Reading Report: 26 April 2026

クールディバイシス episode 7: Yellow Star

Oops, I got so busy reading English books and writing this week that I neglected to play any visual novels... I've decided that maybe it's fine to just accept my current state of mind and shelve Muv-Luv Unlimited for the moment. So enjoy two English-language book reports and another bulk report on Kaimeiji manga. Inspired by Kaimeiji and De Sade I wrote in a furor this week, putting together almost ten-thousand words across two separate stories. Some version of one of those stories will likely be in the next edition of RRRRRR (with a plain text readable version published as a blog afterwards), so maybe look forward to that.

トモちゃんは女の子！

Right at the start of the week I watched the last four episodes and finished the series. It was quite good, and I'm glad that it had a satisfying ending, though I felt like there was a bit of missed potential with the overall role of Misuzu, Tomo and Jun's childhood friend. Her whole deal is being hard to read, but I would have liked the flashbacks and private moments dedicated to her to give a better impression of the anxiety she feels about Tomo and Jun's developing relationship. Just like last week's report, I feel like the best moments are those that highlighted the difference between men and women -- it's a kind of painful, expected parting that is basically only artificially enforced in early childhood (as demonstrated by Tomo's ability to be a boy for Jun during the early-childhood flashbacks).

回復術士のやり直し

I watched the uncensored version of this anime. My experience with this series was kind of like the worst roller coaster. Going into it I had few expectations, only knowing it as a "revenge porn" fantasy, but I was pleasantly surprised by the first few episodes. Yes, it's full of revenge and it's somewhat pornographic (though it lacked any erotic value in my experience), but the interplay between the MC's past and his present actions was compelling and enjoyable. His revenge against Flare and his assisting Setsuna to get her own revenge constituted the best of the show, and unfortunately the plot takes a slow dive after that point. The entire middle portion felt pretty unfocused, like it wasn't clear what the MC really wanted; yes he wanted revenge but how that revenge would manifest sort of exists at two scales, the greater of which isn't even resolved by the end of the show. While the MC's motivations towards "reforming" Flare are well established through the storytelling techniques, his motivations for punishing later characters could have been better placed within the structure. Lastly, the antagonistic characters are almost cartoonishly evil in their pursuits. I don't think Norn's motivation for killing the devilkin make any sense except to create the conditions to kill MC's friend, hastening his revenge against her. And also the sex scenes are not very good. It's a real shame because I was hoping there would be some gem in this controversial story. I suppose the controversy had more to do with the society that fought over it than the work itself.

I will say observing the difference in how the MC and his victims are portrayed made me think about how it was interesting that he is afforded the role of "subject" in every sex scene, even the past scenes where his future victims treat him as an object. It was interesting to compare the way his begging and crying is framed for his sympathy against how Flare's likewise behaviour is framed for MC's domination. Very interesting!

クールディバイシス

This is an 11-episode anthology series with some BDSM themes. I found the episodes varied in quality largely based on how much they wanted to tell a story. Episodes 2, 4, 7, and 10 were standouts for me. I even shed a tear at the end of episode 4 because I found the relationship between the two main women and the overall direction very moving. Episode 7 was probably my favourite. It had a beautiful art style and told an interesting, sort of tragic story that felt like it somehow fit a movie's worth of ideas and development within 20 minutes. Episode 10 had a really pleasant dreamlike quality and had very nice character designs and a nice (if a bit rushed) story. All of the other episodes varied between pretty bad and just okay. Overall I'm grateful to have watched this if only for 4, 7, and 10.

Various 海明寺裕 works

A slightly slower week of reading through Kaimeiji's bibliography, but I feel that my understanding of his expressions continues to expand.

