Void

NOTE: There are more scenes in the official publication than what we have online. It gives us more moments between Arata and Maki, we see Maki's perspective on Arata, and learn more about Arata as an individual. I was very impressed by Void. Zariya took the simplest emotions and explored them. This story displayed how complicated situations could become, from our emotions like hatred, sorrow, and love... Grieving is a process that varies from person to person. Some people may grieve for years after that person has left us. How do we handle the loss of a loved one if there is confusion and hatred, yetthese emotions all stem from the love we had for them? Zariya doesn't excuse dark emotions as acceptable, but she allowed them to be expressed. They are part of the human experience. I love that Zariya did NOT make the uke a character who felt worthless and constantly felt like he needed to have the seme fall in love with him, AND that the seme was NOT a traditional rapist that we're too familiar with in the BL genre. Zariya portrayed her characters as having genuine emotions, as HUMAN BEINGS. There were so many honest moments, like telling the person you love to see you for who you are; to not merge you with someone else. - It sounds simple and people should be like that, right? But we're human beings, and our emotions can't be controlled; we feel what we feel. It's even harder to separate the present from the past, when you're still affected by your past. Besides the main characters, Arata and Maki, we do see glimpses of what happened to Ren and how he felt. Sometimes love is weird, because we can do illogical things for the person we love, even though we know that person won't love us back or that we could never be with them... Ren was a genuine character, and I truly believe he didn't have ill will towards Maki. The characters had bravery, as they acknowledged and even confronted their emotions, whether these feelings were negative or positive. Instead of having Maki completely control Arata and his life, it was lovely to see that Maki and Arata both had power in choosing how they wanted their lives to be, as well as their relationship. It's wonderful that the two had solid communication, and space. Besides the story and characters, Zariya's art is AMAZING. Her anatomy is A+!! The sex scenes, for example, felt SO real - physically and emotionally. Zariya successfully expressed the emotions in each intimate moment. The first two chapters and the last chapter, for example, clearly allowed readers to see how much Maki and Arata's relationship progressed. Once again, it was lovely to see both parties' voices being heard, and their behaviours and facial expressions presented how they felt, with no confusion whatsoever. I definitely enjoyed this story. Each chapter had me emotional. I felt sorry for Arata in the beginning, but I also felt bad for Maki. Later on, it was lovely to learn everything that happened, and to witness the honesty and relationship development... I had both happy and sad moments. This story just felt so real. Congrats to Void and Zariya, since this story will be digitally released by SuBLime! :) It totally deserves it. And the drama CD had rich voice acting too.