Akaneshinchi Hanaya Sange

General: ...it feels like best of both worlds. It feels like a novel, but the art is VERY DETAILED it's insane. It looks like a manga, but the text is SO MUCH it's insane.

Art : ....whoa, I think I can use certain parts as a coloring page. >>; And the first colored pages are awesome. That being said, the art....is pretty specific. >>; I mean, they all look anorexic.

Feel : ....very seinen. It's not very often I read seinenified yaoi, and never in this depth. I'm happy. 😛 (That being said, that purple prose is kinda...oi.) It's.....heavy and pressing. Kinda claustrophobic (in a sense, it's like seinen. The feeling of having no future, unlike yaoi's....'forever ever after')

The ending is a bit happier in that aspect. Each gained their own lessons, and probably would live happy.....that is, if they can survive the results of all those events (especially Fukazawa. ESPECIALLY FUKAZAWA.)

Depth : ....now it gets really crazy (kudos to the translator, really. How much virgin's blood do you have to drink to learn that much Japanese?), superficially, there's musings after musings of something random about the meaning of life with references of poetry and flowers, life and death. And talks about....I don't know, something random. Delicious. Very slice of life without being one.

Reading in depth, there lies a huge sea of cynicism, lost hope, and sadness. A certain feeling of being chained and naked. It's....poignant, sad, and...depressing.

Smut : I can't really see the smut with all the musings and heavy topics. Or the uncanny situations. It's not..exactly..enjoyable, and I don't think it's meant to be enjoyable. It's......all the fantasies of yaoi being deconstructed in the cruelest of ways, and I like it that way.

Especially the...later ones. OI. So disturbing. But there are fantasies like that. >_>; (Haniya's action are very honorable, btw, fucked up as it is)

In the end; YUM.

Feels like a five star dining haute cuisine. After eating it, you -know- it's been delicately, carefully, patiently made and it shows. Even though one may not appreciate its full depth (I certainly can't. Not now), later...maybe after life catches on, one will. It's not something I would read often, but it's something I'm glad I'd read. And I'd read it again.

... Last updated 14 years ago

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The sexiest, the most serious, the most depraved

by kokiden
14 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

The scanlation for this volume was finally released two weeks ago. This is the best Boys Love (yaoi) manga I have ever read. No other manga even is able to touch the hem of its dirty, wet, torn gown.

The setting: a house of prostitution in a provincial city (Kirishima, in Kyushu). The characters: its inhabitants and one lonely, hopeful, sex-starved boy by the name of Fukazawa. The action: Fukazawa and the boy he loves, Juuza Kaikou fall in love, have sex, break up, and explore what it means to be human.

Both of the main characters are deeply flawed, but both gained my complete sympathy and interest. They're accompanied by a slew of tasty, colorful side characters. Among my favorites (most hated 😕 ) is Nanao-chan, the chronically depressed female mangaka who opens her mouth and lets out endless streams of intellectual nonsense.

This book makes you stretch. It is full of literary allusion, philosophy, and striking insight into the human condition. The art is intense. Narration is superimposed on the art, and the art is richly detailed. Colored pages are fascinating.

But be warned: the sex is graphic, and there are even heterosexual sex scenes. With the level of realism in this book, scenes of degradation may be hard to take. But have a look. I think you'll find it was worth your time.

... Last updated 14 years ago

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A brilliant manga.

by freyakoala
12 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

A manga rich in philosophy, that doesn't shy away from portraying people as horrible, with sketchy art style and masses of narration. This is certainly out there for a manga in the yaoi genre! However, underneath this dark facade lies a simpler story of redemption and hope. I certainly would describe this as a tragedy.

In the beginning, the way Juuza treats fukazawa is pretty terrible. Juuza is certainly not supposed to be a likeable character, but through his narration we failed that he feels empty and apathetic, almost depersonalised. The author's writings and the characters thoughts help them to become sympathetic, and the philosophy talked about throughout this manga is understandable and largely unpretentious. Some common themes are the meaningless of being, the feeling of emptiness, and the use of sex as an attempt to control this.

If the long paragraphs of narration are a total turn off for you, this story can be enjoyed on a surface level as a story of different types of love: fukazawa is in unrequited love with Juuza, Haniya finds himself only able to be satisfied by yearning, Juuza's strange relationship with his mother, etc. Despite the fact that this story starts off very darkly (incest, death, pedophilia), the introduction of Haniya, who is one of the more relatable and normal characters, helps to end this manga on a happier note, as he helps Fukuzawa to recover from his love of the cruel Juuza.

The motifs of this manga are also interesting: the manga ka who wrote this is crazily intelligent and very intricate in her work. Look out for mentionings of flowers throughout. Also, the flower scene in the final chapter is beautifully done, and you don't need to be a genius to work out the symbolism. Light and dark is also a theme that runs through this manga, so spotting images of these is something interesting to look out for.

