouldn't be depicted in titillating ways. I'm uninterested in yucking anyone's yums, as they say. However, these things can still be criticized and I am interested in criticizing the quality of Barbarities and how it handles the ideas it presents. The way Barbarities handles it...is shit.
It's horrendous writing from top to bottom. Suzuki is depending *so much* on long outdated yaoi tropes that it's like watching a slideshow introducing you to them. So much of the humor is dependent on it, as most of the punchlines are just 'look, it's yaoi!' in scenarios that every other Bl/yaoi creator has done to death--derivative for the sake of being derivative, rather than bringing anything new to the table. It's the type of jokes that are only effective on 14 year olds sneakily reading yaoi on their phones at night, or on an adult to whom yaoi is the same as sensory videos are to iPad kids. Maybe the reading experience as this was being released in the 2010s was different, though!
The cliches are not helped by how shallow the underlying political plot is. It's shallow to the point that I think this author, who is for the most part a skilled artist (other than a few egregious collared shirt moments in the costuming, the art is great), would be much better off illustrating a story written by someone else.
A note on the collared shirts in the costuming. Truly, I am not expecting accuracy. I like period pieces but I don't care about historical accuracy too strongly and I know from making my own comics that you can't research everything, you cut corners where you need to, etc. So long as it's passable, it's fine! For the most part, Barbarities is passable. You can use the 'well it's a fantasy country' excuse for a lot of things. But by the time I noticed the modern collared shirt I was having such a bad time already that it just stuck in my mind. It is a nitpick! But a nitpick that got me, lol.
Back to the plot. There's moments where the author seems to be setting something up, and then swerves to do a bad joke, or do a sexual harassment scene, or backpedals into typical trope slop. I have this same criticism of many webcomics, webtoons, and other yaoi manga: sometimes, you can really, really tell when the artist/author is only in it for the romance scenes, but thinks there needs to be more to the plot to get readers so they do a sloppy job of trying to fit one in. Or, the author had a funny premise but is now struggling to make a story that fits around it. My message to people who struggle with this in the writing process: you can just write a romance. You don't need to add political intrigue. Watch Pride and Prejudice, tbh, and realize that you can be successful by simply writing the romance that you clearly love.
My other message is that sometimes a story doesn't need to be stretched out over multiple books. Barbarities could have been great if it was a oneshot and stuck to exploring its initial premise and romance. Trim the unnecessary fat, such as:
There's a child prince that Joel tutors and is a target in a political murder scheme, probably lead by the not-pope who hates Joel. I really don't care and the author doesn't seem to care either. The child prince character exists moreso to be a parallel to the main couple, another yaoi staple that has been done to death. Innocent child prince fixates on another boy and makes all these cutesy little comments on how he wants to marry the boy cus the boy is so pretty like a girl, why should he have to grow up and marry a princess, etc, in direct contrast to the adult main couple who just can't simply state their feelings like that. I am usually all for narrative parallels and foils, awesome little device that can add a lot to a story's depth, but in this incarnation it's trite. Also, too much time is dedicated to this imo? Time that could have been spent developing the main characters instead. Functionally, these scenes seem supposed to make us care about the prince and also strengthen how much we care about Adam and Joel. Unfortunately, it doesn't work because it is a surface level attempt coming late in a story that so far has not given me a compelling reason to care. At this point the only thing I care about is *still* that Joel's character design is so novel. No actually, the thing I cared about was that I spent money on these books so I had to read them so I didn't succumb to despair at having wasted money and not being able to return them cus I ripped the stickers off and lost the receipt, and even that wasn't enough to get me to finish.