後宮学園

This is one of the first long-form manga of his that focuses on a particular kind of young female character he normally reserves for secondary roles, and it includes a big theme of "conclusively being a K9 while unaware of it", and a teacher describes the main character's lack of awareness as the fault of "imprinting" on humans, which I thought was quite interesting. Regarding the conclusive proof, this manga uniquely features doglike mouths and noses for K9s and the main girl's human features are pulled away to reveal her true face. To be honest I found this element sort of unappealing (in an erotic sense), so I was pleased that Kaimeiji either forgot or stopped caring to depict the girls this way and they just go back to looking normal. Something I liked in the story was towards the end, when the MC is integrating into her new master's domain, some of the K9 discuss the hierarchy of pets, servants, and furniture, and how it must feel to be each, and the MC (if I recall correctly) responds, "there is no hierarchy. Just look at his arm rest, she's overflowing with happiness. We all serve him in our own way, so I would be happy no matter where he put me." (paraphrased naturally.) There's a scene (much earlier) where the MC has escaped her school and is on the run. She comes across some other K9 who react to her with fright because she doesn't have a collar so they see her as a wild dog. Also towards the end there's a scene where the MC, acting as a hunting dog, helps identify a K9 who is disguised as a normal woman spending time with a human friend. Just a lot of little textural moments that I appreciated in this story.

媚女爛漫

This and the rest of the manga this week are all anthologies and don't share many of the K9 universe, which I don't enjoy quite as much, but they still had some points worth noting. This manga is thematically split in two parts. The first is typical Kaimeiji as I knew him; strong-willed women being humiliated or taken advantage of by some cunning person. These included some pretty interesting scenarios, like one featuring a news reporter whose assailant felt like she was sending him secret messages, but they end too soon to really develop. The second half of the book features a new Kaimeiji theme I'd call "Sporty Nudity". Basically each story features a woman who wants to excel at her sport of choice, and her (usually female) coach or friend convinces her that overcoming the embarrassment of public nudity will help her. Unlike the other stories, these are almost exclusively quite uplifting and I was even moved by the story of the extreme-sports skater who finally achieved an on-air 900 in the nude. Seeing their bodies in so many interesting positions also demonstrates how much Kaimeiji has studied and thought about the female form, which I think is very cool.

コレクション

It's a bit late to the party, but I finally read this from end-to-end as a normal manga. This was probably my second-favourite manga of the week behind 後宮学園. It starts with a much bigger focus on the human furniture fetish, and the first few chapters are semi-related. Later chapters have some interesting ideas in the same general category of "humiliation/domination", with an interesting final chapter that features a teacher and his students (maybe mostly interesting because there are so few male teachers in Kaimeiji works).

早熟児

Like 媚女爛漫, this is sort of split into the two themes of "humiliation" and "sporty nudity". It didn't really advance my thinking about Kaimeiji in ways that weren't already done in other manga, so I don't have much to say. It was just alright.

What Belongs to You

A friend of mine read my magazine and suggested, should I wish to expand my understanding of gay eroticism, I should read What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell. So I ordered a copy on eBay and got reading.

First I'll just note that the structure of this book is very pleasant to read. Sentences are long and lyrical and evoke a sort of Nabokovian love of language and people. A curious choice by the author was an absence of names and dialogue. The main character is unnamed (though his name is hinted at once) and other characters are given single-character pseudonyms with the exception of Mitko, the object of the main character's fascination. When I say there's a lack of dialogue it's not that characters don't speak, it's just that the writer never gives the privilege of quoted speech to anyone. These two elements place us adrift in the main character's mind, helpless to avoid his waves of anxiety and self-flagellations.

The story is separated cleanly into three acts. The first is a sort of love story, or maybe it's more accurate to just call it the meeting and sparks of friendship. This act is relatively simple and the focus is solely on Mitko and the main character. Because of that, I enjoyed observing the asymmetrical power-play between both characters. MC is an educated American with a stable teaching job in Bulgaria. He theoretically has the freedom to flee back to his home country at any time, he solely controls the flow of money in the relationship (he pays Mitko for sex, and frequently pays Mitko to support him in other ways), and he's an older man (though it's unclear how much older). But it's not that simple. Mitko is younger, but he's not young. Mitko is described as quite fit and his social and economical position creates a situation where he could, at any time, take everything he wants from the MC with little recourse. Mitko knows the locals and has connections to crime in the country, and though he never even directly says as much, the MC interprets all of these as a passive threat that keeps him in line. The interplay of their sexual relationship and the jigsaw power dynamic leads to some very interesting moments.