Basically, this manga can be enjoyed as an existential essay on subjectivity and being, or simply as a love story between three guys. Heck, you can mix these up a bit, picking up some of the deep stuff and leaving the rest. The translation team behind this beauty did a wonderful job in making this work understandable and interesting despite the massively complicated text! Well done on your commitment and fluency!

Basically, read this manga

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beautiful!

by brass-hearses
13 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

oh my, i couldn't even imagine something so wonderful as this masterpiece exists. it's so outstanding it can't be compared to anything i've read so far. and also what a relief it is to know there are still some authors who understand aesthetics of skinny humans ^^ i love it all to the last bit, the art style, the atmosphere which is so twisted and cold it can be really called dark ambiance, and the abstract way in which characters speak and think. the slight postmodern flow is also great, the only thing i wish is that it was longer than two volumes

... Last updated 13 years ago

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Hmmm...

by Serendipity_
14 years ago

Rating: 7.5 / 10.0

Well, first of I gotta say that this manga is more dark than it gives the impression of in the beginning. I was actually a bit shocked of how deep it was when I read further. This is definitly not a Manga made for younger audience, not just because the explict content ( And here I´m talking about the Sex-scenes ), but because it talks about life in a very....deep manner that I found a bit hard to understand. Sometimes it even sounded poetic and surreal.

Gotta mention that the art was incredibly beautiful, I loved that it was so detalied and it made me feel that it had a nice flow to it.

One thing I didn´t get though was:

Why did Juuza sleep with his mother? I tried to re-read some part that I thought would give some kind of explenation with no results. In the ending he said that he was in love with his mother....but I mean...is it that kind of love he means...really? Honestly I didn´t like Juuza, he just seemed to be a cold-hearted person to me that played with Fukuzawas heart.

Also, I found Fukuzawa sleeping with anyone and everyone disturbing. I can´t say that I don´t understand his behavior, because he was heart-broken and felt lonley, but I don´t think sleeping with any random person is a solution. So that left me feeling a bit...agitated.

I´m not giving it the highest rate because I felt that from some aspects it felt kinda incomplete, the author gave us many things to question, but no answer. Almost felt like cliffhangers, wich I´m not a big fan of.

Anyhow, I would recommend this manga for those who likes deeper yaoi manga. Don´t read this if you expect a fluffy plot or happy-go-lucky characters. This is anything but that.

... Last updated 14 years ago

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I love this to bits.

by aominedaiki
13 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

I was reading this with the thought that the first chapter was set in the far future, the present, since Juuza was the owner/manager of a brothel. The second chapter I thought it was set before the first chapter, about a month or so, but not all that far back. Then the third, all the way back when everyone was in school, which confused me, cause I thought Juuza was much older, and I had also thought that he and Fukazawa didn't meet in school, and their first meeting was at the hospital. Then I thought, what if it was more linear then I had first expected, and that the timeline didn't spread out so much, and was to be interrupted almost exactly the way it was told? I mean, I did see the category that this was non-linear storytelling, but I had thought that Fukazawa was still in school in the first chapter, maybe because he looked so, so young.

Linearly, I thought it went Fukazawa was in school with Haniya, but then Juuza showed up, so I thought okay, they went to school together, their ages are not as far apart as I thought. Juuza and Fukazawa were "going out," but Juuza had completely ditched him, and then Haniya and Fukazawa got together. I was real confused at this point, cause then I felt that /this/ was the present. Next thing that came to mind was that Juuza is already the owner of the brothel even thought he's still in highschool. But the first chapter felt so much like the present, cause in high school, Juuza said he was going to get married to whatshername, so then I knew that this was still set in the past (however much I had wanted for Fukazawa and Haniya to get up together cause Fukazawa looks so much happier with him, not just that but it did seem like a much more healthier relationship in comparison to the latter). But first chapter wife died not in school no Haniya looks like to be in future tHEY ARE TOGETHER JUST WUT.

But aside from this confusion, this manga is amazing. Lots of feels, really lots of 'em. She just blows your mind with the story. This made its way to my heart very quickly. The art style is amazing, one of the most beautiful and realistic I've ever seen. The story is actually quite a normal one, with how someone becomes in love with another, to the point of almost obsession (that's what I felt with the relationship between Fukazawa and Juuza anyway). Then they break up (they weren't really together in the first place) but he falls in love with another guy, who actually helps him find light in his so very dark life. I don't know, the concepts she choose to write about, just completely wow-ed me. I even dare to say that this could be my favourite Yaoi manga of all time. And I've read a ridiculous amount of these everyday. I don't want to talk about it for too much, because this has already been quite long. Just prepare for immense beatings to the heart when reading this.

