>>3972824
I'm fairly certain he was always meant to grow old given the historical aspect of the manga, but I really agree about the shota thing, the entire draw for me was gone and not just from a lewd perspective. Seeing a cute happy shota having fun with his friends in such a fucked up setting despite all the awful shit that happened to him really hit me on an emotional level. The pure innocent optimism of the child protagonists juxtaposed with the irredeemable piece of shit adult antagonists was a a huge draw for me.