I don’t understand why Haine wanted to leave but then deciding to stay instead with Ashraf. It’s like his plan was a waste. Q is such a beautiful bitch: cold on the outside but a diva in the inside. I give Faisal credit for allowing us to see his true personality. The short stories are hilarious. The last story is pretty tender but lacks much more arguments, unlike the main story though. Overall, I really like this manga.

... Last updated on March 3rd, 2020, 9:23am

Chapter 5 and 6 were really good, with nice art and hot sex and also had a plot but main story... well it wasn't good. It's well known scheme rape->love, moreover this time without any explanation, to the point that it seems some chapter is missing. I thought "awww not again! it's so boring". Haine was a toy and not in entertaining meaning. His love, jealousy and longing were just ridiculous just like his outfit in Japan (why? he never wears that before and after) and Ashraf's knowledge about design in japanese houses (he was well educated! he travelled a lot! he should have known that love hotel isn't a good example of japanese fine house art). It's lacking of sense. There's plenty of better yaoi.
But last story was good.

the first story's protagonist was such a whiny little bitch that even though he was being raped and forced into slavery i didnt felt sorry for him i usually feel sorry when this happens so i rarely read yaois with the rape element but he was just so weak and whiny and so undecided, i kindda thought that it will pick up by the time he thought about escaping but i was dead wrong. he didnt even think of his family anymore or his old life and the mangaka seemed undecided about the story as well, at one point it was only because the sultan is making him as a replacement for Q and then suddenly he is in love with him? now that is just ridiculous as fuck and somehow i just get the feeling that it was thoughtless porn and yup another complain Haine was too skinny and looked to much like Sailor Mercury.

second story was not that interesting i really hoped it was cause im a sucker for boys with long hair and Q has long hair so you get the drift, so anyway it was just as i expected more cliche and the big brother was just the streotype, joking, motherfucker.

third story was kindda pretty but Yunshao was such a crybaby and looked too much like a girl that whenever he whines i just roll my eyes at him. its redeeming points are Infa and the emperor because theyre hot, especially the emperor, except that theyre gay. sometimes i forget this fact about yaoi but when im commenting like this i remember the fact that im a female and they are males going at it with another male and i get hecka sad. i was kindda expecting for there to be a major swordfight but the mangaka didnt made it happen so damn it.

the diary entries and the extras were amusing, not too funny, just amusing.

i didnt get to read the shota thing that y'all are raving about but it seems hecka bad so i will not bother looking for it.

Within the first two chapters, almost every Orientalist stereotype was played in this manga: arbitrary capital punishment for stealing, overly superstitious Easterners, harems, eroticization of Easterners, basically Edward Said's worst nightmare lol I will comment on the rest of the manga later--I just had to get this out right now

I like the idea of the first story, but the execution just kind of fizzled out. One moment the uke hates his seme, the next moment they're lovey-dovey. The serious tone of the first chapter whiplashes with the second chapter and just kills the mood.

The second group of stories about the emperor and his singer are a little better, though that bit at the end- wow. Never saw a kid that young be the aggressor.

The plots may be all over the place, but my high rating stems from the art. Very well drawn, and not a lot of "shojo sparkles" that clutter up other works.

Well,I liked the first story, although what bugged me was, that they never looked into why haine came into the palace... they just treated him as a slave and said he was a thief.. then I read the second one with Q.
While reading I realised, he was 12 years old when he was doing 'that'... Cause that half-brother of the Ashraf says ''I took my eyes off you for a moment and this happened'' (referring to his hand) and Q explained in the first story to Haine that he was 12 when his arm got cut off...
Maybe they have a different age law in that country? Lol
Anyways, it was alright, but Haine was treated badly for no reason in my opinion. So, a typical stockholm syndrome yaoi...

... Last updated on March 24th, 2012, 4:14pm

1) *ack* -- rapee falls in love with rapist. there aren't any extenuating circumstances why; it's not as if he is being treated nicely by anyone. this isn't even stockholm syndrome; it's completely nonsensical. a shame the story is so flat, because some of the art is lovely -- that desert scene especially. fortunately i no longer expect verisimilitude about other cultures from manga, so the total hash made of anything arabic didn't bother me especially. i was sorta interested in Q; his backstory with ashraf seems interesting.

2) turns out Q's backstory isn't all that interesting after all. not enough is explained, and it all comes out of thin air.

