Sadly, this story really did have potential to be greater, but after finishing it, it just felt pathetic.
It felt that the girl, Himeko, goes along with her older brother's twisted desires because she doesn't want to lose him, and being the inconsiderate person that he was, he takes advantage of her innocence by exploiting her desire to not lose him and turning their brother-sister relationship into a sexual one. By doing this, in the last chapter, I couldn't support them. I mean, incest already is a iffy topic, but if two people love each other enough to go down that path, so be it and I’ll support them.
But, I can't accept it when one person manipulates the other into it with a silent threat hanging in the air, like how Yoshino did. It was obvious that Himeko loves Yoshino, but it still felt like that of brotherly love where she was willing to do whatever it took so that she wouldn't lose Yoshino, and not that of a woman in love with a man. If Yoshino really loves Himeko, like he keeps saying he is, he wouldn't be forcing Himeko into a sexual relationship, but it's because he KNOWS that Himeko doesn't see him in the same light that he does for her, that's why he's forcing her into a path where he can easily take advantage of her. It really didn't sit well with me. And also, Yoshino seemed like an emotional mess at the end, and although I can understand that it's because of his feelings for Himeko is finally starting to come out into the open where he is losing control, I can't like him for acting like a horny boy instead of a mature adult. He wants Himeko to be by side and that means pushing her over her limits into a sexual relationship where she is only willing to do in order to not lose him, and he knows it. Argh, I just couldn't go along with this.
As for Tsubaki, I couldn't stop from pitying him, being that he was just the bystander used for eye-candy prop and a little fire trigger under Himeko and Yoshino's asses in their half-assed love affair. Him being gay was unexpected at first, but it quickly became obvious soon after his introduction for me, and his love for Yoshino was quite sad. He was the wounded party because being gay is consider “bad”, but incest is “worse” in most people's eyes, so to see his love being in love with his sister must have been painful. But still, the author still didn't manage to make me like him enough to sympathize with him.
Anyway, this was kind of predictable to read if you've read plenty of incest/yaoi mangas, so I wasn't at all surprised by the turn of events. It just seemed that the author had a good idea rolling, but she just couldn't execute it to the point where I could accept the relationship between Himeko and Yoshino. But then again, this is psychological, so maybe that was her intent. I know that three chapters isn't enough to fully develop a story at this magnitude so that's why I'm not as critical as I would have been if this story had been several volumes. It's not the worst story, but skip it if you can't stand weak female leads who are being controlled by others like a puppet.
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