Clicked on the link, saw the first page, said to myself "Hey, whoever this new character is, he looks just like Leon."

Then I went to the next page and saw that Wei Wei was actually watching the movie. :D

The age gap stories are meant for teenagers. Because they can fantasize about saving adults from their adult problems, just by being young and “brave”. And as a reward, adult recognize them as an equal. At least in love.
But if you look at it from the prospective of a major characer, it’s like: I have issues, that I can solve by sleeping with an underage.
You wouldn’t even say “Hello” to such person if you meet him or her on the street. But if someone draw such person witth a beautyfull style, the whole situation suddenly becomes wonderfull. It’s sad.
And in this case, reference to Leon is just a bad joke.
And don’t give me that “love knows no age difference”, because it does.
I am in that kind of relationship. And me and my beloved one had all the problems that comes with age gap.

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 4:10AM

The age gap stories are meant for teenagers. Because they can fantasize about saving adults from their adult problems, just by being young and “brave”. And as a reward, adult recognize them as an equal. At least in love.
But if you look at it from the prospective of a major characer, it’s like: I have issues, that I can solve by sleeping with an underage.
You wouldn’t even say “Hello” to such person if you meet him or her on the street. But if someone draw such person witth a beautyfull style, the whole situation suddenly becomes wonderfull. It’s sad.
And in this case, reference to Leon is just a bad joke.

Perception of whether a person is "good" or has a "good personality" has a lot to do with how pretty their face is, unfortunately. I think that's a good point, but even taking looks completely out of the equation, it's just as true that this kind of relationship is almost always bad in real life, but perhaps good in the context of this story.

As a devil's advocate argument, couldn't the reason the doctor's good looks matter, be that it makes it more believable for the teenage character to actually WANT to be with her? For instance, when most people see a 21 year old fashion model with an ugly older man, they assume she's in it for the money, but if the older man was very attractive, they might be less tempted to assume that.

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 4:13AM

Perception of whether a person is "good" or has a "good personality" has a lot to do with how pretty their face is, unfortunately. I think that's a good point, but even taking looks completely out of the equation, it's just as true that this kind of relationship is almost always bad in real life, but perhaps good in the context of this story.

I just added a real life part to my post. My story has happy ending, but it took years to get there.

As a devil's advocate argument, couldn't the reason the doctor's good looks matter, be that it makes it more believable for the teenage character to actually WANT to be with her?

It’s ok for a teenage character to do whatever. Nobody expects from a 16yo girl to know anything about life, besides her own experience. It seems legit.
But doctor...

It’s ok for a teenage character to do whatever. Nobody expects from a 16yo girl to know anything about life, besides her own experience. It seems legit.
But doctor...

I think that's one of if not THE main thing the author is playing with here.

It’s ok for a teenage character to do whatever. Nobody expects from a 16yo girl to know anything about life, besides her own experience. It seems legit.
But doctor...

I think that's one of if not THE main thing the author is playing with here.

I think that it's a good story, which is also gorgeously drawn and the characters are very believable.
But the perception of the story by readers - that's what pisses me off.
Just like Joker x Harley fans, who find their relationships romantic and stay happy as long as Harley finds a way to achieve even a small piece of happiness from her crazy and abusive boyfriend.

It’s ok for a teenage character to do whatever. Nobody expects from a 16yo girl to know anything about life, besides her own experience. It seems legit.
But doctor...

I think that's one of if not THE main thing the author is playing with here.

I think that it's a good story, which is also gorgeously drawn and the characters are very believable.
But the perception of the story by readers - that's what pisses me off.
Just like Joker x Harley fans, who find their relationships romantic and stay happy as long as Harley finds a way to achieve even a small piece of happiness from her crazy and abusive boyfriend.

Even if some people don't see the story in a balanced way, is it really so bad for readers to find and enjoy the beauty in it in spite of its ugliness? If you're familiar with the VN Saya no Uta, that's a story that takes themes like this to an extreme; a romance with so many obviously horrible things about it, yet still one that is beautiful in a way, and can be empathized with.

Joker x Harley on the other hand is terrible and has zero redeeming qualities the way it's usually written

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 4:48AM

It’s ok for a teenage character to do whatever. Nobody expects from a 16yo girl to know anything about life, besides her own experience. It seems legit.
But doctor...

I think that's one of if not THE main thing the author is playing with here.

I think that it's a good story, which is also gorgeously drawn and the characters are very believable.
But the perception of the story by readers - that's what pisses me off.
Just like Joker x Harley fans, who find their relationships romantic and stay happy as long as Harley finds a way to achieve even a small piece of happiness from her crazy and abusive boyfriend.

Even if some people don't see the story in a balanced way, is it really so bad for readers to find and enjoy the beauty in it in spite of its ugliness? If you're familiar with the VN Saya no Uta, that's a story that takes themes like this to an extreme; a romance with so many obviously horrible things about it, yet still one that is beautiful in a way, and can be empathized with.

Joker x Harley on the other hand is terrible and has zero redeeming qualities the way it's usually written

Welcome to the grey zone, where everything is not so obvious? I don't say you can't enjoy the story if it contains edgy materials. Quite the contrary, I think that authors must explore disturbing themes, because it's the only way to understand what's right and what's wrong.
But I'm not agree with the outcomes of this manga. And I think most of the readers just don't care, because it looks awesome. That's my point.

I think that authors must explore disturbing themes, because it's the only way to understand what's right and what's wrong.

Isn't that a bit simplistic? Aren't there things are neither right nor wrong, or impossible to determine objectively?

But I'm not agree with the outcomes of this manga. And I think most of the readers just don't care, because it looks awesome. That's my point.