3) humourous diaries are humourous. especially the bit about peaches. i'll probably remember his too the next time i'll eat peaches. ;-)

4) utaibou is my favourite story in this tankoubon. the art is at its most impressive here; incredibly rich, lush, and detailed; i can look at it over and over again. the story itself is plotted better than usual, and though i don't care for yunshao (too feminine and without agency), the 2 seme mostly make up for that, and fortunately the ending did not scar me (i was worried there for a bit).

5) the baby seme is pure crack. i wouldn't call this shota because he is the one doing, not the one being done (which is the whole point of shota).

... Last updated on March 21st, 2011, 4:59pm

Coming from a middle-eastern background i was glad that in Japanese manga (which i adore) there are parts of my culture but in this manga i was very dissappointed.

Most of the things that were said was wrong and accck thinking about what happened annoys me! ARGH!

I am not a shota fan, not one bit, so when I re-read this series for the umpteenth time for the main story, I was very surprised. I skipped the usually pretty boy/girl extra at the end and then realised there was another extra, which turned out to be this creepy little shota story. It was so random considering the themes and content of the main stories.
Well to sum it up, the main story to me is memorable, the characters are different in terms of the setting (Arabian/Japanese), but the uke isn't that different personality wise. The extras that were related to the main story (comedic diary entries) were actually very enjoyable. I also liked the side story that was related to the main story about the prince's aid and prince's brother, I wish there was more on that or at least some explicit sex scenes for that particular story.
The most frustrating thing was the whole 'fell into love straight after being raped' thing happening, common in yaoi. If you don't mind that, then go ahead, it's better than a lot of yaoi manga out there. The art, especially for the seme was lovely and there was some nice lovey dovey sex

The 2-chapter story about the Emperor's official -and trapped- singer or Utaibou and the brother-by-mistress of the Emperor was the best. The art was detailed and beautiful, capturing the elegance of the clothing and time period. The story line was tense and frightening (potential eunuch-hood threatened our uke!)The singer himself was a -slightly too- bishounen, but amazingly devoted and trusting in his seme, almost-16-year-old boy. The seme was a masculine, strong and caring seme who was his own worst enemy because he created, indirectly, the torturous situation their illegal love had now become. The Emperor was a suitably beautifully evil and surprisingly motivated antagonist. It was just an overall classic thwarted love story that I enjoyed like a rich, sinful chocolate bar. The story had enough meaning and poetry in the words to make the love scenes very touching and the art and pacing had enough tension to keep me flipping (and going back) and melllllting. Oh my the sex scenes were most exciting, heart breaking and beautiful all at once!

The Sheikh story was beautifully illustrated (the Sheikh -oh my!) but the story fell flat for me. I did like the whole concept of the uke not believing that he was loved for himself, that he was only a substitute for Q. I did like the depth of potential personality Ashraf (the Sheikh) could have had with his dark and ruler-required personality, but it was largely unexplored. I think I was also expecting a little more anger on seme and/or uke's part, a little more conflict, a little more violence only because it was all aggressive 'ownership' at the beginning. And I like that sort of stuff. I just had my expectations up for something darker because of the whole angsty and shocking branding! C'mon! Branding?! And then no more pseudo-BDSM or kink? And the uke hated the seme. There needed to be resolution to that before his emotions changed. It did have it's beautiful moments - in words and illustrations though. (The sand dune scene about how he came from the sand - very pretty and soft.) Regardless of my issues with it, I don't regret reading it and would possibly read it again.

Chapter 3, Ashraf servant, Q was really not very interesting to me at all. There was nothing that held me to that story. I think after reading Ashraf's story and the Singer story, I was so high that this one didn't have enough angst and passion to get me going. (Perhaps it is important to read them in order!)

I do so enjoy the format of taking a bunch of characters and then writing an anthology of sorts by compiling the character's individual stories together into a series of oneshots in the same volume. (Shin Mizukami's Love's Pressure Points is the best example.) By doing so, it helps in making me feel connected to all the characters throughout every story' therefore, giving each individual story more power. The well-developed parts become so so much more as a whole. It gives me a more complete and overall satisfied feeling at the end of a collection. Every secondary character has depth to because I know they have their own poignant story, when it is their turn as the main character. The whole 'world' becomes memorable in talented mangaka's hands.

The diaries were humourous. I liked them. Especially the dirty, dirty one Ashraf wrote and Haine's embarrassed and indignant response! *giggle* I didn't like the strange little emperor's son story. THank god it was extremely short. It didn't fit in with the rest of the stories and was too shota for me and too wtf? for my beautiful singer boy. I'm going to pretend it wasn't included.

Little note: The chapters were out of order in the scanlation I had. Be careful you are reading it in order - it makes a difference! LOL!)

... Last updated on December 4th, 2008, 2:32am