The Tyrant Falls in Love
Generic yaoi plot: Aloof Seme meets cheerful Uke, seme rapes uke, uke falls in love with seme. Now, replace "aloof" with "upbeat and long-suffering," "cheerful" with "violent-tempered and homophobic," and "falls in love with" with "tries his damnedest to deny his feelings for" and you have Hinako Takanaga's Koisuru Boukun or, as it's known in English, The Tyrant Falls in Love.
A Spin-Off of Challengers, which had side characters Souichi Tatsumi, Tomoe's homophobic and tyrannical older brother, and Tetsuhiro Morinaga, his lab assistant and kohai who harbors a longtime crush on him. Despite Souichi's homophobia, Morinaga managed to confess his love for him without Souichi promptly beating the living daylights out of him or getting as far away from him as possible. Souichi, however, did kiss Morinaga in exchange for them forgetting that anything ever happened to compromise their friendship.
The Tyrant Falls in Love takes place about a year after these events, with nothing much changed. Souichi is still a homophobic tyrant and Morinaga still his loyal and lovelorn companion. It looks like Morinaga's 5-year-old unrequited love will only drag on, until one night when Souichi, on a drinking binge at Morinaga's house, unknowingly downs an aphrodisiac stored in the back of a cabinet. Morinaga finds Souichi turned on and rendered immobile, realizes that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and finally does what he's been waiting for five years to do with Souichi.
Since this isn't exactly typical BL fare, the morning after has Souichi attempt to murder Morinaga. When that fails, Morinaga decides to remove himself from Souichi's life before he causes any more trouble...something which Souichi oddly doesn't take well to. But Souichi's a self-professed homophobe, so just because he doesn't like Morinaga leaving his side doesn't mean that a romantic relationship could ever form between the two, no matter how much Morinaga pursues Souichi, no matter how overly defensive Souichi becomes of his heterosexuality as if he's got something to hide, no matter how furiously he blushes even when telling Morinaga not to misinterpret his words...
...Right?
With characters able to elicit both laughs and sympathy, a thoroughly entertaining puppy-like seme/tsunderish uke dynamic, and hot sex scenes that feel more romantic than trashy, it's a fun ride to the end.
The Tyrant Falls in Love was licensed by DramaQueen, but got stuck in release limbo for over a year before being picked up by DMP for their June imprint; the first volume of the official English translation was released in September of 2010. An animated OVA which covers the first two chapters of Volume 1 also was released in the summer of 2010, and another OVA, covering chapters 3-5, was released in November of the same year..
- All Just a Dream: The sex scene that kicks off volume 3.
- Aloof Big Brother: Morinaga's older brother who has remained distant from him (along with the rest of Morinaga's family) for reasons concerning his homosexuality.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: It doesn't actually include the word "love," and is vague enough for Souichi to claim that he didn't mean it the way Morinaga takes it, but considering that Souichi shouts it out during a period of high stress and appears taken back by what he just blurted out, it likely fits.
- Happens again in the latest chapter. Once again, he doesn't use the word "love," but it's getting closer.
- Armor-Piercing Slap: Souichi has whacked Morinaga with a broken beer bottle for raping him, punched him really hard for his weeks-long disappearance from his life, dumped hot coffee on his head for him implying that they're more than friends, given him a boot to the head for accusing him of having a sexual relationship with another man...the list goes on.
- Badass Long Hair: Souichi - the guy may look feminine but he is absolutely terrifying to fight.
- Big No[context?]
- Can't Live with Them, Can't Live Without Them: Souichi tells Morinaga that he doesn't want to see his face again after he rapes him, but when Morinaga does exactly that and breaks off all contact with him, life feels strangely empty and lonely...
- Cool and Unusual Punishment: After discovering the true nature of Morinaga and Souichi's relationship, Isogai blackmails Souichi into coming over to his hotel and...singing karaoke of the Doraemon theme tune with him. It was all just because he's bored, but it leads to a Not What It Looks Like moment when Morinaga begins to worry Souichi is cheating on him.
- Did Not Do the Research: Los Angeles is named as the city where gay marriage was legalized in 2004 instead of San Francisco. This is later fixed when Kurokawa and Tomoe go to San Fransisco to get married. (Was also corrected in the edition released by June.)
- Contrary to the urban myth, it in fact doesn't hurt if you leave a hard-on by itself.
- But it's still pretty uncomfortable.
- Contrary to the urban myth, it in fact doesn't hurt if you leave a hard-on by itself.
- Disappeared Dad / Missing Mom: Souichi's Dad isn't mentioned at all, even though his family is a frequent issue in the series. Turns out, he was too busy hunting down rare insects. It took Souichi a whole month to track him down after their house burned down His mother is said to have died many, many years before the canon timeline.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Morinaga
- Driven to Suicide: Masaki, when his and Mori's relationship comes out to the community.
