PrettyKitty$$$$$'s Manga

I recently revisited this, along with Yamane's other series, Viewfinder. Sublime is up to volume 5 now, and their version is much nicer than the old Kitty Media books. Despite the amount of sex in the earlier chapters, Crimson Spell is alot more romancey and plot based than Finder. It is very traditional fantasy with some BL. I prefer this series so far and wish there were not so long a wait between volumes.

I recently revisited this series after watching the anime, picking back with volume 12, wher the show leaves off. I tore through it in a couple of days again. It is just a good the second time around. I only wish it were finished so I wouldn't have to wait to read the rest.

This book is a dud. The basic premise is this: A blind man gets a corneal transplant and the first thing he lays eyes on when he can see again is his surgeon, who he falls in love with for some reason. The surgeon is grieving his lover from whom the donor eyes were obtained. The romantic feelings in this story felt completely fake and contrived. There isn't any build up or explanation as to why these characters are in love. The book was also filled with a lot of cheap hollow melodrama: a jilted fiancee, a homophobic bigwig dad, a transfer overseas with the other one in pursuit, and sad doctors crying in the snow. None of this was developed sufficiently for me to give a damn. The art too was bare bones with practically no backgrounds at all. The characters had awkwardly wooden expressions and movement and were drawn in a "generic BL" style that is indistinquishable from a thousand others. Based on this book, I'm not inclined to read any more of Yuri Ebihara's manga. This was painful enough.

It's been several years now since I first gave volume one a read and now having just completed the whole series in one giant marathon, I'm wondering why I haven't read this sooner. It's one of the best action manga I've ever read. The art is gorgeous, the action is clean and easy to follow, and Alita is a great heroine. I even love the old 90's feel sci-fi setting. One of the things I particularly appreciated about the characterization in this series is that the artist didn't go out of his way to further sexualize Alita. She was a strong heroine, but still very feminine, without focusing on her tits and panties. I get a little tired of picking up action series for guys with female leads and having much of the focus zooming in on their chests and asses. Battle Angel totally avoids that trap and for that I'm grateful. Another thing I liked was how the passage of time was handled. This series takes place over several years and it feels like it. Alita herself grows up a lot, and the world/characters around her change as well. My only small complaint is that the ending is a little rushed. I would have liked to see more of Tiphares and how it worked especially. Despite that, I was satisfied with how it ended and am a little leary of picking up the reboot, Last Order, because I'm afraid of it going off the rails. So, I think I'm just goin to stick with the original so not to poison my impression of this excellent series.

It's been a few months, but I finally finished this one, and it was amazing. Blame! has got to be one of the most imaginative sci-fi universes that I've encountered. A lot is never fully explained and much is left up to the reader's interpretation. Usually stories like this irritate me, but in Blame!, it's part of the fun. My only real annoyance was with the non-ending. This series really could have kept going, but I guess the creator wanted to move on. Oh well, I'd have loved to read more.

I recently tried to reread this one and I found it painfully mediocre. Firstly, the characterization in this was extremely shallow. The photographer falls in love with Akira seemingly instantly and without explanation, making it a stretch to believe. Also, the art wasn't that great. The character designs are incredibly simplistic, and the brothers (supposedly not blood related) I had extreme difficulty telling apart. The lack of backgrounds doesn't help things. I'm not sure why I enjoyed this so much the first time around, and I can only conclude that I didn't have much to compare it to, as it'sd one of the first BL I ever read. I've read much better since then.

Years later, volume two finally sees the light of day. I have to say I no longer think Yamada's art is awkward. It's not "pretty" and her characters are more masculine looking than the tradtional bishounen you usually find in these sorts of manga. It's refreshing actually. The series is just as wonderful as I remembered, with well thought out characters and great comedy between them. The story, a romance featuring adult men, is excellent. I have to say of all the Yugi Yamada books I've read, I haven't been disappointed by one. All of her manga are quite good, even the anthologies. However, Close the Last Door is my favorite.

This is the first manga series I ever read, and after revisiting it half a decade later, I'm sorry to say that it doesn't old up. It's very been there-done that, as far a story and humor go. Also, the art is crude with flat expressionless faces and little in the way of backgrounds or detail of any kind. Oh well, at least it frees up some shelf space.

