It's like silent and empty yet loud and passionate. Sort of like a silent scream, they seemed to be fine yet they were breaking down. I love that in my characters and stories. I liked it and really wish that it could've been longer and better developed. I loved the angst. All the stories are too short to be developed well enough for you to strongly grasp the characters but the plot was good as it was very original. I did not feel or recognise and cliché scenes which made it really refreshing. Its a nice short read and fans of angst would love it.

From the first view on the cover I knew, I would like the story. It is really a "slice of life", quite realistic, though a little bit sad, but nice and cute at the same time. The art and the story were beautifully put together by this wonderful mangaka. I'm going to read the rest of her works now.

This one is depressing.
But not only is it pessimistic about relationships, it does bring out an angst we could as human being may have to go through.

As for the execution, I believe it's good. But I can't bring myself 'to love it'. It's slice of life and the characters as some get to us, others stay exterior to us. For instance, in the 1st story, as I felt the efforts to bring out emotions, I couldn't feel them all. There are some inconsistencies somehow.

The art is very simple. Not bad but it's not very detailed and many panels have blank parts. It's part of the style, I guess but somehow, as it is very cinematographic, it should have a soundtrack. I read it both with and without music. It sure brings out some emotions.

Well, this is my humble opinion and a process in understanding why it ticks me off as I can't understand the characters fully all the time and also the fact I can't bring myself to rate it lower. I didn't enjoy but unlike some others I can't put my finger on WHY I feel so torn between two opposite opinons.

one of the best BL, indeed. Everytime I read this manga I feel like my heart stops. I can never forget her phrase about two people in the world, it makes even me, adult family woman wanna cry. it's a real tragedy to look for you real love the whole life, but what happens when you finally find it being 30years old? You already know, what you are and you know what that person is. and you both comprehence that you are too different, you just won't last long together cause you cant't make each other happy. in short, it's just too late. so, what will you decide? you'll just continue as you are, with unmeaningful short relations that can never fill neither your heart nor your body, feeling killing loneliness everyday hoping only that this pain will end someday.

it's one of those nice, 'not as stereotypical as usual' yaoi's
And the art is a lot better than the cover, so I'd recommend giving it a try because the cover made me put off reading it for months, but when I finally did I really liked it....

This was one of the first BL manga I read and I think it was what got me hooked. It showed me that there's more to BL than just smutty sex scenes. I love the tragic story of illumination, everything's sad and depressing. The other stories are also not bad at all. All of them are bittersweet though. Make sure you read way til the end because the last 3 little chapters are all (very short!) followups to the longer ones, with a more comedic and uplifting view.
All in all, I like the whole thing. Although I'm also agreeing with people about that I wish there was a bit more of the main story. I'd just love to see Miki get happy in the end (with whomever).

i'm just too... too old probably to enjoy this. these are very intellectual stories, and really, i don't need to be inspired into thinking depressing thoughts about separation, loss, and the vast distance between people; i've got sufficient experience of my own. i prefer reading stories where there is some growth in the characters. there isn't in the first and second stories; the titular story in specific ends worse for all three involved, and "love or something" starts and ends in a vacuum; there isn't enough here to really get me interested. there is growth in "roses, thorns, and a shattering clang", and it's my favourite, even though it has a female protagonist which is not something i expect in BL. the same is true in "about him", which is quite good, but also terribly depressing. in "god's name is night" i am not at all sure about the ending, and i am not even sure whether i am not supposed to be sure; *wry grin*; this is probably the happiest story of the lot -- and it's not all that happy. hey, there's some sex in it! i didn't get attached enough to the characters to really care. "separation" is an addendum to the first story, and a complete mismatch in mood to it and the rest of the volume. it took away from the impact of the first story, but since that was so depressing, maybe that's a good thing. yeah, maybe, but ... the sudden mood change was jarring. "you are more beautiful than a rose" is an addendum to "rose, thorns..." and is also humourous. i think i would have preferred if it had followed its main story immediately. the last story is a humourous addendum to "god's name..." and clarified the ending for me.

overall these stories are thoughtful, but they were just not the thing i am looking for these days.

... Last updated on March 10th, 2011, 10:15pm

The stories aren't too bad as they're all about the characters' thoughts, emotional states and of course, how situations and relations can evolve with a twist or 2. It's a pity there just isn't too much closure or development to them. Frankly it's more like reading selected portions or scenes from someone's conversations or a play. It would be better if there was more but as it is, those teasers are hardly satisfying even though reading those scenes is almost fulfilling. Well, the writing style is certainly experimental but definitely nothing too noteworthy because they just left the stories mid-air.

