Loveless volumes 7 -12 - My thoughts
> After volume 8 I don't think Seimei actually loves Ritsuka. I think he sees him more as a posession, the same way that he once 'loved' Soubi. Poor Ritsuka. I think Ritsuka will still continue to love him unconditionally despite this.
> The revelations about Soubi's past made a lot of things make a lot of sense. It's now apparent that Soubi's 'love' of Ritsuka stems not from romantic love, but from Ritsuka being his 'world'. Soubi, with his parents dying when he was a young child, being brought up coldly by Ritsu-sensei, has been raised purely to exist for his fighter. His only purpose in life is to protect that person. And so Ritsuka, quite literally, is Soubi's everything, so it's no wonder he clings to him like he does. Especially since his last fighter, Seimei, abandonded him. And I'm glad for this revelation, because of besides from the creey concept of an adult man being in love with a 12 year old, a romantic relationship between the two of them would just be cliche and predictable. Which I'd completely hate, and would stop me taking the series that seriously. I admittedly used to find Soubi somewhat creepy, but everything has now fallen in to place, and I just feel so, so sorry for him. The guy really does seem to be an emotional trainwreck. After his mini-breakdown in volume 8 it made you realise how fragile he really is. The poor guy seems one disaster away from a nervous breakdown.
> But throughout volume 7-12, I've been wondering what's happened to Ritsuka's mother? She has only been shown once. And I know that it would distract from the drama at hand but, wouldn't it, uh, be somewhat realistic to show Ritsuka wondering about his mother atleast once? She must of been going completely out of her mind during those days/weeks (?) he was gone. Aren't we going to be shown how she reacted to it? Misaki is a character I really feel for. Her physical and emotional abuse of Ritsuka is horrendous, but I really, really feel for her. It's shown that she was abused herself, and is indicated that her mental health has been falling apart for a long, long time now. You have so many evil abusive parents/step-parents in manga and fiction, so it was so nice (if that is the right word) to see an abusive parent who isn't a one dimensional evil, uncaring parent, but whom is shown to have reasons behind the abuse, and to be very, very damaged themself. Yun Kouga stated this in an interview that doing this was one of her intentions when she was creating the manga, so why has she suddenly dropped her character? It's such a significant and pivotal part of Ritsuka's life and character, so don't just cut her out at the manga's convenience!
> On the same note, what happened to Ritsuka's psychiatrist sessions too?
> Ritsu-sensei slept with Soubi?! When he was what -15?! 16?! That's just too creepy 0.0.
> And then, of course, there is the mind-screw revelation about Kio's secret lovechild.
- She doesn't look like him.
- I don't really like her. She's a bit of a stuck up brat. She's not cute T_T.
- It seems rather out of the blue. And I know a revelation generally does come out of the blue (and that is the point of it), but this is really like 'Huh - WHAT?!...'. It kinda means you can't take it that seriously; there should have atleast been hints or forshadowing beforehand.
- And, of course, her ears, or rather, her lack of them. Which considering the fact that she must be no more than 12, is very significant. Sexual abuse, maybe? Or some kind of 'rite' as future head of the family? Either of these are rather sinister.
- It's a random thing to say, but she is also one of my candidates for the real Loveless fighter unit. It will be likely to be someone who we wouldn't expect, who is a low key character, who has only been introduced lately, and also, she does seem to be somewhat mysterious and hiding something. She commented that her father is 'weak, and needs protecting', which makes me think that she is hiding some kind of secret power.
- Oh, and Kio's sister is 'Huh - WHAT?!' as well.
- It looks like he is going to have a bigger role to play in the plot of Loveless from now on, which should be interesting.
> And I think these are all the chapters that are out as of now. If anyone knows of any more about the chapters and the series serialisation, could they please tell me :3 ?