Years later, a second volume appears! This one wraps up the story nicely. There really isn't any new ground tread here, but the romance is nice and the addition of Mizuki's (sp?) family gives it a nice touch or realism. The flood drama came a bit out of left field, I guess the mangaka couldn't think of a more subtle way to force the characters to admit their feelings at the end. Still, i liked the series overall.

I recently reread this as I didn't know at the time it was part of a larger story. I think I appreciated it more having had a little backstory on the main character. I've also read a lot more yaoi between now and then and having come across so many duds makes this story look so much better. It's simple, yes, but it is well written for what it is: a nice clean salaryman romance.

I've finally finished the last two volumes! Sadly, the series never managed to engage me. The humor didn't click, I found the drama boring, and I couldn't connect with the characters. It's strange to me that I had this reaction, because I did end up enjoying the anime. It isn't a favorite, but I did like it. For some reason though, this manga left me cold.

So, I finally got around to reading the second half of the series, starting at volume 17. It starts to get stupider around that point. The vampires are introduced and pretty much disappear as a plot point. Kei was resurrected twice at the same time. Why? So he could also date two girls at the same time. Really juvenile stuff. I think it jumped the shark at the apocalyse point, with the giant humanoid aliens and their giant space ship and their abductions. Despite all this, Gantz is fun in a braindead way. Oku's art is great, even if he does try to squeeze a breast onto every page.

So, I gave this one another chance. I liked it better this time around, and I was able to get through all 9 volumes, but it will never be a favorite. The series reminds me a bit of "School Rumble" with its absurd humor, yet I don't find "Greenwood" to be nearly as funny. I liked it best when it stuck to the slice-of-life humor and the boys' everyday hijinks. When it ventured into alternate fantasy realms, I had trouble maintaining interest. The character designs were sometimes difficult to tell apart too, Shinobu and the other blonde one (Ikeda?) especially, which probably accounted for some of my confusion when I first picked up this series many moons ago. Despite its flaws, it really is a good series, if not to my tastes in regards to humor.

So, it's probably been about a decade since I read this and decided to revisit it. It's even creepier on the second read. This book is toxic. I was still entertained though. Still, I know I will not read this again so time to ebay it.

It's been several years since I first read this, so I had to reread it just to see if it was as terrible as I remembered. It was. In the very first volume, the patient, a high school boy, drugs and rapes the doctor, and we're supposed to buy into this relationship? I'm seeing creepy obsession but no real love here. If it were standard shoujo, it would read like a training manual for abusive relationships. This series is absolute trash.

It's been several years since I first picked up Kizuna and wrote the above. After all this time, the characters and story have remained with me. The cast is memorable and they and their relationships are well developed. Instead of following a formula with generic characters who fall in love, then bed, the end, all in a single book, Kazuma Kodaka has created an actual story about these people that feels real and genuine. If I have to criticize, I'd say the series biggest issue is the choppy narrative, especially in the beginning volumes. The timeline jumps all over the place from chapter to chapter before finally settling in. The series has other flaws as well, like using a couple of hoary old romance cliches here and there, and perhaps the dated art style (which I love). Despite not being perfect, I feel lucky in having picked this series as my introduction to BL, because it's one of the best.

Both of these stories were pretty non explict, with mostly implied sex. So, those looking for porn yaoi, look elsewhere. For the rest of us, Last Portrait offers an interesting read.

I recectly revisited this series nearly a decade after I first read it. It hasn't really aged well. The stories are rote and full of tropes which are pretty tired at this point. The art is seriously dated, with huge pointy chins and "yaoi hands". It's not a bad series, but reading it again let me with a "meh" feeling instead of warm fuzzies.

I just read this again as I'm weeding out the duds from my collections and I can better explain whats wrong with the book now: pretty much everything. The characterization is so sparse that they may as well have been stick figures. Nothing is elaborated on, so I had no baseline for the characters: how they met, what they were to each other, nothing. Some of these things are explained at the very end, but by then the book is over and it's too little too late. Even the art is the same face with different hair and blank backgrounds. Basically this is as bare-bones and generic as it gets. Avoid.

P.S. And now that I've seen it, it is.

Having now finished all three volumes of the series, I found myself enjoying it. The longer length allowed more time for developing the relationships than in a typical one-shot or anthology, which I appreciated. The high school characters still didn't ring true, but the story was entertainig despite that.

