Reviews

Ai Yori Aoshi Vol. 1 by Kou Fumizuki

osomo's review

Go to review page

Aaaaaa 
I don’t realise it was p*rn, grabbed it at a cafe to pass the time waiting for my order
not my thing 
Especially the idea of a woman whose only purpose in life is to serve a man… 
Some incel’s wet dream I guess 

beckyisbookish's review

Go to review page

4.0

Honestly, I really loved this. It was so sweet, there was no real conflict or misunderstanding between the couple and I just liked the dynamic a lot. It loses a star because I know instead of the rest of the series being a sweet development of newlyweds getting to know each other and KNOW each other (ya feel me?) It's going to be misunderstandings and skanky side characters tempting the male lead which is meh to me.

4 submissive childhood sweethearts out of 5 seemingly really sweet guys

haleymaxinee's review

Go to review page

2.0

2.5

familiar_diversions's review

Go to review page

2.0

On his way to catch a train, Kaoru Hanabishi comes across a lost, naive young woman named Aoi. She's decided to find her childhood sweetheart and marry him, and she soon realizes that Kaoru is the one she was looking for. She becomes determined to stay with him and be his wife, but, unfortunately, her family won't hear of it. For the sake of her powerful family's reputation, she must marry someone from a family with similar standing. Kaoru was once the Hanabishi heir, and if this were still the case he could marry Aoi. However, things have changed since they were children, and Kaoru is determined never to go back to the Hanabishi family.

Aoi is what I imagine many young men's fantasies of the perfect woman are like. Although she's virginal, gentle, shy, and sweet-natured, she can become blushingly sexy at the drop of a hat, and she always knows just the right moment to become naked. I don't know any real women who are at all like her, but I suppose that's not the point. Judging by this first volume, Ai Yori Aoshi is romance for older teenage boys, and romance is often idealized.

Judging by Kou Fumizuki's page in Anime News Network, Ai Yori Aoshi is likely his first published series, and it shows. The way characters are drawn is inconsistent and sometimes a little off. Fumizuki uses what I personally think of as the "Escaflowne style of noses" - when you see characters a little in profile, their noses are long and sharp, with a little blunted bit. It's not a style I like, but I grew to like the story in Vision of Escaflowne enough that I got over my reaction to the noses. However I feel about the noses, Fumizuki does manage facial expressions pretty well, which is important for such an emotional series.

I think I'm too much of a woman to ever really like Ai Yori Aoshi - Aoi is too much of a sexy wet washcloth for me to like her, and Kaoru only barely starts getting developed by the end of the first volume. However, I can see why young guys might like this series. There's plenty of fanservice (in the form of nudity in the story, as well as provocative poses, nudity, and the suggestion of nipples through cloth on some of the chapter title pages), the cliched boob-grabbing joke you see pretty much everywhere in this genre, and the ordinary guy who gets the starry-eyed affection of a beautiful woman.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)

abomine's review

Go to review page

2.0

I picked this up at the library mostly on a whim, because I remember seeing this series advertised in the old Tokyopop editions of [b:Chobits|667985|Chobits, Vol. 1|CLAMP|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1487723428s/667985.jpg|2148984] and figured "Why not?"

Romcoms aren't really my thing to begin with, and this one volume alone had a lot of the tropes that bother me in these types of series (Aoi's slavish devotion to Kaoru was especially off-putting). Still, this wasn't as bad as it could have been. Aoi's closure with her mom was pleasant to see, and Kaoru wasn't a bad male lead. I at least was compelled enough to finish this volume, though I won't be picking up the rest of this series.
More...