Then there's the background couple. Gil is a former slave and Luis is a prince spying for his country. They're also looking after the sickly kid that the prince Joel tutors is in love with. This sick kid is also a prince, and Luis is in charge of caring for him but also there's something murder-y going on because of throne inheritance. Gil and Luis' relationship is pretty interesting, where they seem like they hate each other but they're also fucking each other only under specific circumstances and Gil has a whole complex about staying loyal. There is depth to this setup that I wish was present in the actual main characters, man. It's not impressive depth, but it's something. I think the few fans of this series are really into this couple, and I lowkey suspect that they only like them so much because expectations are rock bottom after reading any scene with Joel and Adam. I also suspect that something more interesting might happen with them in book 4? I don't know because I stopped reading early in book 3, and I don't care to know because despite these two being objectively more interesting, I...didn't find myself giving a damn about them at all? Their character designs bore me, their scenes bored me, their personalities I feel nothing towards...just an issue of personal taste I guess. Maybe it's because by the time they start meaningfully showing up I was out of patience.
I will stop here before I yap for too long. This series was just so disappointing. I *wanted* to like it, so much about it seemed like it'd be something I'd enjoy, and then I read it and it was awful. The little glimmers of things that the author does well (ie, some moments of character acting have a lot of personality, there are some genuine moments between characters that would have hit if they were in a better story, the paneling and such show an experienced artist with an inherent understanding of her medium who can tell stories masterfully--if only the story she was telling were good) made it suck even more because it highlights just how little of it is good.
In my opinion, anyway.
0 stars. These are *the* worst books I've ever had the burden of reading and I'm genuinely resentful that I wasted even a small bit of my time on Earth on these. There will be some spoilers in this review, but I stopped reading early into book 3 so I can't spoil the ending. Biggest thing that's spoiled is the twist that is revealed in chapter 1.
I got the first 3/4 books of this series in December 2023, read them sometime next January. It's been a while so I will try my best to use specific examples for my criticisms, but I've long since gotten rid of the books so I don't have them on hand to refer back to.
I first noticed the books because of the cover. Classic case of a cover overselling what's inside. The cover art is pretty classy and has a regal, serious and mature sort of vibe. For each book, it's the main couple in fancy period clothing, with some sort of classy prop ie, a fountain, and a totally white background of negative space. The title font is tall, serifed, and bold with swooping shapes and a classical vibe. Everything about this cover is designed to communicate an elevated mood and sets up expectations that will all turn out to be wrong once you start reading. Turn the book to the back, and the blurb is pretty normal, focusing on the relationship dynamic while also putting emphasis on their roles in society (you should scroll up and read the blurb yourself, it's short). Viscount, nobleman, lord's nephew, bodyguard, and describing Joel as "busy rooting out crime and corruption." The tagline on the back says, in bold, that the story is inspired by Renaissance Europe. I love Renaissance Europe! Seems like it's gonna have a pretty interesting story on top of the romance! Seems like something I'll like a lot!
I also want to note right now, the biggest appeal of this book, in my opinion, is Joel's (dark haired main uke) character design. Characters with facial hair aren't that common in BL/yaoi anyway, but one who bottoms? One who has a tsundere-like personality, which is one of my favorites to read about? I've personally never seen it before, and that was the thing that made me decide to give the books a chance. Joel's character design is fantastic, like throughout the book he is the best dressed. Though despite saying all this, I think it's hilarious that there's a scene in this book where Joel has to shave that little goatee and Adam (blond main seme) has a "oh no he's hot" moment. Joel looks nearly identical to how he looks with the facial hair, and it's just ironically funny that I, and I'd confidently assume many readers, decided to read *because* of the beard and here we are getting rid of it for fun lol.
So the baseline idea here is that Adam, a disgraced noble's son from another country, is brought over to be a bodyguard for Lord Montague, but then he finds out that old Lord Montague is actually Joel, a hot young guy who wears a fake beard pretending to be his own uncle because Joel feels that he isn't taken seriously at court because of his youth, despite his capabilities. Adam falls in love, or becomes sexually fixated if you want to be uncharitable. Honestly, this is a funny premise. There are several really good gags about the fake beard.
