i've reread this so many times. and tbh brings back memories, huhu this is my childhood i remember my brother or sister have this manga back then aghh i love this

Oh boy. Where to start? Fair warning: this won’t be good.
I came across this manga because a reviewer for Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru said this was the better version of it. I disagree completely. I think "Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru" is a MUCH better version of "Rin!". After finishing this series, I know that that reviewer only picked this one over it for one simple sentence "[if I didn't stop when you asked me to], it would be rape!". Kimi ga Koi ni Ochiru has quite a bit of dubcon, and I guess it wasn't their thing. But I'd take dubcon a hundred times (I actually really enjoy dubcon) over characters easily getting together with no thrill whatsoever. Plus, if you're not used to dubcon, or even noncon, I really don't think you should be reading BL.
In any case, it was hard to tell that I wouldn’t like this much, because “Sono Yubi Dake ga Shitte Iru” has been on my top 5 BL for basically all my life, but I haven’t read much by KANNAGI-sensei, while Takanaga-sensei is one of my favorite mangaka. Both these series are quite similar in some aspects, but this is much less to my taste, for starters, since I’m not into fluffly manga and saying “I love you” all the time, with barely any hardships. But to make it worse, the overall quality isn’t the same between these two by a long-shot. This kept getting progressively worse by the volume.

Up until chapter 3, there was a bit of angst building up and I loved it! If “Rin” had ended there, it would’ve been a cute, short, concise manga. Unfortunately, it was like the end of Game Of Thrones (sorry, it's 2019, that was recent, it annoys me), a lot of built up and then settling for a less than desirable solution. They could've made the characters suffer much more, but, instead, all it takes for Sou to realize he likes Katsura is to see him being kissed by someone else, and Katsura quickly realizes he likes him back. Booooring, which culminated in a first kiss that was simply awfully plain, not exciting at all.
Volume 2 didn't really have a plot and it was quite boring to see the archery camp. Maybe it works for someone who's interested in archery, but I'm here for the BL. Not necessarily about the sex (though I would've liked some more of it, this is almost shounen-ai), but for their relationship. Sou barely showed up in that whole section of the series.
Then the last volume was even worse for an entirely different reason. It's already a stretch to think TWO people would be interested in someone as annoying as Katsura, but THREE? And Takato’s presence there had no meaning whatsoever other than to stir Sou and Katsura's relationship, which was finally getting to an okay place. He's also like, 23/24 years old, and Katsura is what, 16? A bit gross. I know it's not the first BL to have an uke still in high school and an older seme, but Katsura’s immaturity aligned with the art makes the age gap seem really obvious, which is NOT a good thing. To top it off, Katsura does absolutely nothing about Takato’s passes at him, up until the very last one (which is a kiss, so he obviously could‘ve stopped it well before then). He acted the same way with Kouichi, also allowing himself to be kissed twice, and then has the nerve to complain that Sou is "possessive". I felt terrible for Sou, having to justify his feelings at the end when he did nothing wrong. Even the least jealous person in the world would be bothered by Katsura’s passivity! He was oblivious to the point it had me rolling my eyes almost the entire thing.
But that's not even why I hated that third part! I hated seeing Kouichi suffer like that. He really didn't deserve it and it made me feel for him. He was already my favorite character before then, but now I'm wondering why he never got his happy ending. That was truly terrible, I wish volume 3 had never existed.
A couple of other plot points that didn’t perform well are the idea of the anxiety attacks. It was interesting at first, but then didn’t get explored as much as it could’ve been and, again, was resolved far too easily, which didn't feel slightly realistic. The hugging situation being the trigger for the relationship was refreshingly original, but the development of the relationship itself didn't entice me. Which is sad, because so much more could've been done with what they had... Going a bit back to Sou revealing his feelings on the very last pages, I feel like there were many filler plot points in place of things that should've been worked through. It’s not okay to end the series with the seme being scared of losing the uke because he feels like he’s too possessive when he’s not, or without showing them parting and how that would affect their life. Once again, instead of a full volume of training camp or some other guy that just showed up for two chapters, I’d rather have had Sou and Katsura’s relationship progressing in a better way.

