I wasn't expecting anything big, but was surprised to find an interesting plot and a lovable cast. While this is tagged as Shounen Ai, things never go further than hugs and Kio and Fraw telling each other that they care about and want to protect each other; in that sense, it falls under the "it's BL if you squint" category. The art isn't the best, especially at first, but it does get better later on (even though it's never that appealing to me). The wings become prettier and more detailed, but most of the characters never quite lose that stiffness.

What I appreciated is that the many side characters get their own personalities and are given things to do, instead of existing on the periphery. They help each other out and grow, so it's fun to see them intervene and not just serve as background decor or to praise or get in the way of the core cast. Kio does suffer from Shounen Protagonist syndrome most of the time — rushes into battle with little regard for himself, is very "ganbatte", is more than meets the eye —, but is endearing enough to not be that annoying. Fraw, by comparison, is fairly one-note as the stoic and cool-headed one who only loses his cool when Kio is threatened, and I didn't find him as interesting.

It is a bit disappointing that, in the end,


Asterisk is a much better manga than a lot of its time, considering when it came out. The plot is kept interesting throughout, the characters are distinct and fun, and, while the art is fairly dated, I can overlook it most of the time because everything else is so entertaining.

... Last updated on January 14th, 2024, 10:34am

For a long-running series this one is quite enjoyable I must say. It does contain feelings between males but doesn't focus on the romance department, thus could allow room for a very intriguing setting and storyline, with strong character developments and relatively interesting plot, which is quite a nice change from the BL mangas I usually read. So though it's shounen-ai-ish, I wouldn't put it in the same category as BL - anyone could take a liking to the series regardless of whether they like shounen-ai or not, because of all the reasons I mentioned above. And the art is also good too, I love the way the mangaka drew those animal-celestial beasts so much~

Lovely artwork, and does a great job of juggling a whole cast of characters who manage to remain quite distinctive from one another! No actual romance though; it's more deep friendship and loyalty themes.

This is a very emotive series about happy, strong, affectionate, and tender-hearted bishie angels, who go about saving humans from demonic creatures. There's quite a lot of good action and battle scenes, and their angel wings are BEAUTIFUL.

They live in the angel world with their own society, only visiting earth to carry out their duties, and even though they have apparent M/F genders, they have zero sexuality (they're born from flowers). So calling this a shounen-ai is misleading, as there's no true romance/sex. But it has bromance in spades.

A great read if you want something that's got lots of feel-good, but isn't just fluffiness.

This work could have gone further, but at the same time the ending didn't feel rushed. You get out of it pretty much what you expect from the genre combination of shojo and action. It's typical, yes, but to me that that isn't per se a bad thing in this case.

I loved the feelings in this manga, they were so pure and powerful. The characters were amazing in so many ways and the story was entertaining. What I loved most about this manga was how well the character's feelings were expressed. Nothing physical happened but that didn't make any difference to me. The love was there and I could feel it and I loved it. The art is beautiful. I strongly recommend reading this. Also another good manga by this author is g defend which is also good though I felt had less feeling and much more physical intimacy. Also jinjuu houretsuden which is more like this story in that the feelings are what is focused on instead of anything physical. While I enjoyed/enjoy all these stories Asterisk and Jinjuu houresuden the two that i enjoy the most because (and i'm sorry i'm repeating myself but at the moment I can't think of another way to express what I mean) I can really feel the emotions and the affection/love that the characters have for each other.
Asterisk is one of the best and most enjoyable stories I have ever read. It is a perfect story with great characters and beautiful art.

... Last updated on August 1st, 2014, 12:00am

I don't think this is dull at all- on the contrary, it has a nice bit of action. Also, the art is gorgeous, the whole fantasy aspect is great, and the characters are so strong and sweet and amazing. I really love this! The plot is really interesting, too, I'm looking forward to seeing how this pans out. Oh, and the little celestial beasts are all drawn really adorably. Silk and Milk (the cats) are just so cute! The shonen-ai is very light, and more like... overly clingy friendship, haha, but the romance is still pretty sweet, and it's nice seeing how Kio and Fraw rely on each other. Read this, I totally recommend it

I don't know why, but I think this is one of my favorite mangas. At first it seemed kind of dull, I admit it, but the more chapter you read the more you get tangled up in the story. Is such a shame that a chapter gets translated like once a year. Here in my country, Italy, it is not being published so my only hope is that the group that has this project would be kind enough to translate a chapter once a month, but I know I'm pretending too much >3< Anyway, I totally raccomand it. C:

... Last updated on March 19th, 2014, 12:28pm

So far the plot isn't really captivating, and there doesn't seem to be much promise of a better one in the future. Since the series ends at 8 volumes, it's doubtful whether Asterisk will ever become something worth reading.

The characters are nicely drawn, and their animal familiars are cute beyond belief ; but good art alone isn't sufficient to carry a story.

The shounen-ai is pretty light - and while that's a relief to someone like me who isn't into anything hardcore, the relationships aren't interesting or original enough for me to bother continuing with the manga for the sake of that alone.

But the most significant negative point for me is Fraw's insane devotion to Kio; it often gets more than a little bit annoying.

If fantasy + soft BL is to your liking, I recommend this mangaka's previously published work Jinjuu Houretsuden over Asterisk.

... Last updated on April 27th, 2011, 8:11am

I'm not really sure this one is classified as "Shounen Ai" as Kio and Fraw seem more like BFFs than future romantic partners even if Fraw is somewhat clingy. The art is pretty, but the plot can get a bit repetitive at times.