Yeah...this really went from kind of a generic porn tone that wasn't meant to be taken very seriously...to dealing with trauma, and it's a jarring shift in my opinion.
I think it’s a really interesting choice. Abuse can look like many different things. I know there’s people who in the moment when they were younger thought that it felt good or was cool or okay that only over time discover how much it hurt them. That kind of attention can feel exhilarating, and it can cover over the darker things it makes you feel.
So yeah it’s kind of interesting to see the porn fantasy depiction of the previous chapter contrasted with the abuse trauma of this chapter. I can’ve be certain whether it’s intentional but I find if to be a really affecting way of portraying such a specific and complicated experience and set of emotions.
That aside, I think it’s really sweet what our two protagonists have together. Their experience is complicated and unorthodox and like they say, seems pretty combative, but I think in a moment like this you can see that it’s something beautiful. This chapter is really powerful.
It’s kind of crazy to believe the kiss they’re talking about was a “room you can’t leave” type of setup. I love it when works play with the expectations of those kinds of things, and the almost surreal way that such a contrived event is included into the grounded world the rest of this manga has become.
Maybe this is tinfoil hat territory, but I can see a connection between the escape room/adult life romance fallout and the sexual abuse of the past chapter. Both are the kind of thing you’d expect to see a oneshot about that ends when the event itself does, bc they’re typically written for their utility. But what if you hang out with the characters afterward? What if you have to stand in the same room as them and hear them talk about how their job is draining them, or how they’re genuinely struggling with their sexuality, or how they behave with their partner? It’s humanizing in a way that recontextualizes that moment as part of a human life. It’s really interesting!