Scan barcode
A review by hobbitfreddie
Boys Run the Riot, Volume 1 by Keito Gaku
5.0
A great lgbt manga with a trans main character, street fashion, a great cast, and amazing art.
Art: I love the art in this, it's almost perfect. It's detailed and well shaded without being too rough. The backgrounds are also well detailed but the characters always still out in it. The panels are just beautiful, never too cluttered but always full of great illustrations.
Characters: I love the main three characters. Ryo is such a great main character. He has flaws, he fails, and he has a great personality. The other two are great as well, they have their own little arcs and time to shine, without interrupting the flow of the story. They complement the story very nicely.
Story: I feel like most of the lgbt mangas I've read so far, the lgbt stuff get's interrupted by the side story. Here while there are two plots- Ryo's gender struggles and the group making a brand, they work with each other well. There's a theme of rebellion, or at least that's what I got from this. The characters all rebel against the world in their ways for their own reasons. In their case, they rebel by making the brand. I do think however the brand making focus tended to overshadow the lgbt themes in the last half, but it never felt like it forgot the central theme of Ryo's gender. The author himself is a trans man, and I love that. He knows what he's writing, so the trans themes are handled very well.
All in all as a trans boy I really enjoyed the start to this manga. I loved everything about it, and hope we can see more trans masculine stories.
Art: I love the art in this, it's almost perfect. It's detailed and well shaded without being too rough. The backgrounds are also well detailed but the characters always still out in it. The panels are just beautiful, never too cluttered but always full of great illustrations.
Characters: I love the main three characters. Ryo is such a great main character. He has flaws, he fails, and he has a great personality. The other two are great as well, they have their own little arcs and time to shine, without interrupting the flow of the story. They complement the story very nicely.
Story: I feel like most of the lgbt mangas I've read so far, the lgbt stuff get's interrupted by the side story. Here while there are two plots- Ryo's gender struggles and the group making a brand, they work with each other well. There's a theme of rebellion, or at least that's what I got from this. The characters all rebel against the world in their ways for their own reasons. In their case, they rebel by making the brand. I do think however the brand making focus tended to overshadow the lgbt themes in the last half, but it never felt like it forgot the central theme of Ryo's gender. The author himself is a trans man, and I love that. He knows what he's writing, so the trans themes are handled very well.
All in all as a trans boy I really enjoyed the start to this manga. I loved everything about it, and hope we can see more trans masculine stories.