Ten Count (10 count) is a Japanese, yaoi genre manga series. The main theme of the series is the gradual growth of the relationship of two men. Shirotani Tadaomi is a 31 year old corporate secretary who has mysophobia and suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder.
He meets the second main character of the story, Kurose Riku, a psychotherapist, who recommends different techniques to Tadaomi to work on his OCD and mysophobia. He asks Tadaomi to make a list of 10 things he’s unable to do due to his OCD and tells him that he’ll overcome this hurdle once he completes the list of tasks.
Tadaomi makes swift progress through the list until the sessions abruptly come to an end in 10 Count Manga. When confronted and pushed, Kurose admits that he stopped seeing Tadaomi because he had fallen in love with him and thought it would not be appropriate for him to continue with therapy.
Tadaomi insists on continuing the sessions which marks the beginning of their sexual relationship. In a flashback, it is revealed that Tadaomi’s mental disorders stem from the trauma of seeing his father having intercourse and being aroused by that and then being caught jerking off to it.
Ever since, Tadaomi had associated physical contact with disgust which lead to mysophobia. Eventually, Tadaomi and Kurose break up after Kurose realizes that he’s a sadist who gets off of Tadaomi’s mysophobia and tells Tadaomi that he takes pleasure from the very acts that make him uncomfortable.
In an unexpected turn of events, they run into each other and reconcile their relationship. Tadaomi admits that he loves Kurose and is comfortable enough to reciprocate sexually in 10 Count. Kurose and Tadaomi continue dating as Kurose quits his clinic to pursue a doctorate.
Tadaomi’s condition gets better to a great extent but Kurose continues treating it with various new techniques. This is an interesting read for anyone interested in exploring the various aspects of a complicated relationship between a person who suffers from a mental disorder and a psychotherapist.