Sadly, the rest of the author's sense of humor is wretched and it turns out this story is not the intriguing, mature period piece the cover design might lead you to expect. It's a comedy, or maybe a more accurate description would be that it's a drama that the author wrote so unseriously it reads like a slapdash comedy. Are you ready for rape jokes, everyone!? WAHOOOOOO. So many fucked up moments that are played for laughs that made me pause and think, Tsuta Suzuki REALLY wrote this in a year past 2005 (publication in Japan began in 2014 and ended in 2021). Like, there's a moment where it's implied that Adam is such a whore that he fucks/flirts with his distant family member/adoptive father and it's set up like a joke. No one looked at that and suggested she don't do that actually? Her editor??? Even for the 2010s I find it kind of insane. There is a level of Yaoi Bullshit that is just always going to be present in anything and I am used to it at this point, but in these books the bullshit was at an intolerable level. Can't just grit my teeth and move on when it is so concentrated and so much of the early story is structured to make the bullshit happen. Maybe it's a bad translation but I have my doubts as to how much the translators can be blamed.
Adam's whole personality is that he's a sex pest. It's constant. He is always pestering Joel, which is presented as omghotyaoi or as a joke, and it's aggravating to read because it just never ends and, in the grand scheme of all yaoi, is not even a fresh take on this unfortunate character archetype. There's only so many times I can bear to get through a character coming onto a guy who clearly hates it while being told to laugh about it by the author. Additionally, it undermines all the future scenes in which Joel wants to be touched, wants to let his guard down, because it makes those scenes come off as Joel giving in to coercion. And then there's the panels that imply, 'Don't worry, Joel secretly likes it,' are just, yeah of course we're doing that here too. Dunno why I wouldn't expect that. To be fair to Suzuki, there were a few moments that implied she was setting up something, we get a few scenes later on where it's revealed that Adam is exaggerating his behavior as a coping mechanism. I just really wish the foundation for that setup wasn't her presenting this behavior as humorous.
And, to set the record here about non-consent/rape depicted in yaoi, because I know people who spend a lot of time in anime/manga fandom love to waste their time on this useless discourse: no, I don't believe these things shouldn't be depicted at all, nor that they shouldn't be depicted in titillating ways. I'm uninterested in yucking anyone's yums, as they say. However, these things can still be criticized and I am interested in criticizing the quality of Barbarities and how it handles the ideas it presents. The way Barbarities handles it...is shit.
It's horrendous writing from top to bottom. Suzuki is depending *so much* on long outdated yaoi tropes that it's like watching a slideshow introducing you to them. So much of the humor is dependent on it, as most of the punchlines are just 'look, it's yaoi!' in scenarios that every other Bl/yaoi creator has done to death--derivative for the sake of being derivative, rather than bringing anything new to the table. It's the type of jokes that are only effective on 14 year olds sneakily reading yaoi on their phones at night, or on an adult to whom yaoi is the same as sensory videos are to iPad kids. Maybe the reading experience as this was being released in the 2010s was different, though!
The cliches are not helped by how shallow the underlying political plot is. It's shallow to the point that I think this author, who is for the most part a skilled artist (other than a few egregious collared shirt moments in the costuming, the art is great), would be much better off illustrating a story written by someone else.
A note on the collared shirts in the costuming. Truly, I am not expecting accuracy. I like period pieces but I don't care about historical accuracy too strongly and I know from making my own comics that you can't research everything, you cut corners where you need to, etc. So long as it's passable, it's fine! For the most part, Barbarities is passable. You can use the 'well it's a fantasy country' excuse for a lot of things. But by the time I noticed the modern collared shirt I was having such a bad time already that it just stuck in my mind. It is a nitpick! But a nitpick that got me, lol.
Back to the plot. There's moments where the author seems to be setting something up, and then swerves to do a bad joke, or do a sexual harassment scene, or backpedals into typical trope slop. I have this same criticism of many webcomics, webtoons, and other yaoi manga: sometimes, you can really, really tell when the artist/author is only in it for the romance scenes, but thinks there needs to be more to the plot to get readers so they do a sloppy job of trying to fit one in. Or, the author had a funny premise but is now struggling to make a story that fits around it. My message to people who struggle with this in the writing process: you can just write a romance. You don't need to add political intrigue. Watch Pride and Prejudice, tbh, and realize that you can be successful by simply writing the romance that you clearly love.
