So, to sum up how I feel about these books: Yoshino makes me shout out "You fucking suck" to my empty living room twice per chapter, while Hatori's relentless sexual violence and possessiveness to the point of pathology makes me put down the book to write angry reviews.

I'm halfway through the second book figuring that , yet I keep getting disappointed over and over again. While I'm okay with some level of dub-con and even non-con if the story justifies it (e.g. Ai no Kusabi) or if it's actual smut (e.g. Ochiru Seija no Seppun), the pathological behavior of Hatori in these books not only warrants an actual judicial sentence, but is even painted as romantic. Yoshino, on the other hand, is so oblivious one can't help but wonder whether he's doing it for the lulz or is just that insensitive to the feelings of the people around him. The only reason I keep reading this series is that, ironically, I kind of started to enjoy seeing the characters having to put up with each other's suckiness - a kind of sadistic pleasure, if you will.

The writing itself is terrible with a conviction, although for my language learning purposes - I'm reading the Japanese version - the constant recycling of the same words and expressions works to my advantage (I've learned all the ways to say "Yoshino was bewildered", " Hatori furrowed his brow" and "Yanase smiled bitterly" in Japanese - 超便利!); hopefully they were able to make some improvements in the translation though. Furthermore, for some reason terrible writing makes for delicious sex, of which there is quite a bit, so if that floats your boat dig right in! Another plus point are the drawings, which - I believe - are supplied by Shungiku Nakamura herself. Part of my disappointment with this series is that I absolutely adore Nakamura-san's manga, which in my opinion play around with dub-con without overstepping (for the most part). The drawings, while not at the level of Nakamura-san's more recent work, come pretty close at points.

I'll keep reading this series, because I've had it for six years and haven't been able to read until now, and I've been looking so much forward to it, so I'm goddamn finishing what I started! I think, if this type if story is what you're into (really violent semes, really oblivious ukes and really cheesy writing), my review isn't going to dissuade you, and if that's the case jump right in. For my other fujoshis out there, however, I think your time is best spent on other BL novels - or just on Nakamura-san's manga, which still stand as classics in my mind!

I seldomly give such a bad rating, but this was probably the worst story I ever had to read - and I read the first 10 pages of "50 Shades of Grey".
No real plot at all (either they work or visit an onsen, it seems those two options are the only things existing in this universe), badly written characters (when "dense" is your character trait, you know you failed life. This is far beyond "cute naive behaviour" ) , repetitive text passages (from what I read here it's not just the translation that uses up to 5x the same word within 3 sentences just to describe "he was surprised" ) and the most strange sex scenes I have ever heard of (I don't know what gives me more PTSD, razor foam sex, having someone's tongue in your ear, or the completely out-of-context-rape scene...) paired with the writing skills of a 10yrs old that just found out what fanfictions are leave you with many regrets, asking yourself what you have done with your precious free time...

... Last updated on August 2nd, 2020, 5:41pm

Yup. Bad. This takes every terrible yaoi cliche known to the manga world... and makes it worse by taking away the pretty pictures. Seriously, there's a love triangle, rape, stupid misunderstandings, an oblivious uke, a pushy, cruel seme, a nice, respectable love rival who never gets the time of day... what is there to like? The characters are insipid, and the whole relationship between Chiaki and Hatori (let's not even pretend this is a spoiler: the second you read the first page you know how the love triangle's going to end) is based on a downward spiral of rape and justified blackmail. Rape is NOT okay, whether you're a guy or a girl. Someone who truly loves you would never rape you and then justify it by saying he only did it because he "loved" you... and he wouldn't take advantage of your drunken state to force himself on you in the first place.
Really, this just left a bad feeling in my mouth- it would be a terrible manga, and it's even worse as a novel because the story has no art to hide behind. Don't read unless... nah, just don't read it.

... Last updated on July 2nd, 2013, 11:36pm