Focus (NISHI Noriko)

Description

From Hoshikuzuu Scans:

A young photographer, Hirami Yuichi visits an island for an exhibition and meets the gallery's owner, Asahina Jun and fell in love at first sight.** Even with a direct approach, it doesn't reach the heterosexual Asahina. However, one day when Asahina talked about his past with him, he was moved and he hugged him. Getting closer or staying away, both of them make it hard to leave. A painful love story that will squeeze your heartstrings. It is Nishi Noriko's debut piece!

**Hirami is a photographer who is having an exhibition in the island's gallery, and he meets a professional photographer, Asahina, who owns a photo studio (not the gallery).

Type

Manga

Related Series

N/A

Associated Names

フォーカス (西のり子)

Groups Scanlating

Hoshikuzuu Scans

Latest Release(s)

v.2 c.8 (end) by Hoshikuzuu Scans 9 years ago

c.7 by Hoshikuzuu Scans 9 years ago

v.2 c.6 by Hoshikuzuu Scans 9 years ago

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Status in Country of Origin

2 Volumes (Complete)

Completely Scanlated?

Yes

Anime Start/End Chapter

N/A

User Reviews

N/A

Forum

0 topics, 0 posts

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User Rating

Average: 7.4 / 10.0 (80 votes)

Bayesian Average: 7.1 / 10.0

13%

29%

24%

16%

Last Updated

November 29th, 2023 6:44am PST - 1 year ago

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Genre

Drama Romance Yaoi
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Categories

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Category Recommendations

Modernist

Sono Me de Shikkari Daite oke

Tousaku Lens

Cold Fever

Kono Koi, Sakura Iro

Recommendations

N/A

Author(s)

NISHI Noriko

Artist(s)

NISHI Noriko

Year

2014

Original Publisher

Media Factory

Serialized In (magazine)

Comic Fleur (Media Factory)

Licensed (in English)

English Publisher

N/A

Activity Stats (vs. other series)

Weekly Pos #762

(-31)

Monthly Pos #1740

(-157)

3 Month Pos #2295

(-1141)

6 Month Pos #4703

(-328)

Year Pos #5727

(-1494)

List Stats

On 148 reading lists

On 114 wish lists

On 281 completed lists

On 4 unfinished lists

On 140 custom lists

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User Comments [ Order by usefulness ]

Half rushed, half unecessary

by baiyang
7 years ago

Rating: 5.0 / 10.0

I’m a sucker for manga about traditional photography, and darkroom scenes are my absolute favorite. So as soon as I saw the gorgeous cover with that darkroom and foreground blur I had high expectations for this manga. Unfortunately, it didn’t deliver. The manga jumps around in the first volume in a rush to finish the relationship, and the second volume patters about in an unecessary story about the elder Asahina and his “friend” when both volumes could’ve been better spent actually developing the main couple’s romance.

The main couple is nice enough, if not painfully cliche. There’s the bubbly younger seme and the feminine, somehow older uke with a troubled past. The problem is they have no chemistry- almost all of their conversations are stilted and hard to follow, and as a result their characters are barely fleshed out. Their relationship also develops over a short(?) period of time and the mangaka basically forces them together with half-baked feelings because too many pages are spent on irrelevant interactions with cardboard excuses of side characters or slapdash backstories that have little impact on the story. As a result, the transition from acquaintances to lovers is jarring and rushed. From the beginning, the gay Hirami wants to lay Asahina because he’s his type, and the straight Asahina suddenly decides to go along with it because...

Hirami reminds him of the father who abandoned him? What? A moment of angst and a comforting hug devolves into having darkroom sex? Even as a lover of darkroom scenes, I had to roll my eyes. How do you have sex when you can barely see your hands and are surrounded by hazardous chemicals?

The second volume is hardly worth mentioning- it barely counts as a relationship at all because there’s, once again, not enough time and space in a single volume for this mangaka to create a romantic plot, even if other mangaka manage to pull off well-rounded relationships in the same amount of space. There was potential for one, poignant story here, but instead two, mediocre stories were crammed in instead.

... Last updated 7 years ago

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WHY NO OYAJI ROMANCE

by gwkimmy
7 years ago

Rating: N/A

the first volume was very cute and heartfelt. i actually kinda liked the really quick pace of the relationship, it felt very adult, as opposed to the high school-look of the characters. i agree with other reviewers that this works better with only the first volume, but the second volume isn't bad at all. just feels superfluous.

im mad there's no more on the dad's friend's feelings!!!!! where is their story?! I WANT MY OYAJI ROMANCE!!!

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Wanted something more...

by aiish
8 years ago

Rating: 6.5 / 10.0

This was a cute and calm yaoi which i liked a lot. I also felt like it couldve ended sooner or focus on something else then how it was in volume two, but more than that i wanted progress between the dad and his friend hehehe. Ok read for one time, i like the drawing and feel of the manga tho.

... Last updated 8 years ago

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Could have ended at volume 1

by OmNom
8 years ago

Rating: N/A

I like the story and characters and especially how genuine they come across. It's also impressive that even when this is the mangaka's first serialised work, she had no trouble with pacing and balancing the story in the span of multiple chapters. I do think volume 1 is stronger than its successor though; it could have made a nice compact little conclusion to a solid debut manga. There's something about volume 2 that just feels off to me, but maybe that's entirely the translator's fault that every nuances and details were lost in the translation process, and that there was nothing wrong with the original version after all. :/

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