Hey, guys! I was going to do a normal post about life and whatever, but then I read this cute Boys Love manga this morning. Which is actually pretty rare for me, most BL manga out there doesn't strike me as particularly interesting. BUT HEY, it was decent enough and thought WHY NOT SHARE WITH TheO?
And by share, I mean do a full-out critique of it. BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT I DO.
Apparently.
But no, I sometimes think that I should do BL reviews b/c it would be fun! :^D But then I remember that a lot of them are either boring or basically just porn and. Hm. Reviewing porn.
BUT! This one is not porn, it is just a nice little 4-chapter PG-13 ish story, so I WILL REVIEW AWAY.
The manga in question is called Ai Ga Love Shite You Nanosa, by Jaryuu Dokuro. The title has a lot of wordplay that I don't exactly understand. It looks like it's based on some sort of weird phrasing like "Ai (watashi) ga rabushiteru nanosa" which I think means something like, "It's like, I'm in love." "AI" here can mean the English word "I" (as in me), but is also the Japanese word for love (愛). Also in the title is the English phrase "I love you" (AI RABU YUU).
Basically: confusing title.
Yaoislife translates the title as "I, like, Love, um, You, and stuff," which is pretty cute. Idk how accurate it is to the original title, but who cares.
As far as the author, Jaryuu Dokuro, goes, her work tends to be pretty alright. I remember reading her one shot Call My Name some years ago, and remember liking it. :V (I'm also sure there was a prequel to it, but I can't find it...?? WHATEVER.) I like her art style well enough, and it's usually pretty expressive... Also kinda sketchy, but I do like art on the sketchy side. She also tends to add this sort of quick, snappy humor into her works. It's kind of rare for the kind of humor she uses to appear in BL mangas; A lot of BL kind of relies on a fantastical, dramatic tone, and when there is humor, it's usually kind of cheap and unnatural.
(...I don't really have any evidence atm to show what I mean by "cheap and unnatural," but I CAN FEEL IT. ONCE I COME UP WITH A CONCRET WAY OR ILLUSTRATING WHAT I MEAN, I'll let you know.)
Anyway, on to Ai Ga Love Shite You Nanosa.
When I first saw the cover, I thought it was going to be a Teacher-Student Romance (I-I WAS SO READY TO READ IT AND JUDGE IT HARD;;;), but it's not. They're both high school students on the cover. Ai Ga is a 4-chapter story about the relationship between student council member Oono (left), and delinquent Takeuchi (right). There's also a bonus story at the end about a different set of characters, but I won't be talking about it. One notable thing about Ai Ga is that the two main characters get together in the first chapter.
Another notable thing is that they're both butt-cute little idiots.
I ADMIT, IT WAS MOSTLY THE OPPOSITE-PERSONALITY-DYNAMIC THAT WON ME OVER. I am weak. It's true that there isn't much of a storyline, the dialogue flow is a little odd at times, and the characters aren't particularly well developed. But there's a definite light and warm tone that starts to shape the more you read it. Plus, both of these characters ended up being rather cute and felt genuine, which was nice. Takeuchi's tough-guy-but-obliviously-cute act worked pretty well with Oono's strict-but-actually-really-shy act.
One hilarious thing I'd like to mention really quick is the chapter 1 cover art:
IT'S LIKE...
WHO...
OONO, YOU'RE NOT...
THAT'S NOT YOU ON THAT CHAPTER ART.
The only things I can offer to explain the reason for this hilariously inaccurate chapter art is the possibility that 1) the artist drew it before she decided the character personalities, or 2) her editor or someone wanted her to draw something with a more conventional seme/uke dynamic.
Oono, you are not mysterious and brooding. You are a cute little blushing baby.
In fact, all the characters were pretty cute, not just the main characters. I'm a fan of this chick:
I don't remember her name, but the manga's so short that I don't remember anyone's name. Having a female character that sticks out as a good, likable character is pretty impressive in BL mangas. BL manga tends to make boring or antagonistic female characters. But even putting aside all of that, this girl's great! I MEAN... SHE CALLS TAKEUCHI OVER USING TELEPETHY... AND IT WORKS. (???) Also, there's this:
SUGGESTIONS OF GIRLS LOVE??? IN A BOYS LOVE MANGA??!?!?!? Okay, this isn't specifically GL, she does say "We're friend's now." But I mean, considering the heart and the fact the dude on the buttom panel says "Just like Take-chan (who is clearly in a same sex relationship with Oono)," it seems like the author kind of maybe wants us to read into it a little. Maybe. Idk.
