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xterminal 's review for:
Loveless, Volume 1
by Yun Kouga
Yun Kouga, Loveless, vol. 1 (Tokyopop, 2002)
Every time I start a new manga series and am put off by the first book, I end up giving it three stars and saying I'm going to read another few volumes to see if it catches me. I don't think this has actually happened yet. Maybe I'm too cautious. But I just looked at the rating I gave this when I finished it a few days ago (I let things simmer a bit before doing the actual writing), and what a surprise, there's a “3” in the rating column on the spreadsheet. And yes, I was put off by this, though not for the reasons I usually am with manga that don't grab me from page one. The characters are well-delineated, and I understand who they all are (the #1 complaint I have with some manga is that all the characters look alike). Plot is still nonexistent at this point, but that's never been a problem for me. I'm being cautious with this one because I honestly have no idea where this thing is going to go. So unlike some, I think this one actually does warrant reading a few more volumes before I toss it.
In any case, Loveless is the story of Aoyagi Ritsuka, who as we open is a transfer student at a new school. He's standoffish from the start, though the persistence of his perky-sidekick classmate Yuiko begins to win him over eventually. We know very little of Ritsuka's past, but we learn that he had an older brother, Seimei, who is now dead. (While I would consider the revelation that Seimei was murdered to be a major spoiler, it's mentioned both in the jacket copy and in the wikipedia entry for the series, so I'm filing it under “common knowledge” despite it being the crux of one chapter.) Ritsuka meets Soubi, a friend of Seimei's and finds out that not only did Seimei have a secret life, but that Ritsuka himself is supposed to be initiated into that same life, with Soubi as his partner as he was Seimei's. It has something to do with fighting, and magic, but at this point we have no idea what. And the big boss is still in the shadows, not revealing himself.
There's a lot of potential here, though, so I'll keep going and see if things become clearer. ***
Every time I start a new manga series and am put off by the first book, I end up giving it three stars and saying I'm going to read another few volumes to see if it catches me. I don't think this has actually happened yet. Maybe I'm too cautious. But I just looked at the rating I gave this when I finished it a few days ago (I let things simmer a bit before doing the actual writing), and what a surprise, there's a “3” in the rating column on the spreadsheet. And yes, I was put off by this, though not for the reasons I usually am with manga that don't grab me from page one. The characters are well-delineated, and I understand who they all are (the #1 complaint I have with some manga is that all the characters look alike). Plot is still nonexistent at this point, but that's never been a problem for me. I'm being cautious with this one because I honestly have no idea where this thing is going to go. So unlike some, I think this one actually does warrant reading a few more volumes before I toss it.
In any case, Loveless is the story of Aoyagi Ritsuka, who as we open is a transfer student at a new school. He's standoffish from the start, though the persistence of his perky-sidekick classmate Yuiko begins to win him over eventually. We know very little of Ritsuka's past, but we learn that he had an older brother, Seimei, who is now dead. (While I would consider the revelation that Seimei was murdered to be a major spoiler, it's mentioned both in the jacket copy and in the wikipedia entry for the series, so I'm filing it under “common knowledge” despite it being the crux of one chapter.) Ritsuka meets Soubi, a friend of Seimei's and finds out that not only did Seimei have a secret life, but that Ritsuka himself is supposed to be initiated into that same life, with Soubi as his partner as he was Seimei's. It has something to do with fighting, and magic, but at this point we have no idea what. And the big boss is still in the shadows, not revealing himself.
There's a lot of potential here, though, so I'll keep going and see if things become clearer. ***