On what grounds do you disagree with the story? And how do you know readers aren't aware of the themes of the story? As far as I can tell most understand them just fine.

But I'm not agree with the outcomes of this manga. And I think most of the readers just don't care, because it looks awesome. That's my point.

I'm pretty sure everyone's perfectly aware that Wei's actions are selfish, inconsiderate and very very damaging to everyone around her - that is kinda the point of her character after all.
At the same time I believe a good story doesn't stem from how morally good or bad the characters in it are - I don't think morality has a place in the judgement of art at all! Art should be judged solely by artistic criteria imo.
So, even on the assumption that readers do not care or accept or excuse or whatever the Doctor's questionable choices (which, as I said, I don't think it's the case), I fail to see how judging a comic by its drawings constitutes a bad thing. Sure, you could say there's a lot more to comics than just aesthetics: storytelling, character development ecc; but at the end of the day we're talking about an artistic medium. What I mean to say is that every one of those things I mentioned above on its own is a far better standard than ethics in this case. And by no means the appreciation of any work of art implies the acceptance of whatever's displayed in it.

Hmm, she's watching Leon the Professional, a movie about a relationship between an adult and a minor. Interesting.

This is clearly an incredibly subtle hint that the Doctor is secretly an assassin!

Oooooh, Leon!

Also, once more I'm pressing next, but there's nothing more!

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 11:11AM

This... is gonna end really bad. :/ I just have that feeling. The beautiful art seems like it's part of the justification that Wei Wei is making to be with a 16 year old and I bet as the art unravels, so will the story.

That's really odd logic. Personally I don't think this'll turn out bad. No doubt there'll be more drama, especially with Ding Yi's family, but at worst this'll end with both having matured and gotten over their troubles.

Leon the professional movie!!!

It probably doesn't make a difference to some but the age gap in Leon The Professional and Beloved are quite different.

Leon spoiler Also in Leon it's an unrequited love, Mathilda has a crush on Leon but he doesn't really reciprocate those feelings. His actions are more fatherly than anything

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 3:48PM

this was a good chapter. seemed to be about Wei Wei having depression and just needing someone to be with her for a while.

It probably doesn't make a difference to some but the age gap in Leon The Professional and Beloved are quite different.

There isn't really much of a parallel between the two stories except for that a) there's an age gap, and b) the younger one comes from some type of neglect.

But Mathilda is just 12, which is an enormous difference to someone who is 16, Wei Wei seems vastly more stable than Leon, our cute lesbians have actual sex and a relationship while Leon and his loli don't, and nobody kills anyone for money here. I don't think them watching this movie is supposed to mean anything; it's just a bit of a gag.

... every time I look at that first chapter I'm reminded of the two times I was very surprised about the age of someone. First time was on a holiday, when they turned up with a bottle of whiskey, handed to them by their parents - well, maybe that's not a great indication for age, but I'd have guessed them older than 14 cough Second time was actually in Japan - was just walking around at night and dropped by a McDonald's, and the salesgirl looked roughly to be ... 12. Logically though that can't possibly be right. ^^ But I guess that's just Asians. Or maybe child labor, who knows ...

I guess if we go by the actors ages, in Leon, Leon is 30, while Mathilda is 12. The gap is the same as between Wei Wei (34) and Ding Yi (16) but aged up.

I'd argue that in the movie, Leon hasn't mentally matured much past the age of 18, when he met significant trauma, while Matilda is mentally more mature for her age. (re: "I've stopped growing, I'm just getting older.") It feels like the director really wanted to make the audience uncomfortable though... Leon does come to realize that he loves Matilda, and gives everything that he has to her (tragically), whether it would have played out as a sexual (as Matilda wanted) or just continued as a fatherly relationship is left unknown.

How this related to Beloved, maybe it's in line with Wei Wei's feelings that she's been thrown into this situation, wants to help Ding Yi, but despite her adulthood, she doesn't have the proper experience or tools to help.

Pyoro

Yeah it just looked like some commenters were possibly going down that route of comparing them which is the only real reason i mentioned that. Also i completely agree with you.

RIkai

Too me it's not so much the ages in the age gap but the difference in ages. 12 is quite different from 16. As Pyoro and i were discussing.

You do bring up some valid points though.

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 4:53PM

[Spoiler alert!!!! Because idk how to write spoiler tag]
People, Leon really likes Mathilda and Mathilda likes Leon but this is a large age gap. In script they had sex, just look for it but the scene was deleted. In movie the scene is right after Mathilda dress a mature clothes and before she wake up in bed with Leon.

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 6:08PM

I think that authors must explore disturbing themes, because it's the only way to understand what's right and what's wrong.

Isn't that a bit simplistic? Aren't there things are neither right nor wrong, or impossible to determine objectively?

You're trolling me right now, yes? Or you are serious? If you are, I'll answer properly to all your questions.

[Spoiler alert!!!! Because idk how to write spoiler tag]
People, Leon really likes Mathilda and Mathilda likes Leon but this is a large age gap. In script they had sex, just look for it but the scene was deleted. In movie the scene is right after Mathilda dress a mature clothes and before she wake up in bed with Leon.

That was in version 1 of the script but it got removed and i think she was slightly older.

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 7:16PM

[Spoiler alert!!!! Because idk how to write spoiler tag]
People, Leon really likes Mathilda and Mathilda likes Leon but this is a large age gap. In script they had sex, just look for it but the scene was deleted. In movie the scene is right after Mathilda dress a mature clothes and before she wake up in bed with Leon.

Apparently she was also older in that script too.

She was 12. You can check in official movie script.

last edited at Jan 27, 2018 7:15PM