Mangaka: Masara Minase

Scanlator: Dangerous Pleasure (http://dpscanlations.deathsvertigo.com)

Type: Series, ongoing

Rating: 3 stars

It was a little hard, at first, just separating the characters because they look so similar. It’s just me, I’m stupid that way. But the premise takes place in a school’s track club, with the protagonist being of the lazy and apathetic variety.

(Why is it most yaoi characters who are lazy and also academically stupid? The only lazy/smart protagonist I’ve seen is Kurosaki Ichigo of Bleach. He’s smart, people, he works hard at his studies! Ok wow why I am going off tangent? Oh, right, you know why? Because this stuff is not stuff I haven’t seen before.)

Actually I still can’t tell between the different characters except for the main pair. But don’t tell anyone, ok? Expect the usual from Masara Minase. Personally, I haven’t been as attracted to her work as I was with Uso to Kiss or Gokujou no Koibito, but I think it’s worth following for a while until we can see how the story develops. As for me, I’m only waiting to see more of the hot boys.

Mangaka: Masara Minase

Scanlator: Dangerous Pleasure (http://dpscanlations.deathsvertigo.com)

Type: Series, ongoing

Rating: 3 stars

This is one of those ima-gonna-run-away-because-my-seme-doesn’t-love-me stories. Complete with the parts where seme is reticent, a possessive jerk, and very hot, and the uke is a reticent, weepy, flee not fight type character with sacrificial tendencies. Why can’t these idiots ever open their mouth and talk to each other? What’s wrong with open communication, huh, huh? But conflict’s the stuff that makes the stories, so I’m going to shut up now.

The story starts with a popular idol finding his prey cum old sex partner who ran away from him years ago and they end up doing the dirty in his apartment which makes the uke insecure. Oh, the seme jackass also sleeps with women so can you blame the uke for being so weepy and unsure?

At least this offering is not like her one shots, which are filled with tons of white space. I mean, have you ever wondered: what are they doing in a vacuum?  But God, who cares, right? Her men are as pretty as ever. The uke has big watery black eyes, is cute as hell, and the seme is always a host-type playboy.

The story’s stuff you’ve seen before, and you definitely know how it’s going to end, but as usual, I find Masara Minase manga worth checking out because of the pretty art. If you like your boys pretty, you aren’t going to care about this review, so you can ignore me now while I crawl back into my corner.

Mangaka: Homerun Ken

Scanlator: Psycho Pandas (http://www.psychopandas.com)

Type: Series, complete

Rating: 3 stars

When the first chapter came out, I thought this story had a lot of potential. At the end, I was disappointed. Homerun Ken has always churned out pretty boys, general weirdness (Clan of the Nakagamis, anyone?), budding and difficult love stories. This is no exception, except the story took a weird turn towards the end.

Your protagonist is Sakutarou, a high school student who just lost his parents in a tragic traffic accident. Then in comes Al, a sympathetic/guilty angel with a mullet who quickly establishes himself as Sakutarou’s new housewife. It’s not hard to predict where the sympathy and guilt eventually culminates into, and then the focus shifts from Sakutarou to Al, rather surprisingly.

It’s a good story, I must say, but lacks depth, so I won’t spoil anything for you. If you apply some brain power, it’s not hard to figure out where the story is going.

At one point, towards the end of the story, I actually went, “Huh?!?! Whatsis?” The last chapter just pissed me off. It’s like the mangaka was right on track for the early chapters and decides to change her mind. It’s akin to setting out to paint a scenery and when you are about to draw clouds, you decide to draw porn instead. No, no, this is not right. It’s like fusing Only the Ring Finger Knows with Bleach. And yes, if you’ve read it, you’d understand my Bleach references. In fact, this manga smacks of Bleach and Na mo Naki Tori no Tobu Yoake (that was a mouthful, I meant to say Kisaragi Hirotaka’s delightful angels and demons serialisation).

I think the characterisation is quite lovely, but I ended up rooting for the ambiguous good/bad guy. It’s not a great piece, but neither is it complete shit, and believe me, I have seen things I do not like. This isn’t one of them. There is no doubt you will enjoy this (by the way this is such an excellent scanlation effort) but you probably will forget about this two minutes after you’re done.

Mangaka: Yuu Watase

Scanlator: Watase’s Sorai (http://www.yuuwatase.org)

Type: Series, ongoing

Rating: 5 stars

For years we’ve known Yuu Watase as the mangaka of very popular shoujo manga with mature themes, especially Fushigi Yuugi and Ayashi no Ceres. I’ve always enjoyed her story concepts and characters but personally I’ve always thought it was one huge soft porn fest. Before you slap me, here’s a disclaimer: I’ve only watched the anime, never read the manga. The anime was too much of a turnoff for me. I must say, I love Hotohori as much as any FY fan, so there.

I find this effort from the mangaka surprisingly excellent (damn you stupid FY and AnC anime versions for lowering my expectations of this brilliant mangaka, damn you to hell!). Sakura Gari is one of those stories that grip you for its atmosphere and story development. If you’ve read the oneshot Boy Next Door by Kaori Yuki you’d know what I mean. The art is gorgeous, especially if you like your boys pretty and angular jawed.

The story goes a little like this: The story is set sometime in Japan around WWI era. Saiki Souma (long hair, cute) is the young master of a (what else?) prestigious and noble family. You’ll soon quickly find out that he plays both the antagonist and the protagonist. In comes Tagami Masataka, a seventeen year old student who enters the Saiki household as a working student. The story is centred around the two, but if you expect some sort of cookie cutter master-servant yaoi story, prepare to be surprised.

I enjoy the reading experience of each chapter, only because each is so long and requires you to pay close attention to the dialogue and character movements. That is no hardship, considering the art is so gorgeous and realistic. There is no such thing as white space for this mangaka. The backdrops are detailed and make many contemporary mangakas look like slackers.

Also, the mangaka excels in adding subtle nuances to her character interactions. For example, in a few frames, Saiki watches Tagami, and when he sees Tagami looks in his direction, Saiki drops his eyes. I haven’t seen such realism in a while.

A high point of this manga is the mangaka’s deliberation and talent when it comes to unfolding the story. I don’t doubt that this story sets out to be a tearjerker – if you like your stories to be epic and dramatic.

Be prepared for the disturbing themes spread throughout the story. While I doubt they will shock most readers, it’s the type of thing that will take you aback when you first encounter it. This story has mature themes, and I mean, MATURE. Don’t disregard the ratings.

I cannot fully convey how much I have enjoyed this manga, but it’s probably not for everyone. This is like the final Harry Potter with the Forbidden Forest chapter recycled four times over. It’s dark, it’s disturbing, and it’s good, mature storytelling at its best.