Now let’s move on to the art. I’ve touched on it a bit before, but I didn't like neither the translation of this series nor the art. I'm not sure which word they used in Japanese to describe their feelings, but the two first times that Sou says he has feelings for Katsura, it was translated as "I like you", which is much less intense than "I LOVE you" (leading me to believe they probably translated incorrectly, because Japanese doesn’t really have that distinction, unless talking to a friend), and made it too uneventful. Then the art made it worse - Katsura shows absolutely no expression whatsoever when being confessed to. His face is as plain as a sheet of paper, no emotion there. I mean, wouldn't you at least be surprised if your childhood friend confessed to you? Or scared, frustrated, excited, happy...ANYTHING! But no, he just stood there. The art is also made to be the focus in a bad way when, every time Katsura says Sou is looking at him in an "alluring and hot way", not only is the art not capable of showing, but there are NO PANELS of just his eyes. Come on, people, we're reading BL for the male x male, gimme some sexy looks here!
I just don't like the art in general in this series. It feels sloppy and more to the "cutesy" side, which is not my type at all. I prefer the clean, modern-looking manga, where characters look more hot / elegant / gorgeous than normal and boyish. Katsura is even worse. Sou can be somewhat cool looking, but, like I said before, Katsura looks like a baby, to the point that the steamy scenes made me crinkle my nose a bit - it was like seeing a kid. Yes, I know there are a lot of BL set in high school, which is fine, but at least make them look old enough to have a sex life (even if the beginning of one!), please. But then, not only does he LOOK like a boy, he is a bit of a cry-baby. Not my type of uke at all. This should be called "how an uninteresting uke can get so many gorgeous guys into him". He does have a redeeming quality, which is a bit of character growth, and it was nice to watch him stand up to his fears, try to be straightforward when talking to people about serious issues or feelings and generally manning up. But the last volume falls backwards with this acquired maturity…
Sou's the opposite. He started out just the way I like semes - reluctant, sarcastic, a bit mean, cold...and then turned into the biggest fluffer of all! Not the pushy, sexy type of seme, but just the clingy, "I love you all the time" kind. Ugh, not for me at all!

All in all, the very first part of this series was enjoyable, but after chapter 4, I struggled to make it through the rest, as it dragged on for chapter after chapter of what felt like filler and bad plot. I wouldn’t recommend it, as I'd rather spend my time reading something else.

... Last updated on June 11th, 2019, 12:54am

The art is awesome, the story is cute, but Katsura is very satisfying. He stood for himself and he voiced his feelings when needed. He pushed and said no and tried to solve his problems. He is strong.
I was put off by this manga, thinking that Katsura was a stupid uke that gets molested and is a tsunder that can't defend himself, but maaaaan was I wrong! He is sooo satisfying to watch. He puts his limits, and be tries to surpass his weaknesses. I reaaaally liked him.
The story had lots of cliches, but the manga is a lighthearted fictjon to begin with, with a relatable MC. There was no rape, and Katsura did solve his problems, making me feel quite pleased, because compared to many othrr manga, the uke would turn into a mess and not know what to do, ans is always defensles.

... Last updated on October 12th, 2016, 3:07am

To be perfectly honest, this was a snoozefest. I was never convinced to care for the characters and the pace of the story was so. damn. SLOW. I love slow-build stories, but "Rin!" didn't have enough substance to pull it off.

In short: disappointing, don't waste your time. How did this get 3 volumes...?

