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Ai no Kusabi #4
Ai no Kusabi Vol. 4: Suggestion
Released from Iason's curse, Riki is spending his days idly in the slums when he's drawn into a trap - is it a secret plot of uninvited visitor Kirie, or could it also be a cruel way to force Riki to choose between the body of his old roommate Guy and his own pride? Riki revives the memories of his three years of lust and masochism with Iason. Is freedom just an illusion?
184 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 27, 2024
Matters move apace. Katze, who was in the beginning an envious, nasty, arrogant kid, is moving up in the world. While the other characters remain much the same, Katze’s changing, which makes this installment a little more interesting than the previous volumes.
Iason Mink is coming off less as a powerful, cool, masterful Tanagura Blondy than as a man possibly suffering from a deep psychosis. Never having experienced human emotion before, his encounter with Riki has thrown him off his mental rails. He’s become a stalker, descending to illegal kidnapping, incarceration and psychosexual manipulation of his prey, whom he refuses to consider as anything but a pet. But, since he is an android, albeit with a fleshy brain, perhaps that can explain his behavior if not entirely excuse it.
Reading about Riki’s inevitable return to the status of a pet was difficult and emotionally wrenching. But his plight is indicative of this world as a whole. More than anything else, this volume reveals just how deeply intertwined are the various strands that make up life on this planet. In spite of considering the slum mongrels of Area 9 to be less than human, the denizens of Midas could not exist without them, something of which most of them are seemingly unaware. People living at the top of the totem pole are wholly dependent on those they consider their inferiors.
Even if you are morally against a world fashioned of glittering excess on one side and filthy degradation on the other, it is fascinating to read about people struggling to eke out their existences on either side of an invisible divide.
Iason Mink is coming off less as a powerful, cool, masterful Tanagura Blondy than as a man possibly suffering from a deep psychosis. Never having experienced human emotion before, his encounter with Riki has thrown him off his mental rails. He’s become a stalker, descending to illegal kidnapping, incarceration and psychosexual manipulation of his prey, whom he refuses to consider as anything but a pet. But, since he is an android, albeit with a fleshy brain, perhaps that can explain his behavior if not entirely excuse it.
Reading about Riki’s inevitable return to the status of a pet was difficult and emotionally wrenching. But his plight is indicative of this world as a whole. More than anything else, this volume reveals just how deeply intertwined are the various strands that make up life on this planet. In spite of considering the slum mongrels of Area 9 to be less than human, the denizens of Midas could not exist without them, something of which most of them are seemingly unaware. People living at the top of the totem pole are wholly dependent on those they consider their inferiors.
Even if you are morally against a world fashioned of glittering excess on one side and filthy degradation on the other, it is fascinating to read about people struggling to eke out their existences on either side of an invisible divide.
April 3, 2023
so blondy is back...knew it!
May 3, 2020
Just when I was getting fed up with the constant repetition of information about Ceres and the gangs in the slums that I really don't want to hear about anymore... a real jewel comes to the fore. Kirie... I was ambivalent about him when he was just a mouthy brat but wow, the guy really grew into the shoes he's been wanting to fill. Such cleverness and guile and skill, I didn't see it coming but damn, I love to see it all in action. Truly, I wish this one had lit up Iason's radar as well, because he has the looks, the attitude and the smarts to be ten times more interesting than Riki. In fact, had Riki but an ounce of Kirie's cleverness and ambition, he would have Iason eating out of the palm of his hand.
Speaking of the beloved, troubled Blondie, the lengths he goes to for Riki, the expenditure of effort and money and heh, the patience he shows (one year w/o his favorite boybtoy!)... and still Riki remains the same obtuse dummy. I guess his rebellious and defiant nature is what pushes all of Iason's buttons, but damnation, he should have picked someone less stupid to obsess over.
I had to smile at the scene where Iason analyzes the way he's slipped and lost himself. He knows it, is somewhat bitter about it but still not completely rocked off his perch. I loved the way his inexperience in this situation is pointed out, his disconcerting vulnerability which he is aware of and rattled by... but also challenged by. I amused myself picturing him with a chibi Raoul muttering sermons in his ear, because Raoul is the voice of reason that no one listens to.
I can only hope for the last 3 volumes that we will finally leave the slums behind and focus more on Tanagura, on Jupiter, on what really makes this world exciting and intriguing. I've had about enough of miserable, hopeless, annoying slum crap. Show me the power and the elites already!
Speaking of the beloved, troubled Blondie, the lengths he goes to for Riki, the expenditure of effort and money and heh, the patience he shows (one year w/o his favorite boybtoy!)... and still Riki remains the same obtuse dummy. I guess his rebellious and defiant nature is what pushes all of Iason's buttons, but damnation, he should have picked someone less stupid to obsess over.
I had to smile at the scene where Iason analyzes the way he's slipped and lost himself. He knows it, is somewhat bitter about it but still not completely rocked off his perch. I loved the way his inexperience in this situation is pointed out, his disconcerting vulnerability which he is aware of and rattled by... but also challenged by. I amused myself picturing him with a chibi Raoul muttering sermons in his ear, because Raoul is the voice of reason that no one listens to.
