Manga Review: Take Me to Heaven by Nase Yamato

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Deux/Aurora Publishing

Release Date: 2009.

Volumes: 1.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble.

Goodreads Synopsis:

He sees ghosts... and one sexy guy!

High school student Fumiya possesses the ability to see things normal people can't: ghosts and spirits. Every time Fumiya sees one, he turns to the tall, handsome and popular Shogo, the son of a temple priest, for help. After being rescued time after time by Shogo, Fumiya can't resist developing certain feelings towards his savior. Watch as ghosts and spirits work to drive these two together!

Review:

Meh. I wasn’t really impressed.

Fumiya sees ghosts, and he cries whenever they’re near. Shogo is the son of a priest and knows how to exorcise them, only he doesn’t actually believe in them or want anything to do with it.

Mostly, I was annoyed with how insensitive Shogo was to Fumiya. He teases him a little too much, and Fumiya is rather weak and annoying of a character. On the other hand, I did like how open Shogo was with his relationship with Fumiya, and that while he had female groupies, they all believed he was actually in love with Fumiya.

In the end, it was an okay story. I liked the episodic ghost story chapters. The art was okay, nice to look at.

Manga Review: Object of Desire by Tomoko Noguchi

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Publisher: LuvLuv (Aurora Publishing)

Release Date: 2008

Volumes: 1.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble.

Goodreads Synopsis:

When one is looking for love, where can she find it? Problems arise as Kako finds herself as an object of desire for men all around. Can she ever break what men are after and find real love?

Review:

I really want to love these josei, smutty books. But yet again, I am disappointed.

The art was weak and I didn’t like it. The characters were one-dimensional and didn’t stand out, and I didn’t particularly like any of them. The stories were weak.

I didn’t like any of the smut, even. The stories were unimpressive, as were the characters, and so I didn’t enjoy reading any of it. I wanted it to be over.

Meh.

Manga Review: Hanky Panky by Koreaki Kamuro

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Deux Press/Aurora Publishing

Release Date: 2008

Volumes: 1.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble.

Goodreads Synopsis:

From Super-Geek... To Super-Hot!

Geeky, glasses-wearing college student Manaka is always getting picked on at school, especially by his popular classmate Doi. But... once night falls, the glasses are ditched and this super-geek secretly becomes a super-hot host club owner! What is Manaka to do when Doi aspires to become a host at the same club?! There's no telling what hanky panky they'll be up to!

Review:

This was a pretty average yaoi one-shot. All short stories, none of it really stands out for me.

The title story is about two classmates, one who only notices the other when his glasses are off and he’s working as a host, surprised to find out he’s also the classmate he teases at school.

The artwork is very average, the expressions just okay and the smut average. I didn’t connect with any of the characters, and there wasn’t much development for most of the stories. Fast-paced, and short.

Just meh, mostly.

Manga Review: Love Machine: Etowa by Amayo Tsuge

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Publisher: Deux Press/Aurora Publishing

Release Date: 2009

Volumes: 1

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Anti-social people hater, Kokuyou is always going in and out of the hospital. Unable to stand it any longer, his friend Seiki gives him a 'replica', a boy android named Shiro who can monitor his health and do chores. Will Shiro's puppy-like devotion and dogged perseverance be able to win Kokuyou over in the end?

Review:

The artwork was fine here, a little average but pretty.

It’s about a guy who’s given a robot, made to be devoted to do everything he needs and wants. But the robot needs love and care, and the guy doesn’t want to take the time for it. Until he falls for the robot, begrudgingly.

I didn’t really care for the plot line, honestly. Maybe it was overdone, a little too complicated or made to be sad at some points. The characters were all right, though I didn’t grow too attached to any of them. There’s a side story for two of the side characters, and it was all right.

I just wasn’t blown away by the plot or the characters here.

Manga Review: Love Round!! by Hinako Takanaga

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Deux Press/Aurora Publishing

Release Date: 2009

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Two Knockouts In Love!

Pretty boy Kaoru Komatsuna is self-conscious about his feminine good looks and his cute, but girly, name. Handsome school boxing champ Junya Kubo just happens to pick up Kaoru's notebook and proceeds to make fun of his strange name. Kaoru gets angry and knocks down the champ. This inspires Kubo to desperately try to convince Kaoru into becoming a boxer. After doing his best to resist him, Kaoru finds himself falling for the relentless knockout, Kubo. This yaoi comedy packs a punch!

Review:

I picked this up solely because of Awkward Silence.  And even though this wasn’t that great, I will get more, because I love her.

This is about two boxers who fall in love, only one of them gets embarrassed easily and then gets violent.  Still, the other one continues trying and is devoted. 

