I love this story so much. Unfortunately the author decided to make the boy look younger and smaller then he is, If we look at all the other manga that has young males in it they are the same age as this boy just drawn differently and in high school. In a shoujo manga it would be a middle school boy that looks 20 chasing a high school girl that looks 12.. It can't be taken literally.

Whether you think that this is shouta really depends on how you look at it... If you're looking from a historical point of view, 14 isn't considered young. From what I remember, the children then are recognised as adults at around the age of 13-14. But if you are reading this from a modernised point of view, then yes, 14 is considered underaged.

But I truthfully find this manga really tastefully and beautifully drawn. The main characters are definite eye-candies and most parts are carefully covered by a leg, or some cloth. The plot doesn't feel as if it's being drawn out, and neither does it feel as if it's being abruptly cut short. I would have loved to see a sequel to this manga, but with the way it ended, I can at least smile and satisfy myself with the sweet ending.

... Last updated on May 29th, 2011, 7:33am

A rather strange manga, this one, in the sense that it harbours so many conflicting aspects that I want to rant about. I could value the elegant historical atmosphere along with its grandeur that was mostly brought about by the splendidly sleek art and costume designs. I also appreciate the author's effort in introducing bits and pieces of facts and cultural references related to the time period in Japan. And unlike most people I don't find the differences (in many ways) between the couple very uncomfortable and inappropriate at all. (Maybe I've become too saturated now to feel disturbance within whatever I'm going to come across..? lol)

HOWEVER, putting the positives aside, there are some serious issues I have with this that no matter what I can't turn a blind eye to them and let things slide so easily. The biggest problem for me would be the level of immature and nonsensical logics used for reasoning that I found absurdly bizarre and almost agonising. If the story is trying to be serious, the least thing I would expect it to do is to have some common sense; more than once I felt the need to drag myself through all the 3-year-old kind of arguments and dialogues exchanged between supposedly cool and mature 'adults', which is something I absolutely detest to do. Would it hurt if they were to sound and act more like their age and status, even if just a little? I don't mean the reasoning during those comical jokes, because those are intended pun relief, but rather the dead-face-serious actions and measures that in the end seemed more childish and even fatuous to me.

Not only that, but the structure throughout the whole story is also very odd. Events just jumble around, one climbing over another disrupting the readers' current train of thought to a different direction. Characters appear out of no where only to be discarded shortly afterwards; the author's emphasise and grip on the situation are still rather weak. All those factors accumulate to make a rather unpleasant experience for the readers, or at least for me. Not to mention the fact that the artist mangaka's panelling was not the most exciting and thrilling thing in the world, you could say it got a bit wordy here and there, since I for one basically just had to skim through some of the speech bubbles to be able to finish.

And last but not least, boy is this manga anti-climatic. It always seems to get to a certain point of a conflict - a device usually executed to develop the story or characters to a new desired state, and this story in particular isn't shy at all about building those conflicts up all over the place, though in the end those elaborating sets up all get to no where, none whatsoever. It creates a sense of discontinuity and dissatisfactory, from chapter to chapter, to the point that I always had this lurking frustration deep down to jump at someone and yell at them, because every time I expect to see a big outcome happening it usually bursts into nothing without fail, causing much discontentment and vexation..

I don't want to be so harsh here because I do think this is a decent-ish attempt of both these 2 mangakas, and actually the manga's quite pretty to look at. If only my nerves weren't so feeble *sigh*

I really loved this manga. It's a very cute and sweet romance. Both the uke and seme come off as naive and innocent which I liked because it felt like their personalities really matched. And even though this the seme could be considered a possessive lover, he was still really gentle with his uke, which is different from what I usually read. What I really loved about it was that the sex scenes were not only very hot but also very loving.

Some people might consider this shota since the uke is 14 and the seme is 25 but it didn't really bother me. Yes 14 is young but as someone else mentioned, during that time period a 14 year old being in this type of relationship wasn't that big of a deal. For me, I consider shota to be where the boy is an actual child. Like there are manga out there where the boy is 6. I stay away from that type of stuff, but a teenager with an older man doesn't qualify as shota for me.

Just so you know, 14 is not prepubescent, in fact it is the middle of puberty. This is not shota by any stretch of the imagination, as that would mean that Senju was under 13, which he is not.

