Since this was shounen ai I thought it would be real nice, but I didn’t expect the same person to be kissed without their consent four times. Honestly, I should be used to this portrayal of kissing without consent,, but I am not. There was even a line here, “He didn’t get you like him even after you kissed him? Sure is dense”, like wtf? And, not to mention all the other stuff.

This 4 volume series is an emotional roller coaster. The humor can be laugh out loud funny, but at times feels too close to Ranma 1/2's slapstick style were reality doesn't exist. Then the drama can feel rather realistic and the jokes feel out of place.

While I eventually grew to enjoy the romance between Tatsumi and Kurokawa, I wasn't comfortable with how manipulative Kurokawa could be.

Souichi and Morinaga's relationship was a mixed bag. It was funny, but it doesn't look like it would last.

My biggest pet peeve in this entire series are the horrible, selfish, bitchy women. The mother was the worse culprit, but the Kurokawa's stalker was almost just as bad. These women did not add anything to the story and just annoyed me.

... Last updated on October 14th, 2017, 12:48pm

And I doubt I will read more. I am disappointed with the Kurokawa being so forceful with his sexual interest in another. Sexual harrassment isn't lovely nor romantic.
:/

I read Koisuru Boukun first and loved it, but there were certain holes in the story that I couldn't understand, but those are answered in Challengers because it was the original story and that's the reason I read it. The story isn't BAD, it's just on the boring end. Kurokawa is a boring protagonist and Tomoe is just dull.

The best part about the series to me was Souichi, the older bro and protagonist in Koisuru Boukun, and not just because I read that series first. Souichi acts without thinking and gets himself into trouble. Tomoe has to be told what to do most of the time and Kurokawa is an insecure moron. Isogai must have insane patience to be friends with Kurokawa.

I guess the other best part about the manga is Tomoe's asexuality and aromanticism. You could argue he develops romantic and possible sexual attraction later on, making him demi-sexual and demi-romantic, but it's not certain. Even though the mangaka never gives it a name, it was just nice to see my sexuality shown in a manga that's realistic and doesn't treat it like a disease or problem.

I feel like I'm the only one who didn't like this story that much. I discovered "Challengers" from the side story sequel "The Tyrant Falls in Love" and although I read chronologically backward I found Tyrant to be much more interesting than this one. I see this story as Takanaga's starting weak points. I also didn't like the style that much (I guess since I am so used to/love Takanaga's current style a lot more) but the story was humorous, cute and the moments of love were sweet. However, I guess I didn't like the couple too much. I just found how they met and developed a relationship to be too unrealistic and bizarre as odd as it sounds. It was even too unrealistic for BL manga standards when based on a realistic setting. It had no real foundation. Tomoe seemed to be a typical type of character/uke in BL but I did like him. I thought he was very cute but he was very plain and kind of under developed to me. He was a typical naive uke being set at the pace of the seme. I found it weird he could be so obliviously trusting and not understand Kurokawa's motives by his behaviors. [spoiler/ Kissing Tomoe goodbye before he even knew who he was or if Tomoe was even interested.[/spoiler] I found Tomoe's naivety kind of irritating at some points yet I didn't dislike his character. I admit though that he had more presence in Tyrant and he's barely in it. Kurokawa was just as boring and also lacks a lot of development. He's always cowering in fear from either Souchi or his own stupid actions and never really takes full responsibility in a way I see fit. He's bold in aspects of advancing sexual related needs but in all else he's pretty spineless even for Tomoe's sake. It's a shame but a side character like Isogai was more interesting and he too was just as bland as the others.

concerning what little plot existed I just think necessary elements were thrown into this story to make it interesting and just fell short of anything really worthwhile. I honestly only read this story to learn more about Souchi and Morinaga's past revealed only in Challengers. Which, even at it's slowest point of development of their relationship in Challengers it was still a lot more interesting than the main couple of this story.

The story's pacing was very strange as well and it felt like in some chapters a lot was thrown out at once which made the story seem jumbled and even harder to read.

I actually really liked Souchi in this despite his overbearing nature because it's relatable. His younger brother went off on his own and moved in with an older stranger who as he suspected had more or less indecent motives to a older sibling's standards. Souichi was truly the height of this manga for me and found myself wanting to skip ahead to the story that concerned him and Morinaga. I can't say enough how unrealistic this story was for me to a point that it's a little lower than mediocre.

If you like somewhat cute, classic/generic art style and typical/cliched stories then this is for you but if you're looking for a more compelling tale of BL love this just isn't it. If I ever had to convince a fellow friend the splendors of BL and recommend a good read this would be the last manga I'd ever consider.

... Last updated on June 8th, 2013, 10:33pm

I found the story to be really funny, and really sweet. The art wasn't my favorite, but I thought the story was solid. Its a simple romantic comedy, but I'm glad it doesn't have the smut/drama. It fits a sweet romance like this.

Well... it was okay. I wanted a cute shounen-ai and nothing too complicated, and I got one. I definitely agree that Koisuru Boukon was more interesting, even though I only watched the anime and didn't dare touch the manga... Yes, because of that yaoi tag that's in the way = =|||. Hell, for all I care I'll remain single for life! Yes, that means despite my love for yaoi I can't touch them since it's too dangerous and I'll accidentally or rather already did learn the man's body...

Back to track. It's nothing special. The art is decent and the story is cute. But honestly, there's nothing that stands out to it. Characters were weak and story's your run-of-the-mill. Art's not too bad, but since the only character I love is from or rather extended into Koisuru Boukon. So yes, inferior again = =;;.

In any case, there's nothing too bad about it. So if you're just in a mood to find something cute and easy to read to waste your time, well, you're in the right place. It did a great job on not boring me out or pissing me off, a very wonderful average manga lol. A manga doesn't need to be special to be good if you're in the mood for it XP. Gives pretty decent laughs too!

I only went on to read this cos I really liked Koisuru Boukun and wanted to know the whole story but I must say I enjoyed reading this a lot more than I'd thought... The art in the beginning was god awful but even that gets gradually better. The plot I thought was rather charming throughout and, despite the onesidedness of the characters' feelings, there's little forcing going on. Tomoe was a bit irritating at times cos, c'mon, no one's that naïve, but I thought there was something realistic about his undecidedness. Love can be really confusing when you're new to romantic relationships. Plotwise, I also loved that it was Kurokawa giving up his life for Tomoe and not the other way around. That was refreshing! And of course it was interesting to know more about Souichi and Morinaga's beginnings... I'm sure lots of people read them in this order and I must say, though this isn't as good as its sequel, it's totally worth a look. It was entertaining in its own right and parts were funny enough to make you laugh out loud!

... Last updated on March 13th, 2013, 1:59am

Really, there was a ton about this series which I found totally stupid, but in the end I read through the whole thing and did not at any point think "why am I still reading this?". I think if I had gone in to it looking for a sweet, touching story, I would have been very disappointed. The relationships in it I found pretty meh, but it is well written and pretty funny. I loved the best friend and even enjoyed the self-congratulating mother.

Seriously. I haven't even started reading this one yet. I got a peek at it sometime ago, but Koisuru Boukun was more interesting (I was basing it off other review + rating + summary) which naturally lead me to read KB first, and now I'm irritated with Challengers Seriously....I hate the little brother for being so fickle, and I hate the seme for not even having the backbone and for being sly! (yes I am so bias with Souichi's view of this couple)

And damn I just hate Tomoe. > I just hate him, I hate him, I hate him, I hate his lame ass fickle inconsiderate ass

... Last updated on June 24th, 2011, 11:27am