Mar 06, 2026
I don't think I have it in me to write a chonker 
I took a break from reading in general because, weirdly, this story paralleled some irl things (not the incest) that made me take a break, but I'm glad I took it because I feel like I left JUST at a point where the story really took off. For better or worse, the first two thirds felt like setting up a domino chain and I came back to see them tumbling.
For better because, well... I just said it. It's always satistfying to see a slow build-up that leads to explosive drama near the end and I'm always here to enjoy trainwrecks. Additionally I think the drip feeding approach worked amazingly well for Akira because we as the audience knows that the thing with his aunt is creepy and fucked up, but it feels like he oscillated between denying it and not even realizing it's there. Once the truth was exposed the chain of events was basically inevitable ALTHOUGH I'll say that the literal climax was kind of disappointing, and here's why.
In a vacuum, the yandere stabby fan thing makes perfect sense, but since you'd paid so much attention to detail thematically speaking, this random ass obstacle fell short to preceding chapters. I get that in a way he "had it coming" and has a long history of flirting with randos, but idk, it felt like there wasn't enough actual build up with this girl in particular. Additionally, while there was always a layer of animeisms to the whole thing, she felt jarringly cartoony to the point that it almost felt like a parody. I don't know, it just screamed "oh shit I gotta end the story" to me. You could've either obviated and let other story elements naturally lead to a climax OR have properly set it up from the start, and no, random offhanded cameos don't count.
The other thing I must yap about is that Akira and Jitsuko are just kind of... there. Like I said, individually, both of them have very strong personalities, but it honestly just felt like Akira was desperately looking for connections and she caught his attention because she didn't want his dick or whatever. It works well as a starting point, but it feels like they never really got farther than that, and Jitsuko feels like she's looking after him rather than romantically interested, and is doing so because she's a good person and that's it. I'm not saying that she had to act in a way that doesn't fit her personality, but if interested then she could've SHOWN it the way so many standoffish, aloof people do. If not words, then body language and actions.
Since she didn't really have a character arc, she felt like a prop for Akira's story more than anything else, more than anyone else, precisely because of her alleged status as a female lead. I'm not asking for a character study since this was clearly very main character centric but SOME modicum of change, or even exploration could've worked. Flat arcs kind of work for everyone else but idk she could've easily been someone he befriends instead, or an initial crush that goes nowhere and they forge an actual platonic relationship, because they do have a ton of THAT kind of chemistry to me.
All of this to say that it feels like that part of the story exists because prompt ahHAh
Similarly I somewhat suspect that you didn't go as deep and dark as you wanted to because of this vapid contest's soft reqs, but if you won't win and go back to this story, I'd say do it. The story really lends itself to it. This kind of reminds me of the kind of biography I'd find in a 'rise and fall' 3 hr long video which I feel is intentional. Akira is not a good person nor would I say that he's likable, but he was very interesting to read about and I'll remember this story way more than the hordes of empty fluff that plague these types of things in general. It's a "bad ending" because Akira chose poorly until the end rather than have this huge epiphany near the end which is honestly based, but maybe this is why the ending feels so ???. I'm not saying he had to kill himself or anything but an actual rock bottom could've maybe hit harder than what's functionally a "car accident" climax.
I appreciate that he retired and is currently going to therapy without (?) dating anyone since he probably mentally cannot stand it... YET, and Jitsuko is fine with that. Some of Akira's traits may be out there which works for entertainment purposes, but there are also a lot of Akiras IRL, you know? Countless amounts of people are a flash in the void and just kind of quietly move on after controversy. People are entertained by the disaster, talk about it for a week or two, then move on to the next circus. In the end, that's what entertainers choose when they assign themselves that label. They're public figures and that's the price to pay. Plenty of people go through the same things privately, too.
![[VODCAST] Error Love](https://honeyfeed-novel-images.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/novel_image/file/27448/cover_thumb_a946e432-52d7-4609-b048-b3b0b4ea807c.jpg)
the demons took over