I’m probably about to tell on myself quite a bit here, I hope you’re ready. I fucking love (some) problematic media. To be honest, I don’t think it’s possible to enjoy weeb shit as much as I do without being able to accept problematic content. If you are uncomfortable with associating sexuality with teenagers then a lot of anime will be hard to watch. And if you’re uncomfortable with media that has age gaps and improper relationships then a lot of good shoujo manga won’t be for you. Take Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoushi for instance. It’s a lovely manga where the main character attempts suicide in the first chapter and becomes romantically entangled with the teacher that stops her.

If that description gives you pause, I think your hesitance is well justified. A clumsy handling of that premise could make something morally repugnant. To some people the premise itself is morally repugnant regardless of execution. If this manga ever got an anime the social media wars over it would be a sight to behold. Regardless, you can count me on the side that loves this series whole heartedly. It constantly teeters on the boundaries of acceptability while being fully aware of where those boundaries lie. So let’s talk about it~

So I’ll be honest I started reading this manga a year and a half ago and I’m not completely caught up with it. A good chunk of the manga is a distant memory for me, and I kinda stopped keeping up consistently. As such, I’ll be focusing my discussion on the most recent chapter I read that really stood out to me, Chapter 75. If you have not read this manga and want to avoid spoilers then maybe don’t read this yet. However, I really don’t think reading this post is going to spoil much of anything. This series doesn’t really have much of a plot to begin with, it’s more like a sitcom really. Also this chapter focuses much more on the teacher-student side of things than the suicide side, and to be honest that side’s a lot easier for me to talk about. I may write about this series again at some point. If so, I’ll likely discuss that side of the story in-depth. For now, let’s talk about problematic relationships.

To be clear, I do not condone teacher-student relationships. I do not condone adults dating high school girls. Power imbalances do in fact, cause problems. On the flip side, sometimes I don’t give a shit. Shoujo manga and Persona 5 are prime examples of that. People that wish their hot high school teacher liked them back deserve a story too. And this particular couple is so obviously twisted and peculiar that shipping them doesn’t feel like a whole hearted endorsement of teacher-student relationships writ-large. They’re perfect for each other tbh fuck if I care. I wish I didn’t feel compelled to explain my love for this series in such a defensive way. If only I could just be horny on the main and simply praise this series effusively like the batoto comment section. But if I could just enjoy stuff like this without overthinking it this blog would not exist in the first place. That’s the kind of person I am.

So let’s talk about chapter 75, the chapter where Jin the teacher is confronted by his secret girlfriend about why he calls her JK all the time instead of her actual name. In many respects this is a standard set up. How is this any different from all those anime couples getting awkward about switching to a first name basis? Well, first of all, how many discussions about names start like this?

“Can we talk” is one of the most powerful phrases a woman can say. You just know shit’s about to go down when those 3 words come out of her mouth. And if she takes it a step further with the “we need to talk” you just know shit’s about to get real. The fact that Mikoto was compelled to use such powerful words over this issue speaks to how much she was bothered by it. Her not-quite boyfriend calls all her friends by their actual names, and yet she still just gets called JK. “JK” in Japanese is an abbreviation that translates to “female high school student.” It’s understandable that she wouldn’t be too huge on that name. It’s not very intimate y’know.

Jin tries to dodge the question in multiple humorous ways, but Mikoto makes it difficult to do so. She’s persistent in her line of questioning and she’s honest about how insecure it makes her feel.

Wow she’s like actually communicating and expressing her concerns. Shit’s wild. Jin stops trying to dodge the conversation once she makes her feelings on the matter clear. What the hell is this actual communication in a shoujo manga? I didn’t sign up for this!

Jin starts answering her question seriously, and the reasoning turns out to be multilayered. Jin doesn’t feel comfortable sharing what lies at the center so he shares the layers instead. Like how he got the idea to call her JK from the teacher that saved him.

Jin owes a lot to his teacher. Frankly, he would not be alive without her. She inspired Jin to go on and save another person in a similar way. Thus making this story possible. Of course, the original sensei did not hit on her student but shhhhhhh. Regardless, Jin calling Mikoto JK is part of how he carries on his teacher’s legacy in his own distorted way.

However, carrying on his sensei’s legacy is not the full explanation. If it was just about Mikoto being able to “stand on her own two feet” he should’ve dropped that nickname volumes ago. He admits to as much in this chapter. So what is he hiding? Well…

So as it turns out, calling Mikoto “JK” is Jin’s way of reminding himself of the boundaries he needs to maintain. He may be a stalker, groomer, and all that fun stuff but having sex with her is a step too far. For the record I’m pretty sure Mikoto’s 18 at this point, but she’s still just a high school girl. When it comes to sex Mikoto has no experience. She does not know her own boundaries yet and probably wouldn’t say anything as Jin blazed right past them. There’s a real risk of a traumatic experience if Jin follows his desires too much and breaches her trust as a result. So for that reason she must stay JK until further notice.

This story is highly conscious about what truly crosses the line. The tension in this story isn’t the usual “will they won’t they get together” stuff. It’s pretty clear that they’re getting together in due time. Instead the tension is more like how intimate will they get before graduation, or will he have to wait the whole ass time until graduation to get some steamier scenes they’ve been building up to. There’s just so much unreleased tension building up with these two, and it seems the “JK” is one or the few things keeping it restrained. But hey, it works.