Also, from the ratings here, and on mangafox (where I read this), it doesn't seem to be a very well liked manga. I would like to say I can understand why, but I really don't. I am a very open human being in the first place, and I can even admit that I'm kind of different from the rest of society. I'm non-judgemental to almost anything not normal! The only thing that I really don't support in terms of fetishes would be Necrophilia, cause that's just plain rude towards the decreased. What I'm trying to say is, I don't hate Juuza for being a nasty bastard, for how he treated Fukazawa. I understand Hinaya's reasons for falling in love with Fukazawa in the first place and Fukazawa's reasons for sleeping with, well, anyone. I can even say that I somewhat support them, cause that's who they are (I'm very glad most of them moved on from this though).

AND I JUST FOUND THIS SORT OF REVIEW THAT KINDA CLEARS UP THE STORYTELLING CONFUSION BUt then I found out that she didn't understand Japanese besides from the "aa" when they're having sex .. But still! The way she grasped the flow was much better than I did, so I guess reading it without understanding things is a good thing(?), though I would have never tried cause I want to understand what they're saying. Not just that but some of the lines are just so beautiful! But she really lost me at times with the sheer amount of text! Which is why I completely congratulate and commend the scanlators for trying, and doing such a great job on translating this!

... Last updated 13 years ago

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Woah

by pierzing
13 years ago

Rating: 9.0 / 10.0

Emotionally draining with all the heavy themes of death, loneliness and hopelessness. It's quite good though, except the humongous load of text (man, this must have been a nightmare to translate, good job scanlation team) that I found amusing at first but was overwhelmed at the end. The manga kinda confuses me sometimes, but for the most part, when I really got into it, it was great even with the fountain of words.

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greatest manga ever

by phanata
14 years ago

Rating: 10.0 / 10.0

A real masterpiece! not only in BL, but in general!
WOW! I wonder if mangaka is teaching philosophy in some quiet provincial university while making such mangas to divert herself. I couldn't even imagine that such deep, complicated postmodernistic stuff can be created in yaoi genre. of course I understand why many ppl feel disgust when reading it (especially in sweet pink-coloured blogs of little girls). of course this is not for everybody. this manga requires not only really mature reader but also culturally prepared reader, who is well aquainted with Freud's conseptions, read King Edip (to understand Juuza), nominalistic conseptions (to understand Fukuzava).
But above all this stuff it's a very sentimental and touching story. indeed! I don;t remember when the last time drown personages made me care so much so my heart really ached.
Additionally i want to tell about art. it's a magic. from the first view it looks just scribble but eventually it turns out extremely realistic and somehow beautiful.
I'm so impressed and loved this manga so much that I'm ready to study japanes just to read the sequel. (anyway I still hope that it will be scanlated).

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...

by rumflakes
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

well...storyline is very unique, starts off slowly then gets quite disturbing. the artwork is kinda creepy but i guess it fits well with the story. still...everyone looks anorexic and the wierd line shading also makes them look like little old men x.x. Anyway, definitely an interesting manga that i wont ever forget.

that eel part really scared me Dx holy shizz, Kaikou must be insane, having fukazawa put on display and making him catch eels by letting them slip into his ass >.< o god, this part seriously frightened me, probably because it reminded me of "1000 ways to die" ; a chef gets a eel slipped into his pants as a prank from the other workers....but the eel slides into him, into his intestines, slowly biting its way out, and yea..ends in death..just scary

... Last updated 14 years ago

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I don't get it at all..! (SPOILERS)

by brownie18
14 years ago

Rating: N/A

Ok, first this is a really GREAT manga...!, but I just couldn't get some behaviors, being more specific I just couldn't get Juzza's behavior... I mean, why the hell did he act that way..??, why he has to be some f*cking sadistic? :/ ... I can't understand where's his coming from, and especially WHY DID HE SLEEP WHIT HIS MOTHER (Sakae) ??? ??? ??? ? ... I'm hoping to someone explain to me that part.

Well, like I said this is a MUST READ, because its depth is very unique! and very rare in yaoi manga... this isn't a lovey dovey story, but don't be afraid, it isn't as cruel and hopeless as u might think... it leaves you with a message that in every hard time you can learn how to be positive or at least keep moving, hoping to everything'll turn out well :)

I think Fukuzawa could at least see some light at the end of this freaked road of depravation... I can understand why he acted that way (is not something I would do, tho), he's just a love-sick boy that was desperately in love with Juzza, and do everything he could to get him to love him back... that's all..! (Well, he has other mind issues too,lol), but at least i can understand him, not like Juzza, that I just couldn't get him at all :/

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