BUT YEAH, as far as the side characters go, I liked that the side characters never treated Takeuchi and Oono's relationship as odd, or anything; usually side characters in BL manga hint at the idea that same sex relationships are seen as "weird" and so on. Which, at times, can work--but other times, it won't. I think Dokuro's decision to make everyone GREAT FRIENDS instead of causing lots of friendship drama was a good decision for how short the manga was. That said, I do wish Ai Ga was a little longer; all of the characters could have used a little development, but especially the side characters like Dude With Hairclips and Beard Ponytail Guy.
Another thing I want to talk about is the art. It started out pretty standard in art style (especially the hilariously bizarre chapter 1 cover art, that looks like a fairly standard BL art style). As the story went on, the art seemed to get a bit more experimental. It turned pretty cartoony near the end, with less screentones and a kind of more sketchy/doodle-y art style compared to the first chapter. It wasn't a bad thing, and I like how the art looks in both the beginning and the end, but it was just kind of a weird thing to happen in such a short manga. HM? HM.
I really love how expressive Dokuro manages to draw everyone, though! BL has a bad reputation for its weird anatomy, but I think the lack of diverse expressions is an issue, too. Dokuro pulls of anatomy pretty well (except she sometimes draws heads a little big which makes the characters look randomly young), but expressions are really her art's winning feature. It's so refreshing to read BL manga with expressive characters, in a land where BL manga is dominated by bored looking dudes.
Like, look at this guy from Sekaiichi Hatsukoi:
It's. Are you happy, or. Pitying someone, maybe. Condescending, perhaps. I have no idea, he just looks kind of bland. Yeah, I'm being kind of harsh. I've never liked the way Nakamura Shungiku (who wrote Sekaiichi and Junjou Romantica) draws guys. I've never read any of her works, so I can't really say anything about her storytelling or anything else in her manga.
But it's not just Shungiku who does this weird emotionless thing; here's a chapter art from Super Lovers:
Yes, can you not see the love I harbor when you look into my emotionless, dead eyes...
But no, I literally cannot see either of these characters as having any sort of emotions in this picture. They're just sitting and staring. Indifferently. I'm not trying to say that there isn't a place for these sort of blank, emotionless expressions in BL manga. I'm not even saying that Sekaiichi or Super Lovers is bad--I've never read them, I wouldn't know. It's just that with these sort of faces, it's hard for me to really care about the story being presented because clearly, the characters themselves don't care.
Dokuro on the other hand works with varying expressions, and from the pictures of her's that I've already posted, I'd say she manages to pull it off. She draws very cute emotions, I really like it. *3*b
Look at these cute losers, it's great. She also draws pretty nice kissing:
Cute and simple, and the characters actually look like they're feeling emotions rather than like... kissing a wall, or something. And seeing emotions in characters makes them seem so much more relatale and likable.
Though Dokuro does a good job with faces, there was a definite lack of backgrounds in the manga. She definitely could have put a bit more effort into that department, because there was a lot of white space in several of the panels.
To conclude, here's my final thoughts on Ai ga Love Shite You nanosa:
-The plot is simple with no real conflict, and doesn't require a lot of thinking. Yet there's a light and cute tone to the story, which I found likable.
-All the characters are cute and fun, but pretty flat. Their lacking depth did add to the lightness of the tone, though.
-A little short, could have used some expansion.
-Cute art, but could've used a bit more detail in the backgrounds/etc.
-Dialogue was a little plain at times, but the cute moments and funny moments got me liking the manga after all.
Overall: B-
It was a fun read and definitely had lots of cute moments, so I do recommend it. *u*b It's not extraordinary, though, and doesn't have any sort of depth or striking originality to it. But it is enjoyable; I ended up liking it a lot more than I thought I would.
And that's that! Thanks for reading, if you did, I know it was kind of long. Haha. If you like reading these sorts of reviews or whatever, I might do another one sometime. :V You can even suggest something for me to review! WANT ME TO READ SOME BAD YAOI? I'LL READ SOME BAD YAOI... or whatever you want, haha.
Anyway, I'll post some art stuff up sometime this week, probably. And I'll try to have a life update soon so I can tell you 'bout plans for Katsucon and whatnot! *u*b HAVE A NICE LIFE.
