Niichan

This really does bring light to the situation of pedophilia, even though I do think that the detailed scenes were very problematic. I won't lie, this helped me realize that I was groomed online in the past. There's not much I'm going to get into, but I do think that this is a manga that I shouldn't have read. The art was amazing, the story was so hurtfully truthful, the character's emotions were great as well. I just really don't like that this was a hentai manga to be honest. I hate stuff that goes into detail about children... To think that some people got off tothis just disgusts me, I really don't think that it should've gone in depth about sex.

There are some mangas with debatable stories and dubious topics...and then there's Niichan. I'm writing this review as a sort of a vent for myself and a warning to people planning to read this abomination of a story. So last night, I was reading some yaoi manga, as usual and I thought of giving this a try since Harada is a pretty good mangaka, the art looks stunning and ...then I saw the summary. "..a young boy in grade school who often goes to this Niichan's place" made me go "Hah! Surely, they wouldn't draw a sex scene with a grade schooler! That's freaking disgusting!SURELY they wouldn't, right?" I read the other reviews and thought that it really can't be that bad. I mean, I've read Killing Stalking. Can't be much worse than that... I was already a bit tired when I started reading it and completely unprepared for what I was about to witness. The first two chapters made me feel so disgusted and uncomfortable. We are introduced to the main character, Yui who feels lonely because his parents work all day and don't spend time with him. He doesn't get along with his classmates because his parents don't allow him to play video games. He meets a stranger who offers him both of these things seemingly out of goodwill. Yui, of course as an undoubting innocent child, accepts his offer and starts visiting him after school. Unfortunately, Niichan has ulterior motives which will lead to an unraveling of some very unfortunate events. As uncomfortable as this story made me feel, the characters are written very well and precisely for that reason the reader is able to feel their emotions and understand their way of thinking. The ways Yui reacts to Niichan's advances, are things a child would say to someone like that. He is so innocent and obedient and has the naivety and the blind faith in adults that only such young kids could have. And the way Niichan uses those emotions makes me sick to my stomach. What I appreciated is that the characters were not made to be likeable even though they do bad things, like some other BL works make them out to be for the sake of fetishizing criminals/bad people. This story manages to realistically portray the way a pedophile would persuade a child to do things they want them to do, which not many works manage to do well in my opinion. Niichan isn't made to look like some kind of an ultimate demon who feasts on the flesh of innocent shotas just for the sake of it. And despite readers wanting to blame everything on him - he isn't the only one at fault. He is given a background and the reason why he became such a despicable person. Sow hate and you will reap violence. It's a vicious cycle. This is something majority of works covering this topic overlook or don't explain. Both main characters develop quite a lot during this short story, but I do think it could have been done a bit better if only it wasn't 6 chapters long. We can see how the events from first two chapters affect Yui later in life and how the older Niichan gets the more he doubts himself and his actions as opposed to when he was younger. There's really only one supporting character whom you will probably not like very much at the beginning, but with the background and development she gets, you might end up liking her and relating with her the most in the end. Overall, would I recommend this manga? It's a very debatable thing. I liked how the psychological part of it was done, but I sure as hell would prefer to have stayed untarnished by this sinful story. If you are able to read about something like this and stay unfazed or if you generally don't sympathize with fictional characters, I envy you and by all means, I recommend reading this when you get a chance. Otherwise, I would rather stay away. Go read something that won't make you stay up until 6am thinking about how disgusting humans truly are.

Nii-chan is like the Lolita of BL; deeply psychological and controversial but above all a tragedy. It follows a boy who was groomed and sexually assaulted as a child navigating his feelings for the man as a young adult. I was worried that it was going to glorify pedophilia or be for the shota-cons but no, judging by the deeply depressing and twisted tone it seems more of a gut-churning tragedy to me. It doesn't show the child assault in detail, it's more implied but it may trigger people with trauma so be aware. The scenes with Yui as a young adult may also betriggering as they have sexual violence in them. Yui and Kei are stuck in a grotesque, codependent relationship that is relentlessly laid bare for the audience. Yui is shown to wrestle with a desire to be seen as normal and his desire to be with Kei, one that he tries to balance as best he can. Yui has a complex portrayal as a victim, as he is clearly blameless but his darker traits such as obsession and compulsive lying are shown to the audience. Victims are often portrayed as quivering, innocent wallflowers so I was quite intrigued by Yui. Kei also contends with his own dilemma of desiring this poor kid while trying to uphold the image of a normal man that his parents desire. We also get his backstory, which obviously doesn't excuse his actions but it does add context as to how he ended up into such a twisted f--ker. Together they spiral and struggle to keep their illicit affair a secret. Despite knowing that they're doomed, they continue, unable to disentangle themselves from their codependency. This story shows what happens when the systems fail and when victims cannot get the help they need. It's sad, it's twisted, and most disturbing of all, realistic. The portrayal of Maiko was really moving to me. She is proactive, strong-willed, and not held to any double standards. Despite BL having a (very false, might I add) reputation for villainizing female characters she is the most active in achieving her goals and helping out Yui in getting his revenge on Kei. Unlike many Manga for men, her role and worth are not at all tied to her relationship with a man; she stands on her own, living her best life after entering university. I know there's gonna be people out there who will like this for the wrong reasons. I know there are people out there with zero literacy skills who don't catch onto the obviously dark tone and doomed ending it has as tragic. But I compare it to Lolita because I think Harada's storytelling skills are once-in-a-generation and not lost on anyone who desires to see something deeply emotionally evocative and thought-provoking. Tragedies are often defined as stories where everyone dies in the end, and Nii-chan achieves this in an unusual way, I think. It was like watching two people die not in body but in a societal sense. The death of "normalcy" and of a "good life"; two ghosts who haunt each other, unable to move forward from their tragic pasts. Unable to move freely in the light. Always one step away from fading into nothingness...

It's a very vile manga about child predators and grooming. It's a fairly good portayal of it, so it gets a good score. It IS disgusting though. Don't expect a cute romance with a minor or ''uwu softness'' like you fujo weebs say. It is a tale of abus. And the abused not growing out of his love for his abuser. Not sure if the author glamorizes it, but she kinda seem to. ''It's not disgusting, it's a different type of love'' or something like that is written in and said by another character. So I'm not sure,, but it's very likely. Regardless, it is gross, disgusting andsad. (If it isn't the author's intent for the story, then I would give this a 4)