REVIEW: Hate Me, But Let Me Stay (manga, vol. 1) by Hijiki, translated by Jacqueline Fung

Hate Me, But Let Me Stay is BL omegaverse manga. I bought my copy of this volume new.

Review:

Naoto, an omega, has been afraid of alphas since a bunch of them raped him when he was in high school. He's convinced himself that he doesn't need a mate - life is hard, sure, but he's determined to protect and provide for his young daughter, Shizuku, on his own. 

Still, when his mother asks him to go to a matchmaking party, he reluctantly attends...and is approached by a waiter, Hazuki, who happens to be an alpha, and who declares Naoto to be his fated mate. Naoto leaves and figures that'll be the end of things. With the help of a kindly mated old alpha, Naoto manages to get a job as a high school janitor, only to discover that the waiter he met at the party is one of the students at the school he's working for. 

If you're not familiar with omegaverse stories, this starts with a detailed 3-page explanation of the setup and its six sexes, complete with three male anatomy diagrams (alpha, beta, and omega), although the drawings are basic enough to still leave me with questions about how omega wombs fit in with all the rest of their organs. But whatever, on to the story.

Naoto has it rough. Although he takes inhibitors throughout the story, the poor guy can't seem to be around alphas for more than a few minutes without someone threatening to rape him. The fact that he's now an adult doesn't seem to make much of a difference.

Hazuki, who, for reasons, has been pretending to be a beta at school, desperately wants to prove to Naoto that he can be trusted and isn't like the rapey alphas he's known. However, as far as I'm concerned "not a rapist" is a fairly low bar to clear - I need more for a romance to really work for me, whereas the author seemed to think that that was plenty. 

The artwork in this didn't really work for me either, although I can't explain exactly why. Something about Shizuku looked really off-putting, and the one girl who showed up partway through the story had distractingly bad hair.

There were two extras that took place a few months (or years?) down the line. I liked those a bit more than the main story, but they were only about 20 pages of the total volume.

I just looked up volume 2, and it seems to take place after the bonus stories in this volume. Theoretically, that should mean fewer instances of Naoto crying and running/hiding from rapey alphas. I'm not sure that's enough for me to continue on, though.