The second book is rather weird but different from normal Shonen-Ai books. The first has many pages of R18. One of my favorite Artists though and Snarry is my OTP
Last two are R18. Hard Yaoi. I love it when books that say R18 are definitely R18. I have others that say R18 but honestly they are not save for like a page or two.
Idk if someone already talked about this but i think that the reason why Ash trusted Eiji since the beginning was the age and the way he sees adulthood.
For Ash adults were always people who tried to get something from him, or in general people who only want money and sex and power, using others for their interests and then throw them away. He doesn’t have a great idea about adults at least not in the beginning.
(despite that he had some “mentor figure” in his life like blanca and i’m pretty sure books played this important part as well, giving him a sense of normal life so he had something good out of it)
The only people he trusts without doubting are only the ones with the same age as him like Shorter and his group (which is formed only by young people) or even a child like Skipper.
But Eiji is older than him, so why does he trust him so carelessy?
I think that Eiji stands in the perfect line between adolescence and adulthood for Ash.
At the beggining Ash makes fun of him for being too young, the series in general tend to look at Eiji as someone who has less experience than Ash in like everything. Ash plays with him calling him onii-chan and protecting him knowing that Eiji isn’t like him and should not change. So he is put as someone “childish” than Ash and this makes him feel safe and trust him.
At the same time Eiji is not only that. He’s responsable and have a lot of stereotypical asian behaviour like waking up early, being healthy ecc and being the one who takes care of Ash in his own “old” way. But not only, he recognize Ash feelings and understand it better than Ash himself. He has this more “passive” behaviour that is in contrasy with the crazy life that Ash has and is exactly what Ash needs. He’s like the Yin energy, being passive and listening, showing love by spending his time with his loved ones, caring for Ash in a way that is almost like a healthy parental figure and the list goes on.
Ash sees that as a form of maturity and being a responsible adult but doesn’t hate it. He loves Eiji for that, because Eiji is like that. He isn’t getting anything by caring for him. For Ash this is a healthy adult. Eiji doesn’t put himself in a position of power for being older, doesn’t use Ash to get something, he’s not after money or power, he’s just himself.
This applies also with the culture they are from: american culture is more of an active, masculine, strong energy while japanese culture is the opposite. For western culture being passive is seen as weakness while in the japanese culture passivity is a feminine energy and is another form of power. Emotions are a part of us and if you understand it, that’s power. Listening is power, giving time to others is power and Eiji do that perfectly.
The balance between the two is almost perfect despite the differences. I think that the story wants to talk about that: eiji is not seen weak for not being active or fighting, he’s doing a lot just by being there for Ash. He has this “power” on Ash to the point where he wants to die for him because love and care are power.