It was a cute enough story, and some of it was quite funny.  The characters were okay.  The artwork is definitely her earlier work, and not nearly as nice, but more average.  It just didn’t stand out to me, mostly.  It was just okay.

Manga Review: Voices of Love by Kanae Hazuki

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: LuvLuv Press (Aurora)

Release Date: 2008

Volumes: 1.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Passionate manga for ladies Some say forbidden fruit is the sweetest Voices of Love serves up a steaming-hot collection of five romantic, passionate, sexy stories about modern women and the men they love. The title story follows a relationship between young teacher Mika Tsukahara and Naokazu Kuga, an 18-year old student at her school. They're neighbors too, and can't control their attraction to each other

Review:

This is by the author of Say I Love You, so of course I was interested. I was a little wary, because these smutty one-shots are always hit or miss.

While I enjoy the art of Hazuki (though this is rougher than her newer stuff), the stories were a little iffy. Most of them were a little underdeveloped in character and/or story. Some were rushed. But I did enjoy most of them, for the most part.

There’s one about a teacher and her student that’s kind of cute. One about a girl who’s being abused by her boyfriend, only to leave him and find love with a friend of hers that I rather enjoyed. Another about a girl being used by a lot of guys who doesn’t know what real love is, that I also rather enjoyed. They all have rather explicit sex in them, you are warned.

I’m glad I picked this up, because I did enjoy it for the most part. And I like Kanae Hazuki, so it was worth it.

Manga Review: Make Love & Peace by Takane Yonetani

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Aurora (Luv Luv)

Volumes: 1 (One-Shot, plus sequel)

Amazon Summary:

All they want is some peace... what they get is some hot and spicy love!

College student Ayame's boyfriend is the handsome police detective Koichi. After what seemed like a destined meeting, Ayame and Koichi are a couple who want nothing but a lovey-dovey relationship with plenty of hot sex to spice it up. However, having a police detective for a boyfriend naturally implies that constant troubles won't be far behind. Between battling injustices in society and indulging in sexual passions in bed, there is never a dull moment in their relationship. Though wanting some peaceful time together is unpredictable, can you really complain when you have to settle for hot and spicy sex?!

Review:

Unlike my last review of a Luv Luv manga, I actually enjoyed this one. It wasn't as amazing as I'd hoped, but it was much better than the last few I've read.

It's about Ayame, who's boyfriend is a police officer. They've gotten pretty intimate and close rather fast in their relationship, as she's already thinking about marriage only two months together. She worries about him getting hurt while working, and is bothered some by his constantly getting called in to work, but tries not to complain.

In most of the chapters, they're dealing with police-type problems, as well as relationship ones. Also, there is smut in most of them. (Skip the rest of this paragraph if you are not interested in the smut.) Some of this seemed rather repetitive, what with him always taking charge of it, and always licking her. It bothered me a little that she never took any initiative, or returned the favor of licking him. It just seemed to exemplify that she wasn't a particularly strong character, and that bothered me. And it would have been preferable to have to variety. Also, some of it seemed a little more... dirty, or explicit than the other ones I've seen. (Which isn't particularly bad, but was just weird to see.)

Most of the chapter-plots were alright. They weren't particularly bothersome. I think most of what bothered me would have to do with the characters. When Ayame tried to make a rapist look on the bright side, for example, and he acts all big only to look regretful as he leaves. (Another part of the rapist scene that bothered me, was when Ayame was going to jump out the window and the people protested, but then Koichi just appears outside it, when it's three stories high. Um, what? Oh! And when she holds out her phone and his face appears on the screen, because apparently she has a phone where she can chat like that, when they weren't before? I feel that that was just weird.) And when they're taking care of a mother, how absurd it seemed for her to just leave her baby because she's depressed, and how sure she is that she can't take care of it, only for her to change her mind when her husband gets there. But it also bothered me how much she was blaming that her husband was always gone and she was lonely and how of course she couldn't take care of her kid without him. She should have just dealt with it and tried on her own.

Oh, also, how fast Ayame and Koichi were moving. It seemed way too fast for them to be thinking love only two months in, and then to talk marriage only after six months. But maybe that's only me, since I feel that there should be years before you think about that stuff seriously? Aside from that, though, I do think they actually had something between them. Some chemistry or whatever. They seemed to get along rather well, joked around and seemed happy together. Although, a lot of what they do together is sex. Still, their chemistry together didn't bother me.

The artwork was also pretty good. Again, it wasn't amazing. But it was good, pretty consistently so throughout the whole book, and better than some of the other ones I've read recently, which is nice. Out of the three, this one was a little weak in story, or characters, and pace, I think. Not too bad, I guess.