- Dude He's Like In A Coma
- Erotic Dream / Nocturnal Emission: Tearfully related by Morinaga, as the first page of Volume 3.
- Friends with Benefits: Violently denied by Souichi when Morinaga suggested that their relationship is this.
- Foregone Conclusion: Really, is there any chance of the tyrant not falling in love with the Dogged Nice Guy by the end of the series? Especially with a title like that?
- "Glad to Be Alive" Sex: Volume four. Souichi tries to pretend it didn't happen.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Souichi regards every offer Morinaga makes as a sexual advance. Sometimes he's actually right about his true intentions, but not always.
- Hot Scientist: Both leads.
- Hypocritical Humor: The tyrant is a homophobe who lets a homosexual have sex with him. He's absolutely, positively not a homosexual or in love with one. Sure... Well, it was rape at first, then consensual. But he still protests.
- I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Happens to both sides.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: In the vol.5 extra. Only, Masaki really does end up raping Kunihiro without interruption while telling him that he has absolutely no heart, that he cannot love, and how horrible of a person he was for hating his ex-best friend because of his sexuality. Oh, and that he's a filthy beast for orgasming when another man is touching him.
- Imagine Spot: Dear lord, Morinaga.
- Kissing Under the Influence: and far, far beyond that.
- Knight Templar Big Brother: Souichi threatens to fly to America to save his brother Tomoe from "corruption" after he hears the state of California has legalised gay marriage.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Souichi. Especially in Slipknot Ponytail mode.
- Love Martyr: Morinaga. Falling in love with an antisocial tyrant is bad enough, but staying in love with him for no less than four years even after he becomes hostile against your kind requires some pretty serious commitment.
- Love Hotels: Morinaga drags Souichi to one in Volume 3.
- Luminescent Blush
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: On the floor, in an alley, on the street (where they get spotted).
- Manly Tears
- Mistaken for Cheating
- Mistaken for Gay: Isogai
- Rape Is Love: The victim definitely doesn't fall hopelessly in love with the rapist in this case, though the rape appears to have been necessary to spark an incremental Relationship Upgrade between the tyrant and his assistant.
- As of volume 8, though, Kunihiro says he might be falling for Masaki, despite the fact that Masaki raped him. Kunihiro actually seems to imply this is what happened, though he himself isn't quite sure if it's really love.
- Second Love: Souichi is Morinaga's second love after Masaki.
- Selective Obliviousness: Souichi regarding his feelings for Morinaga. He even sort of admits this at one point, telling Morinaga that with their relationship upsetting his 5-year-long homophobia, the least he can do to try to straighten out his conflicted feelings is to protest when they're having sex.
- Sempai-Kohai
- He Is Not My Boyfriend: More accurately, "Don't make a guy sound like a homo!" and "I'm not your sex friend!"
- Single-Target Sexuality: Souichi openly states that Morinaga is the only one he's willing to have sex with, which Morinaga takes as a declaration that he's the only person Souichi can love. Of course, Souichi denies this romantic interpretation, though it's pretty hard to see what else his words could mean. (Interestingly, Morinaga, despite being the Love Martyr, doesn't fit this trope as he had been in love with another man before he met Souichi.)
- Slipknot Ponytail: Happens to Souichi during sex, making him look more conventionally ukeish.
- Shower of Angst: Souichi, immediately after having sex with Morinaga. Happens every time.
- Stoic Spectacles: Subverted in that Souichi looks the part, but is far, far more emotional tsundere than emotionless stoic. Morinaga's older brother, Kunihiro, is a bit more of a straight example, at least until Masaki corners and rapes him. We don't know how Kunihiro's disposition has been affected in the long run yet.
- Kunihiro seems to have gotten rid of this trope. He was pretty spirited when he told Morinaga that he may or may not be falling for Masaki and he's scared and confused by this.
- That Didn't Happen: Not quite a verbal agreement, but Souichi is extremely good at acting as if he and Morinaga have never crossed the line, to the point where Morinaga wonders if he only hallucinated having sex with him.
- Think Unsexy Thoughts: Morinaga's attempt to prevent a hard-on by mentally repeating the value of pi. It doesn't work.
- Tsundere: Souichi to an amazing degree. This exchange in volume 1 sums it up:
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Souichi: (concluding a long rant about how Morinaga's a bastard for disappearing from his life to use that as emotional blackmail) It's the exact same thing you did a year ago! You just go off and try to bear every fucking thing by yourself! You think if you threaten me that I'll just fold and give in to you, don't you! |
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- Will They or Won't They?: After eight volumes, it's confirmed that they will. And the fangirls rejoiced.