I can only hope for the last 3 volumes that we will finally leave the slums behind and focus more on Tanagura, on Jupiter, on what really makes this world exciting and intriguing. I've had about enough of miserable, hopeless, annoying slum crap. Show me the power and the elites already!
December 23, 2010
I was pretty much interested in Katze's story in the previous volume, but his current affairs (especially those that don't concern the main characters directly) described in this volume didn't seem that much compelling.
Detailed descriptions of Katze's and Kirie's doings in this volume just didn't rub me the right way.
Detailed descriptions of Katze's and Kirie's doings in this volume just didn't rub me the right way.
May 20, 2015
Just look at this face...Riki was right from the get go not to trust him. He looks like one of them evuuuul porcelain faced dolls. Lil' shit...
November 27, 2022
Parallels of power, passion, and manipulation are drawn in this book. Iason springs his trap for Riki with Guy as the bait. Only he comes to Riki when Riki refuses to step into the trap in an intensely erotic reunion. Riki finds satisfaction, satiation with Iason in a way that’s utterly wrong and utterly fulfilling at the same time. Iason reveals he’s not nearly as in control as he pretends to be, even to himself. There’s a parallel in this with Kirie seducing and dominating Manon, the spoiled and arrogant son of the Master of Guardian, getting him to spill his secrets. Manon finds satisfaction with Kirie he can’t find anywhere else, getting as addicted to him as Riki is to Iason, as Iason is to Riki, and Kirie is to power. Guardian, the supposed Eden all slum kids are cast out from turns out to be more sinister than the slums itself. Katz, the mysterious Black market trader reveals his connections not only to Iason, but to Guardian as well. Repelled by the world he lives in, Katz remains the most sane and successful character in this series, a series that is very like an onion. Peel back each layer, find another. Only it’s another mystery, another horror lying beneath the previous one. The hopelessness of the situation is the hope, for it cannot last. It’s breaking down from the force of the passions of those caught within the web of this corrupt world. Those without passion don’t have the strength to break free. There’s a curious poetry to this depiction of despair and horror along with the passions ready to rip it apart.
February 13, 2025
Los últimos dos capítulos estuve a punto de saltármelos completos, es interesante conocer todo el trasfondo de cómo opera el mundo de Ceres y Tanagura pero vamos, ¡A mí denme más de nuestro Blondy y su pet!
Leer como ambos finalmente empiezan a aceptar que se encuentran en lo más profundo del hoyo donde han caído es tan placentero jaja. Los extremos a los que llega Iason, todo por Riki, tantas red flags y aún así pienso: ¡¿Dónde consigo uno así para mí?! xD. Su relación obsesiva-dependiente es tan interesante y llena de intensidad, ¡Me encanta!
Ah, por otro lado, ¿Será que en los próximos volúmenes sigamos teniendo esas redundantes descripciones sobre la pobre y marginal existencia en los barrios bajos? Porque ya estoy cansada de lo mismo xd.
Reiko Yoshihara, eres grande.
Leer como ambos finalmente empiezan a aceptar que se encuentran en lo más profundo del hoyo donde han caído es tan placentero jaja. Los extremos a los que llega Iason, todo por Riki, tantas red flags y aún así pienso: ¡¿Dónde consigo uno así para mí?! xD. Su relación obsesiva-dependiente es tan interesante y llena de intensidad, ¡Me encanta!
Ah, por otro lado, ¿Será que en los próximos volúmenes sigamos teniendo esas redundantes descripciones sobre la pobre y marginal existencia en los barrios bajos? Porque ya estoy cansada de lo mismo xd.
Reiko Yoshihara, eres grande.
October 28, 2022
La autora además de regalarnos una de las escenas yaoi más eroticas que he leído en el género, se toma el tiempo para desarrollar su historia, sus personajes y un mundo cyberpunk complejo y fascinante.
Francamente al iniciar este libro no me esperaba que se desarrollará tan bien la historia y los personajes. Me queda claro porque Ai no Kusabi es un clásico dentro del yaoi.
Francamente al iniciar este libro no me esperaba que se desarrollará tan bien la historia y los personajes. Me queda claro porque Ai no Kusabi es un clásico dentro del yaoi.
January 29, 2022
Que sensualidad se cargan ellos dos, ¡OMG!
December 21, 2022
Thin you for your time thick for sure ext k if having snacks thank JC and sync t I'll hold blank thanks I'll find dumb do JC since you do it in honey police if CNN if NV Duncan.
February 3, 2024
"devi sempre pagare un prezzo per ottenere qualcosa."
August 13, 2015
WOW. The writing and story just keeps getting better and better! Riki has gone back to Iason in order to save Guy and Kirie has taken to using Manon for his own benefit. So lots of intrigue this time around.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 17, 2021
What happened to Guy? Will Riki be able to save him? The present continues...
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews