Beast – 4U

A beast frontman who has nothing but a body to believe in. A bizarre beautiful white dragon who wants to tame him and get his hands on him. Three pieces of muddy history that began in the late 80’s.

Dispar – 4U

Miha has always felt like an outsider, even within his own family. Sohwa takes full advantage of that, forcing him to do his biddings. However, an incident takes place that helps Miha and Sohwa to reflect and figure out what they are feeling for each other.

A double feature for Christmas with two riveting dark psychological manga about fucked up relationships.

Beast is the prequel, set in the 80s. Korean Jeon Doo-in, known as the Beast, works for a Chinese mob boss, Baek Ryong, known as the White Dragon. I picked this up because it reminded me so much of Captive Prince.

Doo-in does whatever Ryong tells him to do. Their relationship has always been antagonistic. At first glance, it seems like the larger man is some sort of very rude, highly aggressive indentured slave. There was a big scene of him being chained to the wall and whipped. I immediately thought of that scene where Laurent had Damen whipped.

There is a strong BDSM element here. Their sex frequently involves pain and blood play. The power dynamics is explicit with the dominant White Dragon fully clothed and the uke Beast naked. Later in the main story, the Beast gains power and is showed with some clothes on beside the White Dragon.

I really enjoyed the enemies with benefits thing they had going on and how they always gravitate towards each other. As the story progressed, we see stronger, more complex feelings and deeper ties between the two. I liked this one more than the main story.

Dispar is about Doo-in’s two sons. Miha is the older brother, the illegitimate son who is hopelessly in love with his younger brother. He tends to be submissive and passive. Sohwa is younger by 8 years but he’s bigger and more dominant. He’s also the biggest asshole there is. He’s the favorite causing Miha to feel left out. According to his bio, Sohwa loves Miha but doesn’t know it yet. Whatever.

The two are sleeping together, or more like, Miha lets himself get used by his younger brother just so he can get whatever crumb of affection he can get. Their already complicated relationship got even more convoluted when Sohwa was stabbed and had amnesia.

The story has the same vibe as Stalking Killing where the abused one is obsessed with his abusive love interest. I wasn’t really rooting for the two because I wasn’t drawn to any of them as characters. But there was something about the story that kept me reading.

It’s a very compelling manga by itself. Aside from the psychological aspect, we also get mystery, revenge, love triangles, and very intriguing side characters. With the additional motivation of seeing Doo-in and Ryung together again, I finished all the existing chapters up to the part where the mangaka went into hiatus. It’s a testament to how good it is because I normally wouldn’t read anything with more than 10 chapters and certainly not one with 30 chapters and still ongoing.

I won’t go outright and recommend this because I’m pretty sure this is not most people’s cup of tea. Please do heed the TWs: trauma, rape, incest, abuse.

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