Ishihara Satoru's BL are marked by a unique brand of fun and toughness which is almost impossible to find in a genre that obviously targets teenage girls. Her strong point is not the romance, but the plot that accompanies it. The reason Kimi Shiruya pales in comparison to her other (scanlated) works is because she decided to focus solely on the love story, completely abandoning any semblance of a plot. It's quite an alarming change from her trademark style, and I really hope this kind of thing isn't here to stay -- because Ishihara is one of my favourite BL mangaka for the very reason that she doesn't place too much focus on the romance.

I found the love polygon to be somewhat annoying as well. Saya is such a gloomy brat, and it's pretty silly for both brothers to be...well, you know >_< If I were Masaomi, I would've taken that totally fun (female) classmate Kojima over Saya any day. Oh, well...to each his own XD

All this criticism doesn't mean there aren't any good things about the story, mind you. I mean -- point out to me another BL where the couple's intra-relationship battle for dominance is played out in the kendo court! I know people complain about this being "too much about the sport and too little about the romance" -- but those people are completely missing the point. There are so many double entendres and so much sexual innuendo here; it's your own problem if you can't see it

And perhaps the best thing was that Tsurugi won their last match...but he's still the uke. While I might be reading entirely too much into the situation, I really liked the implication that those 'positions' have nothing to do with physical and mental strengths or weaknesses.

The last couple of pages were nice too. I normally hate romantic poetry, but the one used here was rather pretty without being sappy or annoying, and so very appropriate to the overall mood of the manga.

Overall, I wouldn't call it a waste of time like MightyMaeve did; but don't judge Ishihara Satoru's writing skills just by this. 38 Dosen, Watashi no Kakurega e Douzo, Cell Number 8, Yarouze!, So wa Reirei no Yuki ni Mai and Shounen wa Asu o Korosu are all much more enjoyable.

... Last updated on January 27th, 2015, 6:46am

This was a really nice read, very abstract in a sense, slow-paced and different from the normal shounen-ai out there. You can feel a lot of emotion emanating from this manga, not much action though if that's what you're looking for. However, I really enjoyed this manga, I just wish that the characters could've been more developed, since it was over the span of 2-3 years (could've used many more volumes of character development!), and a sequel would definitely be nice. haha, and more action...

Nothing amazing enjoyable, nothing amazingly annoying. It was just sort of neutral. With all the other incredible manga out there, there isn't enough possible time in the world to read all the awesome ones, so I would give this one a miss. Not recommended.

I enjoyed reading this. The fact that I didn't give it a 10 doesn't mean it was bad...I just think I've read better, that's all. It's a sweet story, though I thought it lacked action - I wasn't sitting at the edge of my seat while reading. Still, I inhaled the poor thing - as I do all manga - and I still pick it up from time to time for another read.