The first thing I'll say is that the art's sweet, absolutely gorgeous. Of course, there may be those who believe Kairi (the uke) a little too feminine for their tastes, but I find him tastefully adorable. Taste and preferences are far too subjective, but I would never feel that it is in my right to criticize (not critique, distinct difference) just because it was not to my liking.
Onto the plot, yes, I must admit, it is a multitude of cliches, the entire story line is probably built on cliches, but I fail to see what makes it less of a good manga, simply because the plot follows the typical drama. There's a certain reason and logic as to why cliches are formed. With the exception of a petty group that finds perverse satisfaction in nitpicking overused plots and denouncing them as shallow and frivolous, there is an ever-present demand for such books (manga).
Why would Harlequin print a hundred books about Greek and Texas Tycoons, why would the market for historical romances thrive, why is it that mobster bosses and brooding vampires and arrogant princes are so dreadfully appealing? Why? People (oh, you may call us shallow and frivolous) do enjoy cliches. I personally love a good cliche. You know what's a cliche? Happy endings. The biggest cliche in the history of mankind. Do you hate all books and all manga with happy endings?
Maybe. I wouldn't put it past some people, but that of course speaks for a minority. I believe the majority loves a good ending. Correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps times have changed and the market now decides we like the characters that we have all come to feel for die a horrible, gruesome death.
Clearly there are several notable flaws in the plot, mentioned several times before me, the Divine Grape Tree. Yes, the reason it is so revered is that it is a tree that grows grape when grape actually grows on vines. Okay, so I see the problem, but what I don't see is how that affects the entire story, it could be a sacred golden flower, or a silver dragon, or a gigantic three-storey clam for all I care. I wouldn't be one to nitpick, it's a manga for heaven's sake, and yaoi to boot, realism is not what I'm looking for.
Yet I must admit that there is something lacking in the relationship between the main couple, which, I must say, didn't seem to be getting anywhere and suddenly seemed to have gotten somewhere. All the misunderstanding and hurt ever-present in the four long angst-ridden chapters can hardly be resolved in five short pages, maybe three. It does seem rushed, and perhaps slightly disappointing when the reader has been expecting more.
All in all, I still believe this to be a wonderful mainstream sort of manga, in a not quite mainstream genre, while there is room for improvement (in pacing and character development mostly) as there always is in any form of media, I have undoubtedly found in this manga, a greatly satisfying read, and it is something I do enjoy enough to pick up again after I've read it through once.