VOTE: Manga Review of The Month (MROTM) - November 2014

[aarinfantasy]

Please vote for the manga review of the month. You will get 2000 points for voting.

Review #1:

Manga Title: Calling
Manga Artist: Ootsuki Miu
Manga Cover Picture:


http://joyofyaoi.files.wordpress.com...uki-miumed.jpg

Review:

Mood: Today I’m craving a moderately-paced mature romance, preferably one with a good sense of humor. Please, let the drama feel natural, not contrived — maybe something about the challenges of being a grown up and building a life. But don’t forget a heaping serving of consensual, very explicit sex scenes. If there’s even a hint of non-con, it needs to be taken seriously. Oh, and for reading along, a good drama CD would be an excellent bonus.


Story: Kazuaki, a straight, low-ranking salaryman lives a boring, rather lonely life, one he seems sadly resigned to. By chance, he runs into Kira, an energetic, emotionally open porn actor who falls for him at first sight… to Kazuaki’s dismay. Between their both being men and Kira’s socially stigmatized career, his pursuit of Kazuaki is destined to be an uphill battle.


Mangaka: Ootsuki Miu tweaks yaoi conventions enough to come up with stories that feel original. Her art has a loose, sketch-like look, her characters are quirkily handsome, and her sex scenes are wonderfully graphic and hot. For me, Calling has this prolific mangaka’s most well-developed storyline and genuinely interesting characters.


My experience: I like that the connections between cautious Kazuaki and enthusiastic Kira develop gradually and that the challenges they face feel surprisingly realistic. Despite the unlikely setup (salaryman x porn star), this romance and these characters feel genuine, and when they struggle with what their careers mean to them, it resonates with me. I’m also quite happy about the variety of sex scenes. Yes, I always walk away from reading this love story with a full, warm, satisfied feeling.

Review #2:

Manga title: Seven Days
Manga artist: Rihito Takaharai (Written by Venio Tachibana)
Manga cover picture:


Seven Days is a BL that spans 2 volumes, covering a full week. It has decent art, and I love the concept. I actually like a lot of things about it, though I had trouble “enjoying it” and I’ll cover why as we go.

Rumor has it that Seryou Touji will date anyone that asks him out first thing on Monday, and date them for a full week before breaking up with them. While waiting for a pizza he ordered one Monday morning, Touji’s sempai, Shino Yuzuru, asked Touji out on a whim. The story is simple: you go through their week together.

Here’s the part that bugged me: I found Yuzuru unlikable in general and it’s hard to enjoy a story when one of the characters you’re watching falling in love with each other is not likable. That could just be me because plenty of other characters say things I don’t particularly like and I don’t mind them. Yuzuru, I’m actually not fond of. However, I’ll acknowledge the parts I liked:

Both characters have a problem with the idea that people have expectations and judge people they don’t know by their outer appearance and their overall aura. While I don’t like Yuzuru I think he’s meant to act this certain way to prove the overall point. They both want someone to love them for being themselves, flaws and all. It’s a common message in general, but for this to work there has to be actual flaws and sometimes BL manga doesn’t always have those. Given, I do like the other character more, but so long as they have a good relationships, who am I to judge his choice? I won’t go into the characters because I think to match the theme of the story, I’m going to let them to be discovered by the readers. The readers get to learn a little bit about the characters, the same way the characters learn about each other.

I think it’s overall worth a read for sure. I don’t think it’s anything amazing(probably due to the one character), but certainly nothing bad. Worth a read at the least; and if people like both characters and the plot then it’s a win-win for them!

Review #3:

Manga title: Tsurukusa no Niwa
Manga artist :Katou Setsuko

picture:
http://i59.tinypic.com/i3vy3n.jpg

Tsurukusa no Niwa is a four story series gathered in a one volume manga in which the stories are set in a very normal background.
There are no Yakuza or supernatural themes and that is what makes this manga unique in its own style. True; the stories are very simple but surely not plain There is a bittersweet depth in all of them which makes the plot develop quite strongly. (as strong it can go for a short story or for a one-shot) .Art and concept are quite eye-catching for they make the reader wonder about their normal surroundings, what is going on in it and how people may be interacting to each other.
Art is very likable; Well-done, simple and neat especially when it comes to body curves and hair curls. Neither buff nor womanly. It gives vibes of a cool mixture of art and story; may be not having a very eye-catching art as in some titles or having a very strong plot in some others , but what can be seen here is a mix of both of a nice art and storyline; though simple but neat enough to be a good read.
Despite all the good points, the weakest point in the series is that a few stories in it have an open-ending. Readers who prefer solid endings may not enjoy these certain stories but on the other hand there are also a lot of fans who prefer open-endings. So, this title can be a good choose for people to lean on either side.
With all things mentioned above, Tsurukusa no Niwa is a very enjoyable read in which the reader can comfortably sit back and enjoy a normal and simple title but with different point of views in each story.

[AlexiaLee]

Thanks for the entries! I've read all the reviewed titles and even though I don't necessarily agree with all the points of review number #3 I voted for that entry! XD Why? because I find it more useful, I like reviews where the writter doesn't interfere with their own opinion/taste and just tries to give a nice overview about the book he's writting about. It's a rather difficult thing to do, I know! That's why I appreciate this entry ^^

[kerlyness]

Another week of great reviews! In the end I went with #1: the categories were labeled and easy to follow, and the writing was clear and even a little playful. Props to #2, for doing a review even when not liking parts of the manga and being fair about it. Not all reviews have to agree with everything! And #3 was good, but would really benefit from a little formatting and proofing tweaks.

[Dids]

I went with #1 in the end, because of the clear and organised formatting, which I liked. That was the point of difference for me. Some of those titles I haven't read... might check them out later~

[Yuuri Kirito]

Just for an overview as a writer, reviews are from a reader's perspectives: the moods they've encountered when reading, the feelings that the manga gave them, the lessons, and of course the good and bad parts of the entire story. So for me, #1 was good although I have read that title (and I am fan of it; Kaji voiced Kazuaki in the drama CD ).

#2 was also good. And it's a plus factor that there are some negative parts on it. It's the writer's point of view - I have remembered reviewing a manga that I really hated the art but the story overwrote everything bad about it so it won that month. But it really depends on how the writer will deliver those bad parts, making them at least an interesting "twist" so everyone would still have the urge to read the manga.

#3 was informative, somewhat lacking... there were no BOOOOM moments, nor funny parts, like what @laketica; always does in her reviews (and I miss them too ) but it was over-all good. I have no complains about it, just lacking in some way, that' all.

Wrapping everything up, I am clueless to which I'd vote.
This is difficult, oh dear.

[laketica]

*got lured here by @Yuuri Kirito;'s mention* I got confused reading #2 and #3 and wasn't sure if I should read the manga or not by the end of the review, so I ended up voting for #1. I actually really liked the way #3 was written, except the opening line about it being unique because there's no yakuza or supernatural themes in it confused me. I appreciated delving into the art style and other details.

[frano]

Thanks for the hard work, all reviews are nicely written. I read all of the entries and I voted.

[domanager]

Oh these are great reviews~ I do agree with AlexiaLee though, I really liked review #3 because that review is most formal (aka no personal opinion involved), but the others were well constructed as well, but based on organization, I like review #1, kudos to review #2 too for giving his/her personal opinion on the manga, all in all, great reviews everyone~