Wow I can not believe how irritated I was reading this manga. Katsura was one of the most irritating characters Ive ever read and not because I didnt like his personality because he is a cutie pie. No its because his feelings and doubts make up the majority of the first two volumes. Like wow how much can I actually read of him going through, seemingly the same, issue after issue over the use of his bow I just got so bored and irritated. If his bow use wasnt so heavily focused on and we saw cute dates between him and Sou itd be way better and id give this manga a much better rating. I just ended up dropping this.

... Last updated on March 25th, 2015, 4:25pm

I really appreciated over time how Katsura matured. I was annoyed in volume 3's special extra that there was a THIRD contender for Katsura's affections (I mean, seriously?!), but I loved Katsura's expression when he refused him (sp?). He gave such a mature feeling, it reminded me of the time in volume 2 during training camp's red and white challenge. You could feel throughout the progression of these four (Katsura, Yamato, Sou, and Kouichi) their maturation and good relationship. From the revelation of Sou's true grabby personality hardened by his usual maturation, Yamato's adoration for his adorable little bro yet his strong stance as a captain and as a person, Kouichi's whimsy to his maturation to a dependable person, and then Katsura...

I really like reading archery manga because of the interplay with the spiritual and inner nature of the art and the emotions of the characters. It brings out the fullness of the interactions. Although I admit it can be overdone, but here it wasn't.

The actions are pretty chaste. It's really more about character interaction and growth. About half of the romance is comedic, the other half serious.

And that special at the end with the dream, hahah~

The art is very well done. Honami-sensei did a wonderful job translating Kannagi-sensei's story into an amazing, character-driven story.

Normally I hate stories where the main character is too similar to that of a shoujo manga. But Rin! is an exception. The story is quite tasteful, despite Katsura being so naive and... loose. Everyone in the male harem is perfect, especially Takatoh and Kouchi

Im glad I'm not the only one who does not like Katsura? Hes way too naive and let people touch him so easily. When it comes to Sou, he always pushes him away. And he always acts weak and somehow he got his men harem. I feel like he is the typical female main character in shoujo manga, except he is a boy. I do not have any yaoi feeling at all.

... Last updated on March 18th, 2013, 3:53pm

Hmm...I've gotta say, Katsura is one heck of a dense brat. Not to mention he's overly nonchalant about other people's feelings and his surroundings. He doesn't have much confidence and I dunno, it seems like his just stuck at some point and needs to be pulled out by another person. His love for Sou came pretty slow and he took Kouichi's feelings way too lightly which made the other party made a move on him easily. But I like it how he always pull himself together when he recall of Sou's words and especially the last extra chapter of how he grew so much and easily push away Takatoh.

Overall, the story is pretty nice and realistic and the art was good too. Nice read indeed! :>

So, first of all, the art is pretty. It's not perfect or super beautiful but it's probably better than a lot of yaoi art out there.
Second, this might be labeled Yaoi but there's nothing explicit here, it's only just hinted when serious stuff happens...except for the extra at the end, so if you are into smut scenes, this could be too boring for you.
The main theme here clearly is archery.
There's a lot of information and detail about kyuudo in this manga, and the love story plus the additional subplots are just happening on the side.
The romance is very slow, and first I was really curious about how much they'll put into 3 whole volumes, as usually the smut starts somewhere in the first volume and the 2 other volumes would be full of more smut and drama created by things like exlovers, jealousy, new rivals, ect.
But with everything developing so slow, there wasn't much of this additional stuff in this manga.
Because there is a lot of conversation and most of it is about archery and the whole philosophy behind it, I personally skipped some of the text, it was just too slow moving for me.

It's a decent manga but not something for people who want some action, drama and a lot of feelings and emotions. It's quite calm, and it's surely interesting to anyone who wants to know more about japanese archery, but other than that, it might be a bit boring.
Only the special extras at the very end have a bit more action to them.

So basically if you are okay with an extremely tame yaoi (even the extras aren't very explicit) where the main focus is not the couple and their romance, or if you're just an archery nut, give it a shot~

... Last updated on January 5th, 2013, 6:24pm