Creepy Relationship Between Android and Master
About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Endland. While the manga may vary slightly from all other forms of media, it may have similar story elements and could be considered spoilers.
Content Warning: There may be references to animal death, hunting, mass extinction, perceived disordered eating, power imbalance, age gap, memory loss, mentions of sex work, former sex worker, pseudo-incest (sibling-like and caretaker-guardian relationship), implied pedophilia, possible statutory rape, self-sacrifice, near-death experience, break ups, assault, gossiping, and mentions of military, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Jun and Itsuki have been forced to live isolated on an island for a long time. Itsuki’s memories of how they got there and what their past together was before arriving here are gone, but that’s never been an issue for him. As long as Itsuki is with Jun, everything is fine. But with the way the Earth is failing, they may not be able to be together for long. Fish are disappearing, the soil is turning to dust, and what human life remains has been steadily declining year after year. Sure, they’re together, but at this rate, they’ll die together sooner rather than later.
Itsuki dives for fish while Jun takes care of everything else, leaving Itsuki to feel a bit like a child. There are more pressing issues, but Itsuki can’t help yearning for something more with Jun. While out fishing, Itsuki ends up getting swept away in a current and lands on a different beach. There, he discovers a large metal pod, and inside are voices. He has no idea what this is, but he believes this is his chance for Jun and Itsuki to save themselves from the failing world.
But when he tells Jun, Jun doesn’t see this as a way to say themselves, but as a way to save Itsuki alone. Why? Because Jun is actually an android, and the only way for the pod to work is to use his battery. Jun loves Itsuki and is willing to sacrifice himself to get Jun into space and toward safety. Itsuki’s life has always revolved around Jun, though, and, android or not, to him, Jun is everything.
Review:
The art in this is fine. It wasn’t what drew me into this title, but it’s not the worst. It is pretty sketchy and inconsistent, and the faces have a boxy look to them that isn’t to my preference. Pristine art, this is not, but I will say that there is a down-to-earth feel to it that I think fits the overall tone of the story. If you’re not picky, I don’t imagine this will hurt your eyes or anything like that, but for my art elitists out there, this isn’t the best.
What drew me in was the story. When I heard this was a BL between a human and an android, I was all over it. I was also super interested in the overall setting, that being a failing Earth. These characters live in their own isolated world, surrounded by impending, inevitable doom. Yet, there is peace in that inevitability, so while they work hard to feed themselves and maintain their small home, their relationship becomes the central focus. It’s quite powerful, and it helps establish the character’s motivations and the overall world. The end is near, so Jun wants to do anything he can to keep Itsuki alive. Meanwhile, Itsuki just wants to love Jun for as long as he can.
Unfortunately, these motivations also reveal the predatory nature of the relationship between Jun and Itsuki. It’s not clear how old Itsuki is for the main part of the story, but it’s implied that he might be a teen or on the cusp of adulthood. I like age gaps, but there is almost nothing I dislike more than high schooler and adult age gap couples. Itsuki very well could be adult age, but he was in a coma for two years, so he does still come off as a young teen, whether he physically is or not. But this story takes it one step further and also implies something I hate even more than a relationship between an adult and a teen, and that is that Jun, formerly a sex android turned nanny android, had a sexual encounter with Jun when he was very, very young. It added absolutely nothing to the story, was not presented as something negative, and just made me feel absolutely disgusted. There are stories where something like this can be used in a very powerful and meaningful way, but to me, it felt so random and needless to the overall story that all it did was turn my stomach. Perhaps the intention was to establish that their intended relationship of pseudo-brothers had long been left behind, but this was not the way to show that.
And what makes it all the more unfortunate is that I think this could’ve been a very heart-rending story. Itsuki does take Jun’s battery, promising that he will one day return to Earth to get his body and repair him. Why Itsuki couldn’t have been an adult in the main story and have just longed for Jun all this time, and then return when he is even older to finally save Jun’s body, I don’t understand. Itsuki’s age in the main story and when he returns matter so little to the overall narrative. Making Itsuki a teen and then implying a sexual experience when he’s even younger was a deliberate, unnecessary choice, and ruined what could’ve been a beautiful moment.
Results:
This was one of the biggest disappointments I’ve had in a long time. The setting is intense and daunting, and the setup for the characters’ relationship had a ton of potential, but then we get super unnecessary pedophilic content. Thankfully, the worst of it isn’t explicitly shown, but what we do get is still weird. I would not at all recommend this. I will say, I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum. This is a bunch of drawings doing things in a fictional universe, so I understand if people don’t agree with my moral views on this title (I mean, I love noncon content, so I’m not a pinnacle of morality in fiction, for sure). Still, I do think it’s important to share this information for those who may want to avoid it.
Have you read Endland? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!