Black Leopard and Albino Lion
About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series A Virile World. 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 noncon, male pregnancy, pseudo-incest (relationship between guardian and child), age gap, human trafficking, blood, violence, prejudice, mentions of abandonment, mentions of abuse, slut-shaming, fat-shaming, possible statutory rape, power imbalance, and obsession, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Agifu is the leader of the animals within the palace. He didn’t choose to be the leader, but as the strongest one there, the role just fell into his lap. It comes with just as many perks as it does annoyances, so Agifu takes it all in stride. That is until the keeper of the animals comes and presents the prince’s new pet to Agifu. It’s a pitiful albino lion cub. The poor thing would usually die out in the wild, and really, his chances aren’t any higher alone within the palace. That’s why the keeper wants Agifu to take care of him.
Agifu is bewildered. In this world of all men, they can have children, but Agifu is not interested in having or raising children. Still, seeing the scared lion cub, Agifu eventually relents. The lion cub is named Val, and though he’s afraid of everything and cries all the time, Agifu can’t help feeling some level of affection for him. This affection is reciprocated, though, as Val grows into an adult lion, that affection grows past that of a child and a guardian. Val wants to make Agifu his, no matter the cost.
Review:
The art style is very pretty. This is also one of the few manga that has a full-color intro. The rest is in black and white, of course, but it’s always a pleasant surprise to see even a little color in manga. But onto the character designs. Agifu is sleek and stunning, a perfect humanization of a leopard, in my opinion. Meanwhile, baby Val is so stinking cute. He’s as pitiful as one would expect, and seeing him being carried by Agifu as a cub really does the heart some good. As Val gets older, he gets more muscular and does end up bigger than Agifu, but I like that he keeps the sleek build. Since they’re both species of large cats, I would imagine them being more thin and toned than bulky. I wouldn’t have been upset if he did end up bulky, of course, but it’s nice to see his design remain more aligned with his feline attributes.
Now on to the story. This has one of my most disliked tropes of all time: raising my lover. If you don’t know what that is, it’s where an adult becomes a child’s guardian. There may or may not be intentional grooming, nor will the relationship shift necessarily be deliberate, but either way, once the child grows up, the former child and the guardian become lovers. It’s a super icky form of pseudo-incest that I could go my whole life without reading. That is the basis of this story, unfortunately. However, I do want to be clear: this is fiction. I get that. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s fictional BL yum, but for me, this is horrific. There is even a questionable scene where it’s not clear whether or not Val is of age, and they have a sexual encounter. It’s set up to be Agifu helping Val through his first heat, but it’s still super uncomfortable to me.
Something that bothers me almost as much as the whole “raising my lover” trope is the uncertainty of whether these are personified animals or beastmen. For almost the entire series, we see them as humans with animal characteristics, which is alright (it isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but it’s not bad). But in the last chapter, it seems to suggest that they are actually just animals. I hate the idea of that. Do we see them sexualized in their animal forms? No. But looking back and knowing we’re just seeing a bunch of animals makes my stomach turn. Again, it’s not confirmed whether they are straight-up animals or humans with animal features, but that uncertainty just makes me all the more uncomfortable.
I usually do my best to try and end on a positive note, but I have one more frustration I have to share. Immediately, before the story even begins, we’re told this is a world entirely comprised of men and that through mutation and environmental factors (namely being topped), their bodies can change, and they can get pregnant. I was so excited by this because I truly thought we’d be getting some mpreg. Unfortunately, while we do see some no-name side characters pregnant, and it is mentioned from time to time, we don’t actually see it between the main couple. If you’ve read my reviews in the past, you’ll know how much this hurts my soul. I’d rather it not even be a possibility than to be teased with it like this.
Results:
I was super excited about this one. There is possible mpreg, which I am always excited about. Plus, I liked the art, and the character designs were really interesting. Unfortunately, though, that’s as far as the positives for this go. It had potential, but then we get no pay-off on the mpreg, it’s questionable whether the characters are actually beastmen or just animals, and worst of all, we have a pseudo-incest, child and guardian relationship. It’s icky and hurts my soul. If those things are what you look for, then this is a winner. But, for me, this makes it a major miss.
Have you read A Virile World? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!