I believe there is a sequel to this one that was published by Luv Luv as well? Or was maybe, almost published as well? I'm not too sure, but I'm thinking it might be harder to find than this one was, which will kind of suck, since I actually kind of liked this one and would like to read the next one.

Manga Review: Pretty Poison by Yutta Narukami

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: Aurora (Luv Luv)

Volumes: 1 (One-shot)

Amazon Synopsis:

He's dangerous, beautiful & addictive... She Can't get enough!

Riyako's dreams of a happy marriage are shattered when her "true love" cheats on her. Heartbroken, she finds herself seduced by the beautiful young Shogo, ending in a night of heated, passionate sex. However, what seemed like an accidental meeting turns out to be much more, as Shogo and her ex-lover are somehow connected! In her vulnerable state, Riyako can't help herself from becoming more and more addicted to the seductive, poisonous bad boy Shogo. He knows just the right buttons to push to get what he wants, and what he wants is more hot sex with Riyako. A suspenseful and lust-filled love affair ensues.

Review:

I'm always looking for volumes from out-of-print companies, and that's especially for ones from Aurora and LuvLuv. Mostly because they tend to be smutty josei manga, and I love those. Or, I want to love them. I want to find a really good josei manga, and I would love it even more to have good smut, and I just can't. Usually the story is weak, or the characters are weak, or the art is weak; or maybe even all of them. And it just isn't what I want. And so I am disappointed. And this one wasn't all that much different. Which, honestly, sucks.

So, the first three chapter of this manga are all on the same persons story, Riyako. She's with this guys, who she believes loves her and agrees to move in together with her, while is obviously cheating on her, and he goes out and gets one of his 'friends' to make a move on her and 'console' her when she sees him with another girl. They guy, Shogo, ends up crashing with her for a few nights, even though she acts like she doesn't want his there. And then she gets all upset when she finds out it was all a set up. By the end, though, she's taking care of him again after finding out about his parents and telling off her old boyfriend.

Most of this was a bit annoying. I mean, obviously her old boyfriend was a bit shady, and then Shogo, who she ends up with, isn't very good at consoling her, and instead makes a move on her, pretending to have fallen in love with her as soon as he saw her (which is so obviously a line). He does several things within the story that bothered me, like pushing her into sex and just pushing her in general, which I didn't like. He wasn't particularly nice to her, and so I didn't feel that it made sense for them to believe they were in love so suddenly, when there weren't very many reasons for them to have fallen in love.

Also, I believe he stated, maybe once in the whole thing, that he loved the first guy and was gay, maybe bi? At first I thought he was joking, but he sounded pretty serious. Maybe he was, though, since it was never mentioned again, and didn't seem to be much of a problem? That bothered me a bit, but whatever, I guess?

That story gets a few points for the ending, though, since they decided to give themselves some room to grow, and they end up back together a while after the rest of the story. It wasn't done as well as it could have been, but it was still a good idea. Riyako gets a few points, too, because somewhere within the story, she ties him up because she doesn't trust him, which I haven't seen before and was happy with. That's not a whole lot of points for her, though, since she bought all the lines given to her and wasn't very strong for most of the story.

The last story, Yuji Scores, is about a girl who is in love with her soccer player boyfriend. He asks her to marry him, and she says yes, but later finds out that she isn't quite ready for it. I thought that they weren't quite right for each other, since they wanted very different things in life, and that something would happen with this other guy she knows, but nothing did. Instead, she breaks off the engagement, because she isn't ready for that (which she's not, since he wants a stay-at-home wife who can cook and will follow him around, but she's a bit useless at home and wants to work. Also, she's a bit materialistic, while he's not). In the end, though, they patch things up and she's trying to be more like what he wants.

At the end of the story, she states that someday she's 'going to make an honest man' out of him. I understand that that's supposed to mean they're going to marry someday, but I didn't think it really worked in their situation. Mostly because he's not not honest. He's pretty straight-forward with her, and doesn't cheat on her or anything. I just feel that she could have said something else, and it still could have had the same meaning, but that maybe went better with their situation.

So this one wasn't as good as I'd been hoping it would be. The artwork wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't amazing. The characters weren't all that strong, nor was the story-line. Some of the smut was good, though, which is nice. On the other hand, though, some of that wasn't even all that good (like when Shogo pushed Riyako). I'm not very impressed, and so am disappointed by that, but mostly because (as I said above) I wanted to like it. I always do, but only few times do I actually like it. I'm still on the look for other Luv Luv and Aurora books, though, because I'm still hoping to find the one that does impress me.