As for the manga, I give it a solid 8 for many reasons. First, because I just adore Heian period pieces and this manga delivers. The art in this manga was superb and highly detailed. Second, I felt the subject matter was dealt with in an appropriate manner. I reject those who are complaining about the relationship; this was a different time and a different place. There is no reason why we must forbid any portrayals of it just because people frown on it today. That being said, I am a little peeved that they couldn't have made Senju look a little more boyish without loosing the beauty. Seriously, you can look male and still be breathtakingly beautiful.

I thought the smut was ok. I really appreciated the sensitivity and sensuality, but I did not appreciate the ghost penis and how rushed in some places it seemed. I not saying you have to outright go Hentai, but at least give the penis a little more definition. Lastly, maybe it was the translation, but I felt that too many anachronisms crept into places which made no sense at all. I hate to nitpick, but some of the mannerisms that were displayed would not have existed back then. Also, I spotted some simplified kanji, which would not have existed either.

Normally shota totally grosses me out, and I can't remember why I decided to give this a try (I think because I like stories in this time period), but I am so glad I read this. The art is wonderful and the story totally drew me in. True the uke does look like a girl (he's like a 14 year old pre-pubescent - kind of gave me the heebie jeebies at first in the BL scenes), but he's actually a pretty strong character - stubborn, but also quite brave and very loyal to his friends and especially his seme. The seme was the typical "head over heels" for his uke, but I found it sweet (yes, an overused word but I really can't think of a better description in this case because they were so lovey dovey) how he was so very attached to his little uke (who I think was 14 so this is a true shota - ugh).

I just wish the mangaka had written a little more about Narahiri (I think that's how his name is spelled - he's the seme's best friend and was quite amusing) - actually, it would be nice if that character had his own manga.

I was a little sad to see that the manga had ended, but I'm looking forward to seeing what the mangaka will be coming out w/in the future.

I was hesitant to read this because of all the shota talk, but I don't feel it really came off as shota. Although the size difference between the two was a bit exaggerated(why do they do that?), Senju doesn't come off as a little kid having stuff done to him. He has more of a middle school romance feel, which is how old he is. He's often surprisingly capable and non-pathetic.

The story was sweet and although nothing ground-breaking, it wasn't exactly the same as everything else either, so it was a nice, fairly light read(although awful things happen in it, it really does stay away from being very deep or moody). I recommend it, even if the supposed shota content scares you. I really dislike shota, and this didn't bother me.

And refreshing! This manga is not really having a tough story to read and understand. The story is simple and fun. The art is pretty good too.
But this one is not really one of my favorite manga. Even I was not so sure the core of the story. This is just one of manga that have a simple story. But this manga is not bad!
And that I'm confused is, manga is like having Shoutacon side even though I didn't really think so. The Uke is quite young(14) but the Seme was not very old(about 24). So I guess this manga can be considered Shouta and may not. #then? XD

Usually, I have to read lots of crappy manga, to finally find one which stands out and really piques my interest.
This is one like that. It's been a while since I read something better than just 'okay' or 'good' and it feels refreshing to have something 'great!' to read again.

The one thing I found strange was that everyone in this story seemed to think it was perfectly natural for young boys to be used as sex toys. But my knowledge of Japanese history isn't so good and I know such things did happen in some cultures, so was it really normal in that time and place?

Anyway, apart from that, it was the first time I came accross such a sweet and kind seme. He was the best! And the little Senju wasn't all weak and powerless either, he managed to keep himself mostly out of trouble at the temple, he can fend off the old pervs! I liked his character too ^^

That is what got me through the shota-ish stuff. I'm not a fan of shota, it goes just a bit too far, but this was somehow okay for me. I could easily ignore it and enjoy all the rest of the story.

I don't comment on anything that isn't worth reading, unless it sucks so bad I need to vent my frustration. This one is of the first kind, so what I'm saying is:

Definitely worth the read!

... Last updated on March 24th, 2012, 2:37pm

...but what I didn't really like is the lack of information about Senju's family background. Although they did say something about him being a royal family. But somehow I understand why they can't don't want to expose Senju's background, even I want to see a happy ending. And it's definitely not shota. Although Senju is 14, he's at the growing age! of course he'll look shorter and smaller. As for the plot development, it's pretty interesting and very decent. I never really like stuffs that's gotta do with Buddhism or monks but well, I still wanna read what's going on in this manga and, I'm pretty satisfied! (But somehow all the bad guy's face looks the same that I don't even know who is who! Dx)