Interesting, obsessive theme similar to Zetsuai but on a totaly dumb down level. Yutaka hates woman and is obsessed with sex. He meets Tohno and becomes obsessed with having sex with Tohno. There is no volume 2, so I don't know how all this would have worked out but honestly I didn't care too much about the characters, so no big loss. Why translate an abandoned series?

Wow, I'm surprised at myself. It's not often I give a yaoi a rating above the average of the other reviewers, but I guess here we are.

Yutaka is the heir to his wealthy family, pressured to do well and take over the family business. Of course, he has the hots for his new, warm and bubbly but often misunderstood-to-be-a-delinquent friend Tohno. Common enough plot, but while I'm not sure with only two volumes it will be able to win a place as one of my favorite BL, it's definitely on the higher end of the enjoyment level. A large part of this I think was the handling of Yutaka's personality and attraction. He's smart and subdued, class chairman, and when he's around Tohno still tends to act as a usual friend, despite the occasional skip of the heartbeat. At the same time, his attraction isn't just a sweet love and longing like it is portrayed in a lot this category of BL, but also a definite sexual desire. He fantasizes about Tohno, sometimes in rather kinky situations, and is QUITE a fan of masturbation. The dichotomy was almost humorous, as these kinds of personality traits aren't usually portrayed together in one character in BL, despite the fact I imagine there are plenty of top male students who are just as preoccupied with sex as Yutaka (though perhaps a little less on the kinky side ^^). Tohno for his part is charming and earnest and wants to understand his friend, and while perhaps a little more interchangeable with many other BL characters of his type from other stories, still won a place in my favor. Both these characters make me wish this manga was longer. While good now, I think with more time they could have even been the kinds of BL protagonists that DON'T completely fade away and blend with the rest in my mind after some time has passed. Still, it isn't really a huge flaw that they may.

The problem? Yutaka devolves through the story (though for the most part in the very end) from a boy who cares about another and wants to have hot kinky sex with him... To a manipulative kid who treats his 'love' like a toy he wants. Both character types are cliche enough, but in my opinion the former was dealt with with some originality and skill, whereas when the manipulative side of his personality starts coming out, the character flattens out completely and seems like all the other manipulative aggressors in yaoi. To be honest, I think he was possibly SUPPOSED to have been the toying manipulative way the whole story through (as the mangaka in her notes seems to consider the story "dark," despite the fact it was not really so much before the manipulative turn in the end) but, perhaps by accident, the author portrayed him at first as a little more considerate and desirous of his partner's love and consent (and thus the story was less dark than she thought/intended). I hate to say I like the author's possible mistakes in character development rather than the ACTUAL way they meant to portray the character, but the former was simply better.

I avoided this manga because of the generic looking art on the cover for quite some time, but I really do recommend it (least of all because the art inside is actually a good deal better). In the end, I still very much want to read the second volume, but I fear the return of the one dimensional Yutaka. Still, my fingers are crossed that Tohno's reaction to Yutaka's..., er, confession, will trip up the flattening out of his character we saw in the end of this volume, and mix things up for the better.

(Unfortunately, the second volume is not yet released in Japan, much less translated and released in the US.) ( )