Obey Your God (Adult Content)

Obey Your God. An interesting title, right? Well, given that the work in question is an explicit doujin, I can guess quite well what some of those commands might entail.

Hajime, the firstborn of the village’s elder, is sent to pay respects to the local deity. However, as he approaches the shrine, he sees two men having sex outside. Shocked, and more than a little curious, he hides in a nearby bush and observes until they are done. The man who remains calls out to Hajime and, as it turns out, he is the local deity, Suiren, and, observing Hajime’s interest as well as innocence, he decides that he’s going to, in his own words, “take a nibble.”

The story is rather basic although there is a component that I think is worth addressing. The majority of the tale is devoted to their sexual encounter although the last few pages are more about figuring out what their future relationship is going to be. It’s nothing remarkable although there is a strange but interesting extra included which is an afterword by Shikakui Kuromaru who provides a few paragraphs describing what happened to Hajime and Suiren in the years after. It’s certainly an interesting inclusion but it ultimately doesn’t change that there isn’t much substance to the story that is actually drawn for us.

When it comes to these simpler, sex-heavy stories, the character’s personalities are paramount to maintaining our interest so let’s take a look at our two leads. Hajime is a nice and innocent young man who perhaps is a little too naive. He’s easily seduced by Suiren and I found some of his dialogue during their sex scene to be a little odd but his earnestness is quite endearing. Suiren is a little more of a mixed bag. His early interactions with Hajime seem quite predatory with his primary purpose being to extract spirit energy from Hajime’s semen. However, I thought it was quite interesting that this results in him being a power bottom. Being relatively inexperienced with yaoi, I thought that this was quite a refreshing dynamic to see. He does soften later on but the majority of his character development is restricted to that afterword that I mentioned. Had this been part of the story that was drawn, I’d be a little warmer to him but it’s not.

With regards to the artwork, the character designs are quite nice. Hajime is a handsome man and has some wonderful facial expressions when he is shocked! Suiren is also attractive with a toned body, long flowing hair and pointed ears. Some of their anatomy seemed odd occasionally but this didn’t end up being too distracting. There are some panels with detailed backgrounds but the majority feature negative spacing along with various effects such as motion lines, sparkles and dots. There’s some interesting use of paneling with characters regularly breaking through the borders and smaller panels for close-ups and motion although most of it is par for the course.

As I mentioned, there is an afterword included that explains the years following the events of the story. It is nice that it was included although it does show how a continuation could’ve improved upon the initial chapter with some much needed character development.

Obey Your God is a decent yaoi for those looking for a sex-heavy read with two good-looking men but those looking for something deeper will find themselves left wanting. The afterword showed the potential this work had but, based on what has actually been drawn here, it’s merely passable for those looking for graphic yaoi content.

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