A review by louandlife
Escape Journey, Vol. 01 by Ogeretsu Tanaka
3.0
***Trigger Warning For Rape***
This manga would have been seriously cute if it were not for the fact that there was a rape scene in it 😒. I even made a friend in the GL/BL section of my local manga store, and she was telling me about how much she liked this manga, so I had some hopes... but it was all crushed by that one scene. If it wasn't in this volume, THEN THE STORY WOULD HAVE BEEN SO CUTE! Ugh I'm mad. I was hoping that through my select choices of BL manga that I would be able to avoid the 'bad' ones.
Aside from the rape scene, the plot of the manga was decent. It's quite a slow paced one, because I was able to put it down for 24 hours without feeling the dying need to pick it up. The story is about two ex-high school lovers reuniting in college. They are able to become friends again, but Naoto is trying to prevent himself from falling in love with Taichi again. I feel like the manga gets better as you progress, with the ending being the best.
In terms of the characters, only three had a personality. Naoto, Taichi and Fumi (a girl who has a crush on Taichi). Everyone else felt like they were characters in a manga. But even with the main characters, they weren't that developed. They felt very surface level and stereotypical.
I was very conflicted about the rating of this manga, because I did enjoy it... minus the rape. I don't see why the rape was even added, because it's not like it had a great impact on the story or the characters. They sort of just brush it off WHICH MAKES IT WORSE. Naoto and Taichi just see it as a mistake and are able to be friends after, which I just don't get. I did buy volume 2 at the same time as I bought volume 1, so I will read that next. I don't think I will be able to get over the rape that was in this one, but I do want to see how the relationship progresses. One aspect that I did like in this story is that Naoto questions the progression of a gay relationship. Where can it lead if it can't follow the straight example (of like marriage, children etc), to which Taichi replies like it doesn't matter, as long as we are together and here for each other, which was cute.
Would I recommend this series? I don't think I would, simply because I have read better BL mangas that don't include rape. But I think if a reader knows that there is a rape in the story, and reads the blurb, they can make the assessment themselves as to whether they want to read it.
This manga would have been seriously cute if it were not for the fact that there was a rape scene in it 😒. I even made a friend in the GL/BL section of my local manga store, and she was telling me about how much she liked this manga, so I had some hopes... but it was all crushed by that one scene. If it wasn't in this volume, THEN THE STORY WOULD HAVE BEEN SO CUTE! Ugh I'm mad. I was hoping that through my select choices of BL manga that I would be able to avoid the 'bad' ones.
Aside from the rape scene, the plot of the manga was decent. It's quite a slow paced one, because I was able to put it down for 24 hours without feeling the dying need to pick it up. The story is about two ex-high school lovers reuniting in college. They are able to become friends again, but Naoto is trying to prevent himself from falling in love with Taichi again. I feel like the manga gets better as you progress, with the ending being the best.
In terms of the characters, only three had a personality. Naoto, Taichi and Fumi (a girl who has a crush on Taichi). Everyone else felt like they were characters in a manga. But even with the main characters, they weren't that developed. They felt very surface level and stereotypical.
I was very conflicted about the rating of this manga, because I did enjoy it... minus the rape. I don't see why the rape was even added, because it's not like it had a great impact on the story or the characters. They sort of just brush it off WHICH MAKES IT WORSE. Naoto and Taichi just see it as a mistake and are able to be friends after, which I just don't get. I did buy volume 2 at the same time as I bought volume 1, so I will read that next. I don't think I will be able to get over the rape that was in this one, but I do want to see how the relationship progresses. One aspect that I did like in this story is that Naoto questions the progression of a gay relationship. Where can it lead if it can't follow the straight example (of like marriage, children etc), to which Taichi replies like it doesn't matter, as long as we are together and here for each other, which was cute.
Would I recommend this series? I don't think I would, simply because I have read better BL mangas that don't include rape. But I think if a reader knows that there is a rape in the story, and reads the blurb, they can make the assessment themselves as to whether they want to read it.