The second act starts with news that the MC's father has died, and it largely takes place in the MC's remembered childhood and adolescence and his very strained relationship with his father. This act was probably my favourite, which maybe should be no surprise to people who understand me best. It's a tortured account of all the ways time, place, and community betrayed the MC. A memory the MC shares, his last shower with his father which doubled both as a kind of sexual awakening and passing into adolescence, was very relatable to my own experience moving into adolescence. While my circumstances are obviously not the same, I also vaguely recall the moment where I felt my childhood had ended and adolescence began. This act also includes the story of the MC's first crush on a boy called K. who didn't just reject the MC but also dug his heel in a very creative and cruel way. I think another element I liked about the second act was just that it was set in America. Sorry, guys, I'm an Americaphile... I just love artistic interpretations of suburbia and americana. This act also included MC's sister's account of her childhood and her relationship with their father. I found MC's sister to be a really compelling character despite her short presence in the story, a testament to the great writing.

The final act takes place after a modest time skip. Mitko returns to the MC's life to reveal that he tested positive for syphilis, and MC ought to test himself too for safety. This act was probably the hardest to place, but that's not to say it was bad. It has the MC panic over the thought that he may have unknowingly infected his new partner with the syphilis Mitko may have given him (both fears turn out to be true). It highlights the shame of sexually-transmitted infections despite their relatively simple treatments, and it once again brings up the thought that MC can (and perhaps should) leave Bulgaria, a place which he grows increasingly dissatisfied. The MC and his boyfriend recover with little drama, but a pre-established liver condition returns after Mitko's treatment and the remainder of the story frames him as something like a sick and lame dog (in fact every time an animal or child was mentioned in the story I could only interpret it as a way the MC understood Mitko), however, despite the MC's new long-term relationship there's also a sense that he can't get over the feeling that being with Mitko provides him.

There are a lot of layers and what I've written above has ignored a lot of other interesting points to act as a simple reading, so I apologise to my friend for not mentioning the eroticism of being in the MC's mind, his generally subservient nature, how Mitko's dangerous elements are probably desired by the MC, or how, despite the internalised storytelling, we still learn a lot about Mitko's past and present involvement in his community. It's a very dense 190-odd pages and I liked it a lot.

Justine

Justine by Marquis de Sade

After seeing the Marquis de Sade mentioned by almost every prominent BDSM manga artist, and having known that his works and life formed the foundation for what we now call Sadism, I felt I finally had to see what exactly he had actually written.

Coming right off the heels of What Belongs to You my first impression was also of Justine's structure. The writing is direct and has a fairytale feeling. The word choice feels slightly dated but still accessible, and I found myself giving the character's british accents in my head as I read (perhaps a bit like the English cast of Les Miserables).

In terms of the story, it wastes no time to set up the premise: Justine and Juliet were two sisters. Their parents died and they were orphaned. Juliet took this as an opportunity to live freely, ditching Justine and joining a brothel. Justine, on the other hand, values her "virtue" (virginity) so much that she refuses to "lower" herself for survival, let alone profit. The story is a sequential adventure where Justine finds herself in the care of a new kind of sadistic (or amoral) person who attempts to convince her of the folly of her worldview and the value of theirs. While Justine does suffer quite a lot, usually there's one (or more) other sacrificial woman used in each domain to demonstrate the extremity that the powerful are willing to inflict on the powerless. That can lead to a sense that Justine is just sort of floating from point to point, as it rarely feels like she's left permanently affected by the places she stays (with a few exceptions, like a makeshift criminal brand which is relevant once after its implementation). Another part I don't feel super strongly for is just how long and repetitive some of the monologues can get. Each new sadist has their own reasons for their behaviours and their explanations can go on for pages. I wish more time was spent focusing on the particulars of their pleasure than their post-hoc justifications. Also reading this in the current year of 2026 I can't help but think of some of De Sade's characters as like Internet Atheists and Men's Rights Activists (derogatory), which I find amusing, though a little bit scary. I can't believe there's nothing new under the sun.

I highly respect the book as a progenitor of the genre, and I love to see, in a book from the 18th century, the kinds of BDSM relationships and fascinations that I've seen in manga from the 20th and 21st centuries. As I mentioned on my BlueSky, I feel like reading this book has finally filled a big, conspicuous hole in my understanding of the genre/lifestyle.

Overall I really enjoyed reading Justine. It inspired me to think about my own writing and emboldened me to think about what is permissible in art, and I can't wait to read more De Sade in the future.