I liked the art and the overall development of the relationships, but the plot fell through in a few places for me.
In the first story, I have to admit, I loved the first part of the story. Unlike pleochroic, I liked the fact that Sakaguchi
would've married Yamato's sister had she not confronted him.
The outcome gave the most courage and strength, in my opinion, to the main female character in a yaoi, something that doesn't happen often. It also showed that Sakaguchi would've otherwise been too cowardly, quite an opposite image to the usual strong-willed seme. To me, it was a true weakness in his character which made him feel more real than many other characters in fiction.
Of course, that same weakness resulted in a rather irksome ending. I did not like
the cowardly decision Sakaguchi and Yamato had to run away from their lives to stay together. Yamato did not even confront his parents and stand up for himself, but rather ran away just like he had from confronting his dad about liking art. Yamato's sister had a reason to leave home and overall would only have been missed on an emotional level. She was probably destined to become a stay-at-home parent so her leaving to 'elope(maybe?)' with a man her parents wouldn't approve of made sense. However Yamato had been destined to become ceo of his father's company, plus Sakaguchi's position at the company, plus the situation which had already happened with his sister. Leaving his parents without so much as a word was like a huge slap in the face to them and would've probably hurt the company too. If they were willing to leave everything and start somewhere else while being openly gay, why not man-up first and talk to your dad? If he can't even compromise (stay out of your personal life and you'll do everything he wants in business life, say? -Yamato already said he could live without art to stay next to Sakaguchi after all) on that, at that time you can run away together. Instead, they acted as cowards and didn't even face the problem. In that aspect, I would've liked to have seen both their characters having grown from their past cowardice (Yamato with art, Sakaguchi with marriage).
As for the second story, I liked it. Didn't love it as much as the first part of the first story, didn't dislike it as much as the first story's ending. Again, it was simply a bit of the plot here that bothered me - mostly to do with lack of research on the mangaka's part. Firstly: drug-smuggling is more likely to come from Latin America than the Middle East (Middle Eastern Terrorists are waaay overdone, but it's the first time I've heard of one dealing in drugs). Secondly: FBI agents can't shoot wanted suspects at random to arrest them - they'd have to be a serious threat before that (just 'cause Japanese can't have guns except under special permit doesn't mean Americans go shooting anyone they please Dx That scene was rather painful to read). Thirdly: What kind of career criminal gives up so much information (which was surprisingly believed without question), without first asking to make a deal?! <-pet peeve
Well, overall, enjoyable minus a few plot points which are in some cases ignorable. Read it for the relationships and you won't go astray 🙂
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