So what can we learn from this pair’s repressed romance? Is it inspiring anyone to hit on their teacher or the reverse? I can’t say it’s inspiring me. These two have to constantly hide their love and hold themselves back when alone together lest they get caught or end up going too far. Seems like a hassle to deal with honestly. Also you probably won’t find Mikoto’s level of maturity in any actual high schoolers. And any teacher willing to date a high schooler is probably going to make more bad decisions on top of that. The teacher that’s most likely to handle such a relationship properly (or as well as one conceivably could) is also the type least likely to start one in the first place. Funny how that works.

Even so, I still find myself rooting for them staying together. I’ll go a step further, if these characters existed in real life and related to each other in the same way I wouldn’t personally think it’s a huge problem. Why? Because I’m not in the business of policing relationships that seem to police themselves just fine. Also they’re cute together. That part’s probably the most important point tbh. They’ve got a good dynamic, and that’s enough for me to let stuff slide.

Relationships with large age gaps and other power imbalances are frowned upon for good reasons. These factors make it difficult if not impossible to have a relationship on equal terms. Can the student truly speak their mind if their teacher boyfriend can ruin their future? Can the younger partner stand on equal footing when they’re lacking the same maturity and life experience? To the first question the answer is pretty much universally no, though this particular teacher boyfriend probably wouldn’t abuse his power to that extent. Even so, he still has that power over her. As for the second question I think the answer’s a bit more complicated.

Age is not just a number, but it can only tell you so much on its own. There is plenty of variance in maturity and experience among people in the same age group. You cannot determine compatibility solely on this factor. However, people close together in age are much more likely to be compatible on those axes. That’s just it though, more likely. There’s no guarantees for any of this. And just like a lack of an age gap doesn’t guarantee a good relationship I do not think the presence of such a gap guarantees a bad one. In my view such things are best determined on a case by case basis.

So what about this particular case? They have a clear power imbalance, but that power imbalance is the reason they’re holding off on heavy intimacy and making it official. Also Jin’s not exactly the most mature guy out there and Mikoto’s weirdly mature by high school girl standards. She’s the more serious one, albeit maybe a bit too serious some times. Her overly serious nature contributed to her attempted suicide after all. Jin has guided this overly serious girl to a significantly happier school life. She has a lot more friends now, and many of them are her own age! In return, Mikoto keeps his worst impulses in check and takes care of him when needed. Somehow over the course of this story this depressive couple has managed to find themselves in a much better place.

So yeah, in this case I think it’s pretty much fine. I’ve seen them together for dozens of chapters already and they seem like they’re good for each other. They know the risks, but they’re crazy about each other so they go through with it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s fine. I say let them love and live how they please. They aren’t hurting any one else by doing so and in this specific case they don’t seem to be hurting each other either.

So this manga features a positive depiction of a student-teacher relationship with a 10 year age gap. Isn’t that inherently a problem? After all, if the kids see how hot Jin is they may try to boink their actual teacher or something. Maybe. Or even if they don’t do that maybe they’ll be influenced to think student-teacher relationships and large age gaps are acceptable in some situations and we can’t have that!!!! Well, maybe that is a problem. I can’t say my takes here haven’t been influenced by me enjoying some age gap weeb shit I’ve watched/read. And yet the biggest age gap romance I’ve personally indulged in was with a girl 11 months older than me. I can keep my fiction and reality separate. I think most people can do that just fine, and the ones who don’t probably lack the social skills to enter a p r o b l e m a t i c relationship in the first place.

Fiction is a wonderful thing. No matter how depraved it gets the only people directly harmed by it are fictional themselves. Some times people take inspiration from the fictional harm to create real harm, but that’s not exactly common. If you can recognize that violent video games aren’t a leading cause of violence then apply that reasoning elsewhere. If something you read doesn’t jive with your values you can just like, not read it. Shit’s wild.

In the fictional world you can explore the boundaries of morality and ethics without causing direct harm. I think that’s a wonderful thing. Morality is not static and should be challenged some times. Consider how many folks used to (and still consider) gay people existing to be immoral. Do you think it would have been better if gay media closely followed what society considered acceptable? There’d hardly be any gay media at all! I personally consider the gays more morally righteous than a teacher boinking his student, but you’ll find plenty of people in the world that disagree.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that the fiction should go unchallenged either. If someone’s using their story to spread fascist shit then that clearly deserves pushback. If something you see in media doesn’t sit right with you, you don’t have to accept it. But not all moral and ethical violations are created equally. There is a distinction between problematic and dangerous. Some works are both, but that’s not true in all cases. I don’t think it’s true at all in this manga any way.

I’ll continue to enjoy problematic media. I will not mindlessly accept everything I consume, nor will I immediately reject works that feature content I don’t agree with. Sometimes those problematic aspects make me think more about why exactly I find them uncomfortable. That in itself can lead to some interesting conclusions.

So why do I enjoy Tsuiraku JK to Haijin Kyoushi so much in spite of the fact that I think teacher-student relationships with 10 year age gaps are a bad idea in real life? Jin and Mikoto show more maturity, responsibility, and engagement with potential consequences than I’d expect to see in most if not all real life equivalents. That counts for something. Even so, these two are the exception not the rule. Am I just taking something I enjoy and rationalizing why I think it’s acceptable to support that conclusion? Maybe. However, if a story’s so good that it makes me want to temporarily ignore some of my values that speaks to its quality.

So if you’ve made it this far in and haven’t read the manga in question I’d say check it out. There really isn’t anything quite like it. I would like to give a shout out to Lovesick Alley Scans for continuing to translate this wonderful series. Thank you guys, and I should probably start reading some of the other series y’all work on soon. I want more shoujo stuff in my life tbh. To anyone who’s made it this far through my ramblings shout out to you as well. I will probably write about this series again, but that won’t be for a while. In the meantime, stay tuned for whatever the hell comes out next!