セロ・メロウ [Cello Mellow] - Tohru Tagura,田倉 ... Collection of short stories, all of them bitersweet (more bitter than sweet). Some about unrequited love, some about a boy falling for a friend, most of them in school, and a few of them in college. The good thing is that is about lots of feelings and not explicit at all, which is the way I prefer my yaoi.

セロ・メロウ [Cello Mellow] - Tohru Tagura,田倉 ... Collection of short stories, all of them bitersweet (more bitter than sweet). Some about unrequited love, some about a boy falling for a friend, most of them in school, and a few of them in college. The good thing is that is about lots of feelings and not explicit at all, which is the way I prefer my yaoi.

KOIMONOGATARI - Tohru Tagura Nice story about a closeted teenager who finds a friend in his classmate. It isn't really a yaoi manga, maybe shounen-ai? Since there is no romance between the two main characters. Hazegawa listens to Yoshinaga and is a good friend after finding out Yoshinaga is gay. Only other person knows his secret, who is a girl friend. The story is basically Yoshinaga pining over Hazegawa's friend, being scared of being out, meeting another gay boy, etc. Quite realistic, without an ounce of romance.

3.5 Stars for this angsty brotherly romance.

 

As usual, I appreciate abundance of angst in my stories and this one was at it from the start till the end.

 

The brotherly love between Yutaka and Minoru was really endearing. The angst are mostly the pair of brothers battling with their own more-than-brothers affection towards one another. It is an incestuous story but it does not involves..

...any sex. Minoru leave Yutaka's chastity intact.

(spoiler show)

So this is just shonen-ai instead of yaoi.

 

Since they both are suffering from deep brother complex, there are times when I would question if they truly loves each other as lovers or it was only a misinterpretation of strong siblings love? They themselves was pretty confused on this as well.

 

As for the artwork, it was pretty nice although some might complain Yutaka looks like a girl. He's still a teenager anyways. On the other hand Minoru does looked really young here much like a high schooler despite being a 26 years old man. Then again asian guys tends to look younger than their age and the years would only begin to show in their late 30s.

 

All things considered, this is a decent shonen-ai manga and was fairly engaging.

 

 

 

 

 

3.5 Stars for this angsty brotherly romance.

As usual, I appreciate abundance of angst in my stories and this one was at it from the start till the end.

The brotherly love between Yutaka and Minoru was really endearing. The angst are mostly the pair of brothers battling with their own more-than-brothers affection towards one another. It is an incestuous story but it does not involves.. any sex. Minoru leave Yutaka's chastity intact. So this is just shonen-ai instead of yaoi.

Since they both are suffering from deep brother complex, there are times when I would question if they truly loves each other as lovers or it was only a misinterpretation of strong siblings love? They themselves was pretty confused on this as well.

As for the artwork, it was pretty nice although some might complain Yutaka looks like a girl. He's still a teenager anyways. On the other hand Minoru does looked really young here much like a high schooler despite being a 26 years old man. Then again asian guys tends to look younger than their age and the years would only begin to show in their late 30s.

All things considered, this is a decent shonen-ai manga and was fairly engaging.








This review has also been cross-posted on my blogs:




* Reviewed on May 10th, 2014

*:--☆--:*:--☆:*:--☆--:*:--☆--:*:--☆--:*:--☆:*:--☆--:*:--☆--:*