I had put off reading this manga for a long while cuz (judging from the cover) I thought it was another horrible attempt of a yaoi trying to add some 'substance' to the story by adding demons n dragons or machines n wat not (i.e. crimson spell)........ but apparently I have far underestimated Ike Reibun
truth to be told, it's arguable that this manga is another eccentric, way over the top, meaningless smut. But if you ignore a large portion of the sex scenes (esp the first few ones), you're left with quite a kickass sci-fi story. The concept of a crippled human society is certainly not new, but the author has managed to present it in an intriguing way, relevant (we can see references of pretty current issues), and if u look deep enough, there're some very interesting ideas and perspectives.
what put this story on a solid 8 for me though, is actually the art. I mean usually, when a yaoi tries to go down a fantasy or sci-fi route... it never turn out well, especially in an artistic sense but I have to admit that ike reibun nails this one. Most of her other works carry a more japanese oriented supernatural or historical feel, and to go from that to this, is an amazing feat! Any artists could draw well given the right amount of practice and attention to detail, but to be good across many genres require an absolute versatile imagination, if not, a vast amount of research! And it's not like she just threw in a few robots n call it a sci-fi, there's machines, gadgets, building structures and mechanisms for god sake!
with that said, like any other works by this author, this manga still gives me mixed feelings - I enjoyed it, but I certainly won't put it anywhere near my top favorites, I don't love it, but I certainly will remember it. Nonetheless, I'd recommend it to anyone with an open mind and wanna get away from the usual relationship/drama-centric yaois
oh and I almost forgot, there is a romantic story in this, for me, it just pales in comparison to the aforementioned aspects of the manga - so there's not much I can comment on, but I'll try anyway. The characters are very weird, but not too unrealistic by yaoi standard, there're more than one dimensions though im still not sure if that's good or bad. What I can say is that you do feel like rooting for them by the end even without being very emotionally attached