Wish I would read those comments below before downloading this manga. When reading chapter 4 I did have a bad feeling about how bad the ending would be, and it turned out to be true. I just could say "OMG", this manga really really really disappointed me.
I don't hate rape yaoi if the seme truly love the uke, but this yaoi's rapist and the raping motive are unacceptable. I totally agree with "brid" and his (or her) comments about this yaoi, sooooooooo awkward and dissappointing.

... Last updated on December 15th, 2008, 5:53am

This one is stunning. Yes, it's full of Yaoiland-ness, so beware if that disturbs you. Masara Minase is brilliant at conveying tension, angst and an immediate connect for her characters. I couldn't put this story down, I was that captivated!

An example of the depth of characterization: In one frame, she can make Yoshito's brother so full of manipulative darkness (I shivered with the 'violence and sexual assault' ominously dark frame in an early chapter) and then she can make the same boy heartbreakingly sad. (In the frames where Ryuu shows him a kindness, even after he has only given Ryuu such unforgivable, angry behaviour.) And really, I believe humans ARE that complicated.

Nobody is pure 'evil' or pure 'good.' I like that a lot. Nobody is a write-off.

There was also humour balancing out the disturbing, dark brother-hatred and overall anxiety. It was an excellent balance for yaoiland pleasures.

Her characters are so 'alive.' Ryuu is so utterly adorable! I love it when he's blabbing and blabbing, trying to ease the awkward silence, and then WHAMO! Whoops, he gives away something he didn't want to put out there! Tongue got away with brain.
I found this story to be truly heart-rending for the brothers and the journey of how Ryuu changes them both by his open-hearted, if naieve, possibly unhealthy, possibly unbelievably unselfish, behaviour.

Well worth the intense read.

... Last updated on November 26th, 2008, 1:56pm

This manga has the dubious distinction of making me totally give up reading Masara Minase's works. I don't like rape in general and haven't been a fan of this mangaka's increasing use of it, but this manga was literally the straw that broke the camel's back for me. Quite possibly it is among the most egregious Stockholm Syndrome-inspired, fall in love with your rapist stories out there.

In this manga, the uke is savagely brutalized, not by a guy who is secretly in love with him (as is the usual excuse in these cases), but by a guy actively seeking to humiliate him and use that humiliation as revenge against his brother. At the point the rape occurs, the uke and seme have barely met (though the seme has been stalking the uke for the purposes of attacking him). No feelings of any type have developed between them, which makes the seme's actions all the more predatory. During his attack, there isn't an ounce of pity or compassion on his part, rendering the uke utterly hopeless and helpless, and making the scene one of the most brutal rapes between uke and seme I have ever seen in yaoi.

And what is the fall-out from this? Why to turn the rapist into a cute, fluffy bunny of teen angst, of course! (The audience--and the uke--must now be manipulated into forgiving him.) You see, while the seme was tearing open the uke's body, he fell in love with him! So to prove that love, he decides to spend the rest of the manga turning up on the uke's doorstep and pouting over the uke's friendship with his brother. Naturally, he wants the uke to look only at him. The uke responds to everything with all the anger of someone whose friend just dented his bike--which is to say, not all that much in the grand scheme of things. Everything gets nicely resolved over a small case of the sniffles and we get an ending so saccarine-sweet it'll make your teeth rot. Everyone ends up good friends and the uke and seme get universal approval for their love! How perfect is that? It's not everyday a boy can happily skip off into the sunset with his victimizer. But apparently in Masara Minase's neighborhood, it can happen. Which is why I won't be visiting any longer.

... Last updated on July 21st, 2008, 1:49am

I liked the ending a lot, because i was wishing for that pairing. It would be too predictable and cliche if he ended up with the other guy. So after the misleading beginning, the ending surprised me positively. That's what makes this story so awesome and unique.

Well it's not like the ending was the worst ending ever in the world of manga! But jeez, talk about awkward. Everything about the ending was just so wrong and unrealistic. The story was excellent actually, so it was the ending that brought down my overall liking. I would recommend reading it, but don't expect anything amazing at the end - which was dull and there was a "forced" passion somewhat. Or overall, Minase seemed she was forced to end the story quickly. I don't get the overall theme or moral of this story really. Nothing major was resolved. Everything else was good until chapter 5.

I usually love her stories but this one as others have said was disappointing. It was not the ending I wanted or should have been. It was good till ch 4 (well even ch 4 was little bit iffy) and then the last ch just brought it all downhill.

wahh the end was rather disappointing to me. Up until chapter 4 i was captivated by this story, but the end was too .... fast!!
Dont get me wrong, its not about who he ends up with, but
I think this story needed at least one more volume for the characters to developp a bit...

Oh well, but thats one of Minase Masara's weakness: her endings r always too fast.

But i still liked it (Of course)!!!!!! So ill put 8/10 coz of the ending

Since I'm not a fan of non-consensual sex, there was nowhere this story could go for me. I like Masara Minase as an artist, and I've been reading her books since Empty Heart and Uso to Kiss, but this one is definitely on the lower end of the scale for me. I'm happy that it's a longer story, but the non-consensual aspect of it really wasn't pleasing.

It's interesting. By far my favourite from Masara Minase I just love this complicated relationship between the two brothers and a classmate ^___^ And raep.. yes i like raep and nonconsensual sex XD

it's a bit too soon to say anything about it, but it looks to be shaping up to be on par with uso to kiss and empty heart, minase masara's 1 volume works. i am always glad when she writes longer stories; her oneshots rarely come into their own. the triangle here is more interesting than in most love triangle stories; i'm curious where she'll go with it.

2011-04-13: i finally picked this up again and finished it. and oh boy, did it ever go downhill. she didn't go anywhere interesting with that story; she went straight into familiar yaoiland territory where rapees fall in love with their rapists. and i'm sorry to all y'all friends of non-con, but in this case i am absolutely NOT in favour of that trope. see, there isn't even the slightest excuse this time; there is no "i love you but you've scorned me", or "i love you and we're both drunk", or "i love you but i've held back so long that i can't bear it anymore". no, the rapist rapes our uke because he wants to destroy his own brother's happiness; it is pure malice.

and yeah, i understand the japanese propensity for forgiveness, sacrifice, and singing kumbaya; a society with this many people living in such a small space cannot easily afford permanent discord, and there is something to be said in favour of striving for harmony even when it is most difficult. but it simply doesn't sit right with me in this case. because there is somebody else who's getting badly hurt here, and that's the rapist's brother -- who doesn't deserve the pain in the slightest, and who has already been hurt this way for years. so this is just an enormous misstep for me, and it destroyed any enjoyment i had in the story, no matter how charmingly pitiful minase paints the rapist afterwards. yeah, i do feel sorry for him, but no, i don't think forgiveness should be this quick, and i also don't believe people change their spots this fast and just like that. i might have stomached it if we had gotten another volume of development before the end, but as it stands, *yuck*, no.

... Last updated on April 13th, 2011, 7:49pm