Personally, I enjoy reading misunderstandings- if they are set up and resolved well. However, in the interest of getting to the happy ending, this manga decides that instead of letting the main character overcome the conflict himself, that the support characters will step in and tell the main character who he is in love with and what he should do so the story can jump to the make-up session.

If there's one thing I hate more than a character suddenly going "Oh I've never realized for the past 10 years that my platonic love was actually sexual love!", it's an outsider suddenly coming in and going, "Oh your platonic love for the past 10 years really means you want to have sex" and the main character going "Eureka! I have an epiphany!". Up until the moment the main character "realized" that his love was different, there had been zero evidence from the story to suggest his feelings were anything but platonic. The "love" in this story feels quite hollow.

Having read the prequel and liking it a lot I really looked forward to the expanding story, and it was just a huge let down.

From the very first page everything was just suddenly bara a complete difference from the first manga style. Now this is not to say that there's anything wrong with bara but if you read the preceding manga the difference is just staggering not to mention annoying if you enjoyed that style. The change in character appearance was so drastic that I did not at all recognize a character despite seeing them literally moments before when I was refreshing with the prequel.

Honestly I actually enjoy balanced masculinity in yaoi but the characters were changed so drastically and into an art style that just is not my taste I could not enjoy the story (which itself wasn't that great muddled at best). I don't know what inspired the artist to take this direction but in my opinion it was just a bad choice, the art definitely picks up with the second story, but frankly after the let down of the first I couldn't bring myself to read it.

You know how the plot of most yaois goes a bit something like this?: 1. Cute couple meets. 2. Cute couple acts cute around one another. 3. They grow closer to one another. 4. Misunderstanding occurs! 5. Someone chases someone else down and problem is solved. (Commence the Luv-luv.)

Well, really this basic plot structure applies to any romance-oriented manga, not just yaois, but you get my drift: typically, there's quite a bit of plot and character development before any series will even think of doing the Big Misunderstanding since the Big Misunderstanding is what finally cements our cute couple as a couple.

Not so, unfortunately, for Tsuioku no Venus! Tsuioku no Venus! skips straight to step #4 (the Big Misunderstanding) and practically the entire manga is focused on the characters running around and trying to clear up the misunderstanding! I don't know about you, but for me, this is always my least favorite part of a romance manga. I certainly don't want to read an entire volume that focuses on nothing but the misunderstanding. We don't even get much of a chance to get to know the characters this way! Presumably the uke and seme were introduced as characters in the prequels to this series; however, during the prequels, the seme was a child, so I can hardly call that adequate romantic development for this couple.

Add in the fact that I just didn't care for the artwork of this manga (I think it was the thick eyebrows all the characters had) and there wasn't a whole lot I liked about this manga, with the exception of the seme's female friend, who was a cute and fun character. (I don't know if fans of the prequels will like this manga all that much either since the previous couple shows up, but hardly has much opportunity to interact with one another.) All in all, I can't recommend this manga.

I personally like this story. I read all the comments and negative feedback but I decided to read it anyway. This manga is cute and funny, I consider it as a light read. Kouki's feelings, thoughts and action are understandable, it's not really illogical. However, the love advices from side characters and kouki's feeling are unclear (at that moment, kouki's feeling can also be seen as the love a child have for his parent, is it family love or guy-guy love?). Moreover, I personally dont like kayakawa (and his hairstyle, too). Anyway, I enjoy the manga very much I wish there were more < especially the H stuff xD >

... Last updated on February 12th, 2014, 7:32pm