Ugh...not good. Very weak.
This manga has literally every cliche that ever existed in yaoi manga:
- Seme sees uke during sexual act
- Seme blackmails uke into having sex with him - which makes absolutely no sense in any yaoi manga, ever. Why would you have sex with another guy in order to prevent people from finding out you're having sex with a guy in the first place?
- Seme LOVES it, even though he's never been into guys.
- Seme and uke go to the same school.
- Seme falls in love with uke, although they just met!
- Seme tries to make the previous guy jealous by having sex with the uke in front of him.
- Seme carries uke after "taking him so hard that he can't walk" (which I bet rarely ever happens in real life)
- Seme's best friend is in love with him and tries to hurt the uke. Of course, seme's stupid and doesn't even realize it.
- Seme invites uke to live with him even though they barely know each other.
- Uke falls into a stupid trap set out by people trying to hurt the seme.
- That trap consist of...you guessed it! Rape!
- Seme gets there in time for the uke not to be rapped and a huge fight takes place.
- Someone tries to hurt the seme and the uke throws himself in front of the seme, which causes the seme to defend the uke and get hurt instead.
- To top if off, seme takes the uke to a private place to do what? Huh? You guessed it again! Have sex! Because being almost raped was not enough.
And the last chapter doesn't really mean anything to me because I haven't read the prequel, so it was just a waste of time.
As if the cliches weren't bad enough, the dialogue and characters' thoughts are full of "I've been in love with you for so long", even though the story takes place over just a few weeks - or it seems that way, which, if it isn't, was also not made clear by the author.
Basically, the last scene of chapter 01 could be the end of the manga and it would make no difference to the story, it'd be just a cliche one-shot instead of a whole volume. Oh, and also, Yukiya's past is not explained at all and, even though I know there's a prequel, I haven't read it and I started reading "Love or Pride" before I even knew about it. I think the least the author should do is include an explanation for characters' backstories.
The worst part of the entire manga is that Taiki goes easy on everybody. He is totally okay with accepting Shou back into his life, even though he betrayed him. Without any type of fight, mistrust, anything. It's like nothing ever happened. And even Kunie gets off the hook really easily.
Oh, no, wait, there's something even worse: Yukiya genuinely enjoys being touched by someone else. He moans, arches his back and doesn't say "no" at any time. Really romantic.
The only good thing about manga is that the villain isn't who he seems to be.
I thought it was the assistant manager, and turns out he was just a pawn for Kunie
But even the characters' motives don't make any sense and aren't properly explained.
Oh, and the title, too. Love or Pride? Why? Yukiya isn't full of pride before giving himself up to Taiki, at any moment.
I read the sequel to this, Blind Love, over 5 years ago. I had to read it again because, first of all, I didn't remember anything about it - which is not a good sign - and also, especially since Kunie touched another guy (Yukiya) while Shou was right My first review on it was really positive, but I've added a more mature perspective to it now. Kunie and Shou were the only characters that seemed a little bit interesting in this series.