My other message is that sometimes a story doesn't need to be stretched out over multiple books. Barbarities could have been great if it was a oneshot and stuck to exploring its initial premise and romance. Trim the unnecessary fat, such as:
There's a child prince that Joel tutors and is a target in a political murder scheme, probably lead by the not-pope who hates Joel. I really don't care and the author doesn't seem to care either. The child prince character exists moreso to be a parallel to the main couple, another yaoi staple that has been done to death. Innocent child prince fixates on another boy and makes all these cutesy little comments on how he wants to marry the boy cus the boy is so pretty like a girl, why should he have to grow up and marry a princess, etc, in direct contrast to the adult main couple who just can't simply state their feelings like that. I am usually all for narrative parallels and foils, awesome little device that can add a lot to a story's depth, but in this incarnation it's trite. Also, too much time is dedicated to this imo? Time that could have been spent developing the main characters instead. Functionally, these scenes seem supposed to make us care about the prince and also strengthen how much we care about Adam and Joel. Unfortunately, it doesn't work because it is a surface level attempt coming late in a story that so far has not given me a compelling reason to care. At this point the only thing I care about is *still* that Joel's character design is so novel. No actually, the thing I cared about was that I spent money on these books so I had to read them so I didn't succumb to despair at having wasted money and not being able to return them cus I ripped the stickers off and lost the receipt, and even that wasn't enough to get me to finish.
Then there's the background couple. Gil is a former slave and Luis is a prince spying for his country. They're also looking after the sickly kid that the prince Joel tutors is in love with. This sick kid is also a prince, and Luis is in charge of caring for him but also there's something murder-y going on because of throne inheritance. Gil and Luis' relationship is pretty interesting, where they seem like they hate each other but they're also fucking each other only under specific circumstances and Gil has a whole complex about staying loyal. There is depth to this setup that I wish was present in the actual main characters, man. It's not impressive depth, but it's something. I think the few fans of this series are really into this couple, and I lowkey suspect that they only like them so much because expectations are rock bottom after reading any scene with Joel and Adam. I also suspect that something more interesting might happen with them in book 4? I don't know because I stopped reading early in book 3, and I don't care to know because despite these two being objectively more interesting, I...didn't find myself giving a damn about them at all? Their character designs bore me, their scenes bored me, their personalities I feel nothing towards...just an issue of personal taste I guess. Maybe it's because by the time they start meaningfully showing up I was out of patience.
I will stop here before I yap for too long. This series was just so disappointing. I *wanted* to like it, so much about it seemed like it'd be something I'd enjoy, and then I read it and it was awful. The little glimmers of things that the author does well (ie, some moments of character acting have a lot of personality, there are some genuine moments between characters that would have hit if they were in a better story, the paneling and such show an experienced artist with an inherent understanding of her medium who can tell stories masterfully--if only the story she was telling were good) made it suck even more because it highlights just how little of it is good.
In my opinion, anyway.
August 25, 2024
I've been buying this series for a while and sticking it on my shelves as part of my endless to-read pile. Honestly, I was kind of worried I'd be out a good amount of money for a series I wouldn't like...after the big disappointment of the
Tales of the Kingdom
series, I was in avoidance mode. Not excited to run into a bunch of historical orgies and the like.
Which is sort of present here, but - at least so far - not in a way that bothers me. The blond, beautiful Adam is extremely promiscuous, and a decent amount of his trysts are shown, but not in any explicit detail. Other than the bit with the prison, which was ridiculous and kind of unpleasant (he would absolutely be riddled with disease, I'm sorry), it's all pre-Joel, whom Adam falls in love with and wholeheartedly commits to. If only Joel would agree to let him.
Joel is actually Lord Montague, the royal advisor Adam is assigned to as a bodyguard. I'm not really sure why the whole wig and beard and glasses disguise was necessary, since the whole concept of Joel as a nephew seems to have been largely abandoned (when does he show up anywhere as his own nephew anymore? how do people not realize this is a fake?). Mostly, it left an opening for Adam to all in love with him twice: as the handsome, standoffish, card games expert Joel, and the wise, kind, honorable Lord Montague, whom Adam had been starry-eyed over before they'd even met.
