Reviews with content warning for Toxic friendship - The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms

Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms by Nagabe

6 reviews

e_r_q's review against another edition

funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The Wize Wize Beasts of the Wizarding Wizdoms is like if Harry Potter and Beastars had a gay child (although Beastars is arguably already really gay).

Being an anthology, the stories naturally vary in quality, but I wasn't expecting a masterpiece from this gay yaoi manga. But still, Nagabe manages to explore some really compelling character dynamics:

"I used characters' animal types to decide what their abilities, environments, and relationships would be like." (Nagabe)

My favourite story was Mauly & Charles; it was so cute, I honestly would love it to be a full length Manga. My least favourite story was the deeply problematic Fermat & Emil. There are quite a few iffy concepts throughout this manga, although some can be brushed off as typical toxic yaoi tropes.

Nagabe's art is beautiful! The character design is gorgeous and varied, and everything is so breathtakingly detailed. I can't wait to check out more of his work!

Content Warnings

itaby's review against another edition

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

The art style was super cute and I really liked the character designs. Anthro animals with more animalistic traits than human, and I really liked that. I really like Beastars, but the human hands really throw me off... I would have liked seeing more of the world and what happened to the characters, but since it was a collection of one-shot romances there wasn't a lot of room to do that. The bonus content at the end was nice though. I felt that many of the stories were a bit creepy and icky at times, though...

Alan & Eddington: Straight up drugging and sexual assault. I mean, it turned out "fine", but it just felt so wrong...

Fermat & Emil: Teacher-student relationship. Just. No.

Doug & Huey: Really creepy. Huey is clearly straight and desperate to find a girlfriend, and Doug is SUPER possessive and obsessed with him and goes behind his back to keep him from forming relationships that might challenge theirs. That's not love... Worst part is Huey doesn't find out about this, so he's still hanging out with him... So creepy.

Cromwell & Benjamin: I had no problems with the relationship between the two adult teachers in this one. My problem was that a grown adult told another grown adult that the young female student who just left the office is a virgin. I get that they want to show off his powers as a unicorn to "smell virginity", but that was wrong on so many levels.

The rest of the stories (4 more) were fine. A little underdeveloped, but fine. The last one was the best in my opinion.

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readingratboy's review against another edition

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

1.0

don't.

a collection of short stories in a cute art style. almost every story romanticizes some kind of massive trigger warning. a very yucky read.

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ashlikes's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

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typewriterdeluxe's review

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emotional lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

3.0

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lilsuccubus's review

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fast-paced

0.25

So disappointing. The art was amazing, like I have come to expect from Nagabe. But the story itself was just softcore gay male furry porn, and I freaking hated every second of it. I have so much less respect for both the author and the publisher for publishing this garbage and marketing it to teens. On top of the overall concept being horrible, it's set up as a set of loosely-connected mini stories, so the whole thing is shallow, like short fanfictions. The setting is a wizardry school, but magic has basically no role in the plots. The bigger issue is the themes of sexual assault and kink. The first chapter is solely about a boy drugging another boy to forcibly kiss him. Another chapter is about biting to leave marks. Another chapter is about making out while eating the other's vomit (this fetish is considered disgusting even by people in the kink community, so it's really messed up to present it as lighthearted and to children). And there's another chapter where a boy likes his best friend and tells everyone that the friend has a girlfriend so that no one will go out with him. I can't believe these synopses as I'm writing them...what sane adult would publish such things and not put huge content warnings on them??? Almost every storyline was toxic and cringey. I feel so angry that I was tricked into reading this. I had been considering buying the whole series of The Girl From The Other Side, because I love them, but I dislike Nagabe enough from this monstrosity that I refuse to give him any financial support. This should have been a personal project that never got published. I will be recommending that my library system move this book into the adult section to help dissuade teens from picking it up.

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