A Loving Alpha and Cold… Omega? Also, Murder.
About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series Re:BIRTH. 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 sexism, police, death, murder, mentions of abortion, child abandonment, orphans, mentions of sex work, mentions of rape, disordered eating, depression, invasion of privacy, manipulation, memory loss, self-deprecation, fake chronic illness, attempted rape, attempted nonconsenting porn, violence, blood, kidnapping, obsession, gun violence, fire, and burns, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Yukimura Habaki is an alpha and a detective. He’s recently transferred to a smaller precinct in hopes of taking on less work and, in turn, being able to get home in a timely manner. Unfortunately, this also leads to the standard hazing, with the betas in the office criticizing him for being an alpha partly due to jealousy. Habaki isn’t bothered by it. Instead, he’s happy that he’ll be able to get off work and get home to his prickly omega partner, En. But things aren’t going to be as peaceful as Habaki had hoped, as there is a serial omega rapist and murderer lurking in the area, and with little to no leads, the pressure is on to catch the killer before he catches wind of En.
En, on the other hand, isn’t worried about being captured. As a former writer turned editor, En spends most of his days working alone at the home he shares with Habaki. The two of them are bonded, but En doesn’t seem at all interested in being with Habaki in any meaningful way outside of his heat. Part of this is due to En’s unfortunate constitution. Usually, when an omega is bonded, they no longer put out pheromones that anyone other than their alpha can smell, but that’s not the case for En. So, despite being bonded, he’s forced to wear a collar to protect himself.
But in reality, none of this is why En is so cold to Habaki. En has a horrible secret he has to keep hidden from Habaki, even if it means putting himself in danger. Guilt and trauma separate En and Habaki. Will they be able to close the gap? Or will the killer circling them break them apart forever?
Review:
The art in this swaps between very beautiful to uber sketchy and hard to read. It reminds me a bit of Teki Yatsuda’s work (the mangaka for A Home Far Away), which leans closer to realism than the more stylized manga art we usually see. If I had to compare the two, Yatsuda’s work is much more refined and clean, but both are pretty in their own way. I do wish this was more consistent overall, as some panels are jaw-droppingly stunning, but others are very rough. Character design-wise, En is much sketchier than Habaki, which kind of plays into the story. En is hiding things, and his identity is at issue because of his lies, making his view of himself sketchy. The world views him one way because of how he has presented himself, and he feels he is the only one in the world that knows the real him, even if he wishes it were different. Whether this meaning between the art and the story was intended, it’s quite powerful regardless, and I love it.
As for the story, it’s very, very painful. En’s devotion and love for Habaki is predicated on a lie that makes En feel that he isn’t worthy of being with Habaki beyond his heats. How could he let someone love him when the person he’d be loving isn’t who he truly is? Habaki and En play as equal main characters, each exploring their own separate stories, though they, of course, intertwine. Habaki, though, plays more of a side character to me than En’s role in the story. We do follow Habaki in the current day more often, but a lot of the story is set in the past through flashbacks, and En is the main character there. I really like the introspective aspect of En’s narrative rather than the more active style of story we get from Habaki. With that said, I’m sure some people will find the opposite is true for them, that they find En’s portion of the story boring while Habaki’s is much more exciting. This is something to consider if you’re going to read this. It’s a mix of both, so you may end up hating half of this story. I wouldn’t say I hate Habaki’s segments, but I was certainly looking forward to En’s side of things.
I have to admit, though, I’m not a fan of mysteries with detectives hunting down a killer. But this is an exception because the mystery isn’t limited to a crime procedural. The main mystery, and the one I cared about, is En. We get hints and tidbits about his past through his isolated and mundane life. As a self-identified omega with a medical issue that prevents him from being properly bonded and safe thanks to the bond, he spends much of his time alone and at home. As a writer, he keeps a private journal where much of his pain and guilt plays out before us in a stream-of-consciousness style. This quiet self-isolation, intermixed with the horrific exploration into a string of serial omega rapes, creates an interesting dissonance. It confirmed that, inevitably, something horrible would happen to disrupt En’s isolation. I just didn’t know what. The pressure builds and builds until the grand reveal, which I was a bit disappointed in. But I ultimately still liked the build-up to it.
Before I go over my final point in the review portion of this, I want to warn you again that this is not a spoiler-free review. This is your last chance to back out before I reveal a major plot point that would spoil En’s storyline. Now, let’s finish this up. En’s reveal as a beta is a harsh one. We see him willingly altering his body with a tattoo, lotion capsules that he puts inside himself, and putting on perfume every day to mimic being an omega, but maybe even worse is why he does this. Habaki assaulted an omega in heat, trying to protect him because the omega looked like En and was being assaulted by other alphas. En knew that Habaki would never be able to forgive himself, so he pretended to be that omega. It’s as selfless as it is self-serving, as En does it just as much to protect Habaki as he does to tether Habaki to him permanently. It’s a beautiful moment when En ends up being burned, permanently scarring him and covering the tattooed mark on his neck. Ironically, this disfigurement represents his freedom and acts as a true mark of En’s and Habaki’s love. It’s a breathtaking moment, and probably for the first time in the volume, it’s the first time we see the true En.
Results:
This piece is powerful, but I wouldn’t call it a favorite. The art is more inconsistent than I like. I’m still not a fan of the mystery genre, and the killer’s big reveal is lackluster, especially when compared to En’s reveal. The killer plot is more of a way to free En than anything else, which I appreciated since it wasn’t my favorite plotline. If you’re looking for a really good detective mystery, I wouldn’t say this is it. But for an intriguing psychological and introspective omegaverse, this is a big win. I probably won’t go hunting this down to read again, but I’m glad to have experienced it.
Have you read Re:BIRTH? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!