Ive been busy lately so I havent been reviewing but since the things that are making me busy are disappearing I figured Id make a comeback. And whats a better series to do it with than one I personally hate? This is the story of Isaku an orphaned girl who was taken in by her grandfather who is a member of the yakuza. Shes raised as one of the gang but her unconventional family kept her from making many friends at school. When she starts high school she wants things to be different. However Keiya the yakuza member who is her guardian decides that he will be her bodyguard and disguise himself as a student. Will Isaku be able to fit it and are her feelings for her bodyguard and caretaker as one sided as she thought? I actually didnt really know about this one until it got an anime announcement. Theres a lot of discourse surrounding this one and people arent exactly excited for it. And for good reason. Age gap manga are one thing but age gap manga where the older party raised the younger party from the time they were a child is another. If youre getting Usagi Drop flashbacks you are correct. This is the love story of a 15yearold girl and the 26yearold man who spent 10 years of his life raising her. The story acknowledges that shes sort of like his child. https://i.post.cc/G2nw8RPJ/ScreenShot20230426at74904AM.pngd To make things weirder Keiya is extremely overbearing. You know how theres the stereotype about the dads being super overprotective of their daughters? Where they dont let them dress in revealing clothes or let them date or talk to boys and want them to remain little girls forever? Keiya is like that. Like its already weird for a parent to be like that which Keiya basically is but Keiya is also romantically interested in Isaku. He doesnt want her to grow up but hes also in love with her and has been in love with her since she was an even younger child. Its this odd contrast of how he desires Isaku both romantically and sexually and yet he also wants her to remain a child. Keiya personifies this perversion of fatherly love taken in an outright pedophilic direction. He is clearly sexually attracted to Isaku but its clear that hes in love with her innocence and the traits that come from her literally being a child. Shes only just started high school and she doesnt have much life experience and he wants to keep it that way. In some sense he feels like an overprotective parent but since hes set up as Isakus love interest the narrative has no intention of having him let go of her and let her explore on her own. Isaku has made it clear that she wants to have a normal boyfriend despite having one sided feelings for Keiya. Her feelings make sense considering he is one of the younger members of the gang and she never really got the chance to socialize normally. Keiya has also been grooming her since she was a small child so thats also a factor. Despite that she wants to move on and find a boyfriend her own age at school. Both the narrative and Keiya wont allow that. https://i.post.cc/76ckHzsh/ScreenShot20230426at112241AM.png At one point Isaku gets asked out by one of her classmates. They exchange numbers and hit it off. Keiya of course becomes insanely jealous and tries to sabotage their relationship in any way possible. He does not want her to date other guys. Of course Isakus boyfriend turns out to be a wild partier who drinks a lot and wants to sleep with her and Keiya has to save her. Its the trope of trying to make the other love interests the worst people imaginable so the main ones look good in comparison. I hate it so much. In general he makes it so hard for her to fit in at first. Its like having a parent in the class watching you and trying to help you make friends. Think about how horrible it would be for your mom to be in class and doing weird things that would ruin your chances of making friends with the kids you want to. I felt so bad for her since she just wants to have close friends. Keiya is so possessive of Isaku and her body it makes me sick. He wants to be the only one who can see her in her swimsuit and he gropes her repeatedly commenting on how much shes grown which is especially creepy considering how he literally raised her. The author also clearly has a thing for age regression since she likes to draw Isaku in her current state but dressed as a baby with rattles pacifiers and diapers on Twitter. One such panel made it into the manga and it makes me think that she wanted Isaku to be younger than she was which makes things so much worse since shes already very young and naive. https://i.post.cc/zGPpPkVy/ScreenShot20230426at115319AM.png The mangaka wants to infantilize Isaku and the character of Keiya seems to want that too. Hes clearly attracted to her childishness and helplessness. He wants her to stay a child because that aspect of her is attractive to him. Isaku is always the damsel in distress super innocent and naive. Keiya has to be the one to protect this weak defenseless girl from all the gang members and her predatory classmates. Literally every guy who is Isakus age wants to exploit her innocence. I just want to save her honestly since its so obvious that shes being groomed. Its interesting that she doesnt notice Keiyas feelings for her since his behavior is normal for her. Shes clearly so used to him being weirdly possessive of her and commenting on her body that she doesnt understand that its him flirting and not just him acting like a guardian. And shes never allowed to grow up and explore. She has to be protected constantly and sheltered even at school. Isaku wants to make friends and have a boyfriend her own age but Keiya and to an extent the other adults in her life wont allow for that. Shes shy awkward and innocent but she isnt allowed to grow past that. I cant see her having any legitimate character development since the men in her life are actively trying to stunt her growth as a person by not letting her gain the life experiences she should. As someone who was sheltered as a kid and knew kids who were sheltered to extreme degrees I can only imagine how shell turn out as an adult. Like I worry for her safety both for her life now and for the future. She will grow up lacking certain life skills and shell have to grow up fast in order to make up for all the experiences she missed out on. I was horribly upset and disgusted the whole time I read this. This isnt a love story. Its the story of a man abusing his power over a little girl to manipulate her into a relationship with him. Of all the series I have read and watched that feature minor x adult age gaps that were romanticized none of them even come close to this one with how blatant the pedophilic undertones were. It doesnt even try to balance the dynamic. The author wants this to be an adult and a child with their respective mindsets dating like its normal. Literally no one in the series questions how weird it is for this 26 year old to be pursuing the child he raised. Hes more of a parent to Isaku than her own parents were considering how old she was when they died. Its so gross. https://i.post.cc/bwd4Jrn2/ScreenShot20230426at75103AM.png Any and all points I will give to this series come from the art which is gorgeous. The characters would be so dazzling in any other series. Isaku is very cute but after reading the series it feels weirdly insidious since the author clearly wants to sexualize her cute childlike nature. As for Keiya I would ordinarily love his design but I hate him too much to want to look at him. Dont get me wrong the art and fashion are very appealing and beautiful its just hard for me personally to wrap my head around it since the story itself makes me feel horribly disgusted and even nauseous. So it gets points for the art which is very nice and thats it. So yeah. I hate this manga with a burning passion and I figure I should write this as a warning before the anime comes out. Id strongly advise not to read it and I highly doubt that the anime will be watchable for the average person who isnt already a fan. I just find it so odd that this series out of all the high school shoujo is the one to get an anime adaptation when there are so many better more popular and less creepy ones out there. https://i.post.cc/NjYxMfzk/ScreenShot20230426at112040AM.png