About:
Warning:
This review will contain spoilers for the manga and anime series The Man Who Shattered My 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 BDSM, contractual relationships, manipulation, dubcon, forced drug use, and blood, as they appear in the manga.
Synopsis:
Tachibana is a player, and he's exclusively a top. He has no intention of falling in love or maintaining a romantic relationship, and to ensure his partners are aware of the status quo, he has them agree to a relationship contract. It has several requirements, but the most important one is simple: no falling in love. This serves Tachibana well for the most part. However, while he's on the hunt for a new partner, he finds himself having to reject potential candidates, as they admit that they might end up falling for him. Tachibana is about to call it a night after hunting for a sex partner when a new guy approaches him.
The man is very handsome but very tall and much more masculine than Tachibana usually goes for. Tachibana immediately assumes he's a top and clarifies that he is exclusively a top. But to Tachibana's surprise, the man says he's a bottom. Again, the man is not Tachibana's usual type. However, Tachibana loves to dominate, and what would be more satisfying than dominating this big guy? So, after explaining his contract with the stranger, the two agree to the terms and head to a hotel room together. Everything is going well with his new bedmate, Kuzumi until Kuzumi decides to turn the tables.
The exclusive top Tachibana suddenly finds himself on the bottom and is thoroughly dominated instead. Tachibana is ready to break the contract and forget the whole thing, but Kuzumi has no intention of letting Tachibana go. And as much as Tachibana doesn't want to admit it, he finds himself craving to be taken by Kuzumi again.
Review:
The art in this is not my favorite. It's very inconsistent, and there are moments when their heads are huge compared to the rest of their bodies, which, admittedly, made me laugh. It very much gives me late 90s and early aughts yaoi, which gives me major nostalgia, but not in a good way. I've got to admit, I really dislike this art style. It does have pretty moments, don't get me wrong, and it is very clean, which is great. But it has a very old-fashioned style that just isn't my favorite. You can see it a little bit on the cover, but the cover is a much cleaner and more refined variation than what is in the story itself, in my opinion. If you're looking for that classic yaoi style, look no further, but it's not for me.
As for the story, I'm always into a top with a top dynamic. It's entertaining seeing someone who believes themselves to be exclusively one type of a person in bed explore other forms of pleasure. However, just as the art is pretty antiquated, so is the setup for this relationship. Just to be clear, I don't mind noncon or dubcon. Some of my favorites actually have one or both of those elements in them. But this story does it in a pretty dull way. Kuzumi lures Tachibana by claiming to be a bottom. The two get into bed together. Kuzumi offers to finger Tachibana, which Tachibana agrees to reluctantly, and just when Tachibana is ready and determined to top Kuzumi, Kuzumi turns the tables on him and tops Tachibana instead. As much as I like noncon and dubcon, situations like this just feel tired and uninspired. That's not to say I haven't enjoyed titles like this in the past, but the whole “I love to trick tops and top them instead” thing just isn't my flavor of the month.
If the romance had been on point, though, I think this still would've been worthwhile, but that doesn't turn out any better. Kuzumi never seems to become emotionally attached to Tachibana in any way. Tachibana does end up falling in love with Kuzumi and expressing that in various ways, but Kuzumi's affection is almost exclusively sex, humiliation, taunting, and dominance. This can be romantic in some ways, but he feels like a stone of a man with no other traits than those I've listed. We really don't know anything about him beyond his sexual preferences, and that just leaves the relationship feeling very one-sided and hollow. There's a short little extra chapter at the very end where he expresses some amount of what could be perceived as love, but it comes after the main story and is limited to a single panel, so it's more of an afterthought than anything meaningful. It's very disappointing.
I do, however, love that this is uncensored. I have to give credit where credit is due because the uncensored sex in this is everything. The penises are pretty nice to look at, and I love that we're starting to get more and more uncensored titles to choose from. While this wasn't necessarily my favorite title in the world, I can appreciate that it has uncensored smut, and there is lots of it. I'd say this title is 80% smut, and 100% of it is uncensored, which makes it a really good time on that front. While I don't think the uncensored smut saves it in any way, I can still appreciate that it is there.
Results:
To me, this feels like it's from a different era. The art is very clean, but it's like a cleaned-up version of a much older title, and even though it's clean, the proportions and style are super inconsistent. The story similarly feels like a copy and paste of other dubcon/noncon titles that just do it better and in more exciting ways. While I love that this is uncensored, that's not enough to make this title worth a read for me. I wouldn't recommend it.
Have you read The Man Who Shattered My World? If so, what do you think? Do you agree with my assessment? Do you not? Let me know, and comment below!