Huh. I must have been in a bad mood when I read this before, because I've read it again (granted, years later) and thought it was quite good.

This is one of the very first manga series I ever read and it's been years. I just tried to revisit it and unfortunately it has not held up well. The premise is ridiculous. Izumi is a cross dressing guy attending an all girls school, who is eventually found out by his roommate. He takes a naked pic of her and blackmails her with it to keep her silence, and I'm supposed to be rooting for a romance between these two? No thanks. The art is rough as hell too. It looks like I can let this series go and clear some space on my shelves.

I just re-read this after a few years and it doesn't quite hold up. The story comes across as a little "harlequin-esque", with it's super possessive love interest. If I were rating it today, it would merely be "good".

I ended up finishing the whole omnibus, and I was relieved to see the "creep factor" lessened as the series wore on. The art is absolutely beautiful. I've always loved CLAMP's art. Too bad I couldn't get into the plot. I don't think I'll be finishing this one.

It's been a few years and I recently tried to go back to this as Yen published the final three volumes as an omnibus. Unfortunately, it has not aged well, or maybe my tasted have changed, or standards grew a bit, as this series now reads impossibly juvenile to me. I no longer care how it ends as I have no more interest in revisiting it.

So, it's been a while since I finished volume six, almost a year, and I just now read volume 7. I have complete forgotten whatever plot this thing is supposed to have and only barely remember the characters. All that's left is the stylish art and well drawn action scenes. I'm sorry to say I have pretty much lost interest. My initial impression of the manga, that it is style over substance, stands. I'd prefer to read style with substance, so I'm dropping this.

It has been years since Dark Horse released vol. 14. I have completely lost interest in this story. I just tried to read 14 and while it was well crafted, I just don't care anymore. I read some spoilers for the ending to see if it is worth it to wait and it doesn't look like it. So, dropped.

Its been several years since I read this and I decided to revisit it "the great BL purge of 2020". It has not really held up. Sure, the art is still pretty, but the characters are shallow as hell. Even the porn wasnt interesting any more. I've gotten a lot more discerning with my entertainment over the years, and flimsy plot and characters as an excuse for copious sex scenes does not cut it. Time to release this series to eBay.
(revisited June 2020)

Now that its been just under an handful of years later, I managed to read both volumes one and two. I still couldn't get into it, despite my love for the anime and now I know why. This series is all over the top action and absolutely no substance, which makes for fun brain-free viewing, but tedious reading. The plot is super simple, with events whipping by too quickly to make any sort of impact, and the characterization is non-existant. Even the art started out a little rough, with oddly proportioned faces and mismatched eyes. There is a marked improvement in volume two, as the jarring "off model" faces came less often. (Hirano's new series Drifters looks fabulous, his art has improved so much.) After dropping this series twice, I'm going to stick to the anime, as the manga is simply not for me.

It's been at least a year and I've finally gotten around to volume 9. I must say that my interest in the series has diminished quite a bit. The characters haven't changed. Kotoko is still an idiot and her husband is still a cold fish. I didn't laugh this time around either. I'm guess that this series has just worn out it's welcome with me and I'm dropping it.

It has been several years since Viz has released a volume of this, and I've completely lost interest in it over that time. I highly doubt that this sold well for them, so the odds of them finishing it are very low.

Many years after I wrote the above, I finally got around to rereading Loveless, this time up to volume 12, where Viz left off. It is currently on hiatus again and like the last time it left off, it is a cliffhanger. I'm not nearly as enamored of it as I was before. Soubi and Ritsuka's relationship is unhealthy and creepy. Seimei is super creepy and his motivations are still completely unexplained at this point. The word battles and "Septimal Moon" are also unexplained, i.e. their purpose in the first place. Ultimately, the heart of this series are the psychological relationships, the rest is just window dressing. So, at this point I think I'm gonna stop here. I don't think this can end in anything but tragedy and I feel sorry enough for Ritsuka as it is.

It's been some time since I've revisited this. My opinion is about the same. The world is interesting, the characters are cool and memorable, but the story is kinda crap. But that art though! Pretty much the one thing singlehandedly keeping this on my shelf was the art. Now I have artbooks and I can let this series go. I really have no desire to ever read it again. I just liked looking at it.