That's the part that Joel isn't at all aware of, and Adam hasn't done a good job of conveying. Of course he thinks Adam's just a playboy who's interested in him precisely because he's unobtainable. As he says to Adam during his big rejection speech near the end of this volume, once they sleep together Adam will be tired of him and move on anyway...so why jump through that hoop first? He likes Adam and genuinely wants him around as a friend and advisor. He doesn't want a fling from a fickle horndog.
Adam, of course, is hurt by this and does start turning back to his old ways - to get back at Joel or make him jealous, I think, and it's hard to tell how far he's going with people like the queen, for example. But things might've been different if Adam had communicated just how much he admires Lord Montague's humanitarian policies and selfless bravery. He only has a bodyguard to begin with because his policies are too people-centric and unpopular with those in positions of power whose influence is being stripped away. If Adam could display more of his serious side, Joel would likely appreciate him more.
Still, his vibrant personality is fun, and I wonder if there's more to the story of his mother, who'd left him a title and her money but abandoned him. Is he some hidden royalty, too?
Their relationship is off to an interesting start; I hope it doesn't stray off in directions I'm not a big fan of. But it seems promising so far.
I'm actually completely fascinated by the (so far minor) side couple, crown prince (of another country) Luis and his gladiator-slave-turned-personal-aide (and sometimes lover) Gil. Luis is set up to be something of a villain, but he's charming and I really like the seeds of that relationship. I hope they can find a happy ending that doesn't end up as part of an outright war between these nations.
Which is sort of present here, but - at least so far - not in a way that bothers me. The blond, beautiful Adam is extremely promiscuous, and a decent amount of his trysts are shown, but not in any explicit detail. Other than the bit with the prison, which was ridiculous and kind of unpleasant (he would absolutely be riddled with disease, I'm sorry), it's all pre-Joel, whom Adam falls in love with and wholeheartedly commits to. If only Joel would agree to let him.
Joel is actually Lord Montague, the royal advisor Adam is assigned to as a bodyguard. I'm not really sure why the whole wig and beard and glasses disguise was necessary, since the whole concept of Joel as a nephew seems to have been largely abandoned (when does he show up anywhere as his own nephew anymore? how do people not realize this is a fake?). Mostly, it left an opening for Adam to all in love with him twice: as the handsome, standoffish, card games expert Joel, and the wise, kind, honorable Lord Montague, whom Adam had been starry-eyed over before they'd even met.
That's the part that Joel isn't at all aware of, and Adam hasn't done a good job of conveying. Of course he thinks Adam's just a playboy who's interested in him precisely because he's unobtainable. As he says to Adam during his big rejection speech near the end of this volume, once they sleep together Adam will be tired of him and move on anyway...so why jump through that hoop first? He likes Adam and genuinely wants him around as a friend and advisor. He doesn't want a fling from a fickle horndog.
Adam, of course, is hurt by this and does start turning back to his old ways - to get back at Joel or make him jealous, I think, and it's hard to tell how far he's going with people like the queen, for example. But things might've been different if Adam had communicated just how much he admires Lord Montague's humanitarian policies and selfless bravery. He only has a bodyguard to begin with because his policies are too people-centric and unpopular with those in positions of power whose influence is being stripped away. If Adam could display more of his serious side, Joel would likely appreciate him more.
Still, his vibrant personality is fun, and I wonder if there's more to the story of his mother, who'd left him a title and her money but abandoned him. Is he some hidden royalty, too?
Their relationship is off to an interesting start; I hope it doesn't stray off in directions I'm not a big fan of. But it seems promising so far.
I'm actually completely fascinated by the (so far minor) side couple, crown prince (of another country) Luis and his gladiator-slave-turned-personal-aide (and sometimes lover) Gil. Luis is set up to be something of a villain, but he's charming and I really like the seeds of that relationship. I hope they can find a happy ending that doesn't end up as part of an outright war between these nations.
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