Prelim Review: Oh my. Let me toss the warnings out here first and put this behind a spoiler thing as well. WARNING: Male/male explicit sex, rape, non-con, vulgar language, male nudity, violence and disturbing images.

That's out of the way now.

If none of the above scared you off then you're in for a treat. Gorgeously drawn artwork, coupled with a tense storyline and engaging characters (whether you want them to be or not) make this a series to indulge in. The story begins with a prose prologue (with two illustrations) that won't make sense until later in the book. The first illustrated page opens with Katsuya being chided that 'it will feel good' and 'it won't hurt' by a man in shadows as his arms are bound behind him.

This sets up a tense series of increasingly violent and brutal dreams that Katsuya has even before he begins talking with Shinohara Keiji. Katsuya delves into the minds of the criminally insane and Shinohara was a case he worked on for a number of years, so its sufficient to say he knows the man. Or thinks he does.

Full review to be posted at Poisoned Rationality ( )

After two years since the last chapter (I actually wanted to give up this series for a long time, given how long it's taken for individual chapters to come out vs. cost of those chapters - what I've paid for ITW is a lot for something I don't even have physical tankubon for), I've come back and I'm surprised to find things like the sex scenes seem a lot more censored than they used to be. There's a lot of fade to black which continues in the next chapter as well. Once it used to be noted in TV Tropes for its 'explicit sex scenes' and not skimping, well... It's skimping. Big time.

One of the great hooks of this story for me, along with the serial killer element, was also the sexual tension/chemistry between Asano and Shinohara in particular. Here, there's an opportunity to depict great hurt/comfort sex given Asano's recovery from his ordeal. But we don't get that at all.

This series started really strong, but it feels like the authors aren't as invested in it anymore due taking on multiple other projects. Or perhaps they're excited to wrap up this part of the story, and are more focused on the exposition here. Either way, it read as flat to me, and a bit lacklustre. ( )

I wanted to give this a much higher review, but with fade-to-black sex in a previously erotic series, and taking *checks watch* at least 8 years to wrap up this storyline, I just...can't, even if the art is still pretty. For those curious, this officially ends one storyline, but doesn't begin the next, and leaves things in limbo once more for Asano and Shinohara.

As someone with PTSD, I'm really not a fan of the Mnemosyne project being the go to. It's implausible, and that's fine, but what about hypnosis therapy? Regression therapy? Maybe those things came up 7 years ago and I've forgotten.

Overall: I'm dinging this for not even ante-ing up to do an explicit scene between Asano and Shinohara given it was their last moment to be intimate together before we roll into the events of the first half of the series. Additionally, the 'science' behind the PTSD is implausible and some of the statistics are just flat out wrong. I don't mind ridiculous stuff being made up for a storyline, it is fiction after all, but it was hard to suspend my disbelief for.

In addition, there's no kind of glimpse of what to expect from here on out, and at the end the 'we hope this revelation was worth the wait' but...it really wasn't. We got the most interesting part of the story in the first half, and the last half has been largely dry exposition, far less explicit sex scenes, and what feels like writers so invested in exposition that they lost track of pacing.

It should not have taken so many chapters (or years) to simply reveal that Asano wanted to use the Mnemosyne program on himself once we knew - from Shinohara all the way back in chapter 8, that Asano was the mastermind of the plan. That's stacking your story with the most interesting content first, and the least interesting content last - no wonder they published faster in the beginning; that was their best content and they were probably/possibly more passionate about it at the time rather than side projects.

I think the last half of this arc existed to give a better idea of Shinohara's character, how much he loves Asano, and how much they work as a relationship. But with the skimping on the sex scenes on a regular basis, constant fade to black, and far less emotional connection, it really misses the mark. By the end, I didn't care about Shinohara's feelings, which is going to make whatever the future volumes hold (I suspect or hope recovery from the new exciting potential PTSD that Asano is going to have from Shinohara's actions) much less interesting for me personally.

I don't know if I'll continue with this series. For me, the most interesting chapters were 1-9, and if the publication schedule is anything to go by, that was true for the authors as well, and you know what, it shows.

I know some of you probably have far more patience than I do, and much respect to you. But damn, I've gone through cancer treatment while reading this series, I'm not going to live forever, and 8 years of my life for something that ends this arc with a whimper and not a bang gets a solid one star from me. ( )

From the synopsis, I expected this to be a dark story: a serial killer is willing to talk, but only to the police psychiatrist who helped orchestrate his capture. What I didn’t expect was the violent sexual imagery (since it’s listed as yaoi, I had anticipated Asano having a lover & romance outside the case). The book opens with a prose prologue, which is unusual in manga/yaoi. However, it was an excellent tool to give the reader background to set the stage. Soon after he agrees to interview the killer, Asano begins having horrific nightmares of being violently raped by him. And the first such nightmare immediately follows the prologue, in explicit detail. Thereafter, the story shifts between the actual interviews and Asano’s nightmares – all violent, vivid and extremely graphic.

I would not classify this as yaoi because it is not a love story; not even a so-called rape fantasy. I think this manga would be better classified as horror. Though they are nightmares (and not “really” happening), the sexual situations are disturbing, and involve bloodshed. This manga is not for the faint of heart. However, the graphic rapes do fit the serial killer storyline. I gave this five stars, not as a yaoi romance, but as a horror novel. Though the ending was predictable, I am still interested in reading volume 2. Especially considering this closes on a cliffhanger. Overall, recommended to those looking for a dark, edgy manga, but those expecting romantic yaoi should consider themselves warned. ( )