In Love with the Strongest Man Chapter 18 Discussion

3.5 stars so far up to ch 18: 3 stars currently with a half star for potential. Kind of different setup with a first-person uke protagonist reviled by all due to a curse he's carried since childhood that makes others see him as disgusting, and is also physically scarred and has permanent injuries that are close to crippling and is in constant pain. The seme is an attractive hero who, of course, for some mysterious reason is immune to the curse and is very attentive and helpful toward the uke though obviously he has hidden motives and backstory and is proooobably a (mild?) yandere.

The story itself is very predictable in terms of character relationships and romance with Shuka being the oblivious low self-esteem type (in part due to trauma and in part due to genre cliché) who thinks Ideal is only helping him out of kindness and pity while due to the setup (and genre cliché) I was pretty sure from the first chapter that Ideal and Shuka knew each other as children and Shuka probably saved Ideal somehow which made Ideal fall in love with him and all these many long years Ideal has been searching for his lost savior-love.

The smut is serviceable if not remarkable if that's what you're here for and if not you can probably skip it without much issue. The smut is, of course, the method by which the hero "treats" Shuka's curse.

The story is very, very much like reading a typical yaoi manga, so if that's your jam, this story will be your bread and butter.

For the kind of generic story I've outlined so far, I would've given this a low three stars or maybe 2.5 stars for being okay but not particularly new or different. However, this story does actually have a plot and some mystery going for it, all of which are being slowly revealed such as more details about how Shuka acquired his curse and his own apparently unusual childhood, and of course the yet-to-be-fully-revealed link between him and Ideal, Ideal's background, and what he's been up to besides being a hero. A lot of details are mentioned off-hand or vaguely to begin with like Shuka's curse being a punishment from a cruel master, and in so many other stories that would be the full extent of detail we get because it's all throwaway plot devices and setup with the big shocking, shocking reveal later being something dumb like "it was a punishment received because he actually saved child-Ideal from dying of starvation by stealing bread from the kitchen to give him!" (I mean, that could still be the case, but the story seems to be gearing up for a more unusual and complicated angle.)

Overall there is a bit more going on beneath the surface tropes and I'm interested enough to keep reading and tentatively hope it doesn't disappoint as it goes on. The translation is good too.