About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Mr. Wolf Is Violently Smothering Me with Love. 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 dubcon/noncon, noncon fetish, self-deprecation, prejudice, male pregnancy, violence, nepotism, sexual assault, and self-hatred, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Sakutarou is a human omega. Though male omegas aren’t necessarily uncommon, there is still a bit of a social stigma around men being with other men and carrying children. As if that wasn’t difficult enough, Sakutarou also has an unusual fetish: noncon beastmen porn. Since he was small, Sakutarou adored beastmen, but that innocent admiration soon grew into an undeniable attraction. The odds of him finding a human alpha partner who likes omega men are already slim. The odds of him finding a beastman alpha partner who’d be attracted to humans are even slimmer still. Interspecies couples aren’t unusual, but marriage and long-term partnerships are rare and seen as a bit strange by the majority.
So, Sakutarou keeps his attractions to himself until he happens to start his heat a few days early. While out on the street, he ends up being picked up by beastman. The beastman carts Sakutarou away to a hotel, where the two have unbelievable sex. When Sakutarou finally comes around, the beastman makes an even more unbelievable claim: he believes Sakutarou is his fated mate. It’s everything Sakutarou could’ve ever wanted, but it’s almost overwhelming in how ideal it all is. Can Sakutarou find it in himself to accept who he is and the love that this beastman wants to give him? Or will he self-sabotage and run away from his happiness?
Review:
The art in this is interesting. It’s super expressive, which I adore, but it’s also very inconsistent and sketchy. The beastmen actually look the most consistent, which I was surprised by, as I anticipated the humans to be more consistent. This, unfortunately, means our main character, Sakutarou, looks off a lot of the time. He looks frog-like sometimes. Other times, he just looks super sketchy, etc. Overall, some panels are better than others, and though I love how expressive the characters are, I wish the art were more consistent and cleaned up just to meet my own preferences. Another, much smaller, issue is that Sakutarou’s name is spelled differently throughout the series. Sometimes, it’s “Sakuratarou,” which, based on most of the series and the spelling in the description, is wrong, but it still makes me feel like I don’t know how it’s spelled, and that’s unfortunate.
Along with the art style not being my favorite, I have to talk about the beastmen design. I flip back and forth on whether or not I like animal characteristics. Some cat or wolf ears on a primarily human person are usually fine, but I’ve decided this is just too far for me. Watching them kiss with Yamato’s long muzzle and thin tongue is honestly super gross to me. I’m not here to “yuck” anyone’s “yum,” but this level of beastman is just not my thing. Granted, I’m into noncon and breeding, which both appear in this title. I’m sure plenty out there would “yuck” those. As much as I like the noncon and breeding content in this, the beastman design makes it hard to enjoy, so there’s that.
However, unlike many of the male pregnancy titles I’ve read lately, this gives me everything I could crave. We get to see them dating, married, trying for a baby, the pregnancy, the birth, and the children growing up into kindergarten or preschool age. It’s not just small snippets, either. The pregnancy, in particular, is shown in much more depth than most male pregnancy titles. We see the trying part, early pregnancy, mid-pregnancy, late pregnancy, and even the birth. It gave me so many feels. I especially like seeing how our main characters navigate sex around pregnancy and parenthood, something that I wish more male pregnancy titles explored. I absolutely adore a particular panel with an up-close cut of Sakutarou’s big baby belly that brings me immense joy. If you’re desperate for omegaverse titles that really highlight pregnancy and parenthood, this is the one.
Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how nice it is that we get to see multiple children, one being a beastman and the other a human child. It helps highlight the work’s overall theme, which is self-acceptance. While, of course, a significant focus for this series is smut, romance, and parenthood, it all calls back to the initial thing Sakutarou struggled with, which was accepting that he was human. Though he was attracted to beastmen, he always felt he wasn’t worthy of being with one or could never fit into a family of beastmen. So, when he has a human daughter who recognizes that she’s different from her brother and beastman dad yet still accepts her humanness, it helps affirm that what he’s done is right. He’s worthy of loving a beastman. He can fit in just fine with a family of beastmen, and though the world may still not be as open or accepting as it should be, his family proves that it’s only a matter of time. It’s a beautiful message, and how they show Sakutarou’s daughter affirming this for him was everything. I think this series is worth reading for that scene alone.
Results:
This title is domestic bliss. Though the art and some of the designs aren’t my favorite, I have to admit that the parenthood and pregnancy portions of the story easily overshadow most of my complaints. Add in the fetishes depicted, which are right up my alley, and this was a treat to read. The smut can be a hard read if you’re like me and don’t care for the heavy animalistic depiction of the top, but if you can get through it, I think the domestic depictions are well worth it. It’s not a favorite, but it’s very, very close.
Have you read Mr. Wolf Is Violently Smothering Me with Love? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!