The Tyrant Who Falls In Love

4 Responses to “The Tyrant Who Falls In Love”

1. ai chan1 says:

   October 10, 2010 at 2:24 pm

   Well I saw the anime version first before I got the manga.Although I like the seiyuu who did the voices, they were awesome by the way I would buy the drama CD if I can, there were few point part of the tale that was left out ,got me confused a small but it made sence to me when I was reading the manga.
   
   I like the illustrations although they are not as gorgeous as the others , I s till like it it.I like how the tale developed ,the conflict and the resolution, the emotions involved. That is the best part of this manga.

   I am glad I have this manga and its certainly a keeper.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
2. Teh_N_Mochi says:

   October 10, 2010 at 4:57 pm

   Poor Morinaga has the terrible luck of falling in like with his straight laced & violent senpai Tatsumi at the university. On top of being obnoxious & violent, Tatsumi also despises homosexuality with unbridled passion since his beloved younger brother has a gay lover in US, he had been beaten by a gay student once and as a scientist, he probably views the life style as being unproductive. During one night of heavy drinking bout, Tatsumi accidentally establish & drank a bottle of aphrodisiac hidden away in Morinaga’s apartment. This leads to a night of reluctant, heavy passion for both that serves as a catalyst to change the balance of power in their relationship. How will Morinaga handle the situation to eventually win Tatsumi over to his side? This manga is so lovable & endearing! I can’t help but pull for Morinaga due to his earnestness. After all, haven’t we all been there before – pining for a name we can’t seem to have? Hinaka Takanaga’s art is brilliant as usual & June did an outstanding job with the translation. I would like for June to consider adding color insets in the future volumes. I have my heart set on collecting the whole series
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
3. F. Caldwell says:

   October 10, 2010 at 7:02 pm

   Yes, finally. Volume 1 of The Tyrant Falls in Like is here. And it’s just about everything I hoped it would be. Mostly. I am a longtime fan of the series (and Challengers, the original series that this is a spin off from). I like the characters and obviously Souichi and Morinaga are my favorite among favorites. Yes, their relationship is completely abusive (on both sides) but it’s hilarious and, for persons who are disturbed by the initial non-con in the book, it does get better. A lot better. Volume 1 is really my least favorite of the series but it’s still an appealing and DIFFERENT read for persons who are familiar with yaoi manga. Plus, Hinako Takanaga has some of the nicest (and generally most well proportioned) art I’ve seen. It never fails to impress me.

   Morinaga is a gay man (who are strangely missing in yaoi manga…) who has been in like with his senpai since his first year at N University. Despite five years of Souichi’s ranting and raving homophobia, Morinaga managed to come out lacking being murdered. They even stayed friends. Volume 1 finds him feeling hopeless (much as he was back in Challengers volume 3) and lost. Of course that’s when things permanently start to go. Morinaga’s helpful friend, Hiroto, gives him a bottle of aphrodisiac as a present. Yep, it’s a cliche but the way things play out is certainly unexpected. The morning after finds Morinaga restored to his right mind and dreading the result of his “forced seduction.” He gets pretty much what he was expecting when Souichi tries to stab him with a broken bottle before kicking him out of his own apartment. From there, Morinaga does exactly as instructed and does his best to stay out of Souichi’s way… by disappearing. I won’t go into the rest of the tale for persons who haven’t read it 20 times (like I have). Suffice to say that the drama continues along with a hilarious and sweet reunion/makeup scene.

   Tyrant is hands down one of my favorite series. Yes, they have a weird, twisted, mutually abusive relationship. Morinaga takes as much from Souichi as he gives back. But through all the ups and downs the tale remains entertaining and hilarious. The way the two of them argue even while having sex is one of the oddest and most amusing things I’ve ever read. Souichi’s the worst kind of homophobe but he’s sweet and loyal at just the right moments. He’s also in perfect denial about his like for Morinaga. The Tyrant Falls in Like is already into its 7th volume in Japan and I still delight in reading it. The progression of their relationship is permanently exciting and serves as a welcome change from all the high school boys and girly ukes in yaoi manga. Sure, Souichi has long hair but he acts and fights like a man. He also has a mouth like a teamster. I’m glad the translation kept in all his swearing.