Also, I've read non-BL works where the individual stories are just partial scenes or even just a panel. However, there was a sort of intent, feel, message, commentary or even style to most of them and what resulted was a certain overall theme when the chapters were viewed as a manga volume. Or if not, each chapter when connected to the next or previous, gradually formed an overall theme where the tone shifted throughout the volume. But in Illumination, there is no world setting, no recurring theme or symbolism or even a tone. No matter how many times I read this title, the stories don't seem to have evolved from their beginning impression at all.

... Last updated on June 11th, 2011, 10:25pm

Definitely not a sure-fire hit for anyone who wants fluffy, happy-ending stories.

Admittedly the first story got to me, because it's not an ending I wanted, and even though it was realistic and fair, it made me sad. Hope didn't work, and I still got an ending that let me down. The characters all made a full circle, and yet left the situation with the exact same grievances and problems they had before it all started. No positive progress; no change for the better, except a subtle realization about friendship in there.



Regarding the second story, it succeeds at being less depressing and more uplifting (depending on how you interpret it), but it feels oddly flat compared to the first. Maybe because of its shorter length, the characters feel less fleshed-out, and the story isn't as engaging. This one's along the lines of a typical 'fluffy' story, but it's also very 'slice of life' in that there's no major plot going on. It's easy to read this when half-awake, and forget everything the characters said. It lacks the kind of punch (for better or worse) that the first had, and feels less developed in comparison.

The third story is immediately engaging, as it follows a female protagonist. I have to give credit where it's due, this mangaka has some original ideas. The dynamic between her and the boy (won't say who, to avoid spoilers here) is very intriguing. I really enjoyed this, it's a nice change of pace. And I have to say this story, even though the ending felt predictable by now, was very touching and sweet. In its own way, it has a lot of heart, and it didn't make me want to cry while still managing to have a sorrowful impact mixed with all the good. The protagonist's point of view added a pleasant spin to the events.

The fourth story has an interesting format, being told in short snippets (using a multiple perspective, much like a quicker version of the first story's mechanic). It keeps things interesting with little details about each character. However, with a variety of new names and some look-alike faces, by the time it arrives at the fourth character I found myself getting confused as to who they were. The art is nice, but sometimes the different faces resemble each other, and many of the guys have similar hairstyles. So unless you're really sharp with names, a story like this can get confusing to follow. The ending is touching in a way, but I lacked an emotional connection with the characters (too many of them, and too little time with them) to feel the full intended impact.

The fifth story mixes things up a bit. It's immediately more gritty from the start, with older characters that are drawn in a much more serious, detailed style. Unfortunately, I didn't care for the characters themselves. They seem realistic as always in this book, but they lack appealing qualities - they seem wrapped up in being antagonistic to each other, and the criminal underworld they live in didn't capture my attention either. By its end, the dialogue started to blur together, and again I feel I missed the full impact of the ending.

Story six (wow, a lot of stories in this book!) is a kind of tag-on to the first story. It's done in a much more comical fashion, however, it does make the canon more optimistic of an ending, if you choose to take it seriously. But it's almost so silly that it disrupts the powerful emotional setting of the first story, so it feels like a guest artist came in and did a quick fanfiction about it. Useful for an amusing gag, but empty and flat (and still open-ended) as a 'sequel'.

Story seven appears to be a similarly humorous add-on to story three, but its light-hearted tone fits it much better, since that original chapter was more uplifting and hopeful to begin with. It's short, but very cute.

Story eight is... an add-on to story five? To be honest I can't tell... It's very very short anyway, and the last and final of the short 'gag' sequels. But again, it adds a positive spin to the ending, if you were left wishing for one.

All in all, this book is a mixed bag for me. The first story is extraordinarily powerful, but left me disappointed and feeling that it was unresolved at the end, but beautifully so. If you can stomach some of that sadness, it's a very well-written, engaging read. The following stories have their good and bad points, but none shine so strongly as the title piece. I believe I would've rather read a book with only two powerful stories, instead of one strong work and a few that were less impactful. But this all comes down to personal preference. Either way, I hope this long review (I apologize for rambling forever, lol) is helpful.

... Last updated on January 14th, 2010, 12:07am

the dialogue / internal dialogue is awesome and really blends well with the art and flow of the story.
example:


... Last updated on January 11th, 2010, 4:43pm