Barbarities, vol. 1

[cornerofmadness]

Barbarities, vol. 1 by Tsuta Suzuki

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Let me be clear one of those stars is for the art which is gorgeous. I keep forgetting that Boys Love manga does not equal LGBT positive stories. It's a fantasy-romance off shoot that is often not as positive as one would hope. It often (and this one does contain it so here's your content warning) has a crap ton of non-con/dub-con, a lot of guys screaming no no no and then giving in. Personally this is not to my taste. I want a more realistic take on LGBT romance, not something that makes me feel a little gross. Obviously BL manga is very popular. I'm the one who needs to be more careful in my selection.

This is set in a Renaissance European inspired fantasy setting complete with skeevy priests (that you don't have to squint to see as Catholic bishops even though it's not a Christian religion depicted). Lord Montague's life has been threatened (he is a judge so he has enemies) so the bastard son of a royal, Viscount Adam Canning steps in as a body guard only to fall for Montague's 'nephew' Joel, the most uptight boring virgin imaginable.

Naturally Adam, a complete sex hound (completely pansexual and polyamorous) falls for him so we're treated to a manga packed with him professing his love, ignoring all personal boundaries and tons of dub-con/non-con touching (no actual sex yet). This is topped off with the characters I suspect will be the manga's main villains, a man and his sex slave (to really give us all the non-con rapey feels).

So why did I rate it as high as I did? For what it is, it's not badly written and it's beautifully drawn. It's simply not to my taste and I won't be reading more.



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