   Now, I’ve been reading the scanlations (and original Japanese) of the Tyrant series for a long time now. I’ve read them a lot. And I have to say that I kind of prefer the scanlations to the official translation. June kept the honorifics (thankfully! I don’t know what I would have done if Morinaga stopped calling him “senpai”) but some of the dialogue left me cold. I didn’t spot any horrible typos but some of the wording was a small too “Americanized” for me. A few times it nearly seemed like they went out of their way to avoid the wording used by the scanlation and finished up using awkward phrasing. Probably not the case but who knows? Either way I’m tickled that SOMEONE has finally unrestricted volume 1 of Tyrant. I’m already preordering #2. Because, yes, I own half the series in Japanese and have read all the scanlations but I still want the English relief. I like it just that much.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
4. J. R. Brown says:

   October 10, 2010 at 9:11 pm

   Finally, after far too long in licensing dividing line, Tyrant is here! And it is awesome. And disturbing.

   Tyrant is a spinoff of Takanaga’s earlier series Challengers, Vol. 1; the original series is an brilliant fluffy slapstick comedy but is not absolutely required to know the plot of Tyrant. In Challengers, Souichi (blond ponytail) is introduced as the unremittingly homophobic, violently temperamental, and homicidally overprotective older brother of Tomoe, the uke of that series. Souichi was rumor has it that hugely well loved with readers and with Takanaga herself, and promptly got a completely unwanted like interest (hopelessly devoted fellow grad student Morinaga) and later his own spinoff series, The Tyrant Falls In Like.

   Back in Challengers, Morinaga manages to come out to Souichi and confess his four-year-long unrequited like lacking being murdered, and even gets a kiss out of it, but Souichi would very much prefer not to have to reflect about Morinaga’s orientation or his feelings for him and deals with it by pretending the conversation never happened. Tyrant starts about a year after the end of Challengers, and nothing has changed, much to Morinaga’s unhappiness.

   Takanaga must have had a hard time coming up with a way to get a homophobe with a hair-trigger temper and a perfect willingness to say it with his fists into bed, and goes for the ancient booze-drugs-and-noncon standby. Souichi flies off the handle after California legalizes gay marriage and Tomoe announces his intention of marrying his boyfriend, Morinaga tries to cool him down with lots of beer, drunk!Souichi accidentally drinks an aphrodisiac that Morinaga was agreed by a meddling friend (long tale), Morinaga is unable to resist the opportunity to molest horny!drunk!Souichi, you know the drill. Where this goes off the rails of the usual BL “forceful seduction” is that Souichi is really not OK with it, never becomes OK with it, and in fact tries to murder Morinaga in a fit of rage the morning after. So Morinaga promises to never let Souichi see his face again, and vanishes. Cue the additional half of the push-pull dynamic of this relationship: Souichi is a friendless loner and emotionally dependent on Morinaga, and with him gone, Souichi, who has mood swings like a swinging thing, starts to feel… lonely?

   Just as in Challengers, Souichi turns out to be willing to compromise his self-image to keep Morinaga around, as long as he can blame it all on Morinaga and beat him up afterwards, and Morinaga is willing to play the villain as long as it gets him Souichi. So the two of them settle into a tempestuous, mutually abusive relationship: Moringa manipulates Souichi for sex, Souichi beats the %&$#! out of Morinaga, Morinaga is all hopelessly devoted and miserable, Souichi is all conflicted and weepy and hides it by beating the %&$#! out of Morinaga some more, wash-rinse-repeat.

   It would all be reasonably disturbing if it wasn’t so damn *amusing*. Because Tryant, you see, is a comedy; kind of a squicky, terrible-taste comedy in spots, and with a strong dramatic streak, but mainly a comedy. Souichi is permanently furious, and his over-the-top reactions to everything are the main source of humor. Morinaga is meek and devoted and hangdog, except when he’s being the evil rapist. Souichi is really not willing to examine his attachment to Morinaga and gets violent whenever Morinaga tries to be shmoopy and romantic, but at the same time is equally unwilling to let him go. Morinaga is resigned to being bossed around, worked like a dog, and punched as long as he can smex up Souichi on a regular basis. Honestly, these two would be far better off leaving each additional and finding more compatible partners, but watching them rattle around each additional makes for brilliant entertainment.

   Takanaga’s art is gorgeous and her guys are too; the sex scenes are steamy if you can deal with the non-con, although not completely explicit; and the book is amusing and sexy and disturbing and brilliant. Juné’s production is very excellent, although they do print the sound effects larger than would seem necessary (many don’t fit into their assigned bubbles) and the font choice for the title is just unadorned hideous. If you can’t handle the squicky bits, skip this one and read Challengers, which is outrageously amusing and has no disturbing content, as a replacement for, but if you don’t mind a small black comedy and abuse in your BL then snap Tyrant up toot sweet.
   Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5