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Being impressed by the OVA I decided to buy the books and I'm glad I did.This is one of the most interesting, detailed and sexiest stories I have read. From the beginning Riki is a real person, Iason starts living in volume 3, when finally we can read his mind.For a foreigner, like myself, the English is not the easiest I have read, but can be done without a dictionary.Very important: this is not a manga, but a novel.
The few images in the book are nice, although more images would have been even greater. I overlooked that when I bought these books.
First of all this story of course should never have been divided in several books (last printed volume is 6, but that is not the end). After reading them it is hard to let go.
This story has so much depth, that this is very difficult to captivate in solely a manga, so I'm fine with this story being a novel.I think this story will remain one of my favourite yaoi, it is that impressing. That is why the first volume has a lot of explaining and is the least interesting volume.
The OVA was good in itself but these books add so much more interesting background that I think everybody who liked the OVA should read these books.
It's even better than I ever imagined. I first saw the ova, and it was soo good that I decided to read the novels.
Well like everyone , I am annoyed on how they split up the book into mini novels ( i have all of them ,almost).I guess they want to make money out of this.So I am only doing 1 review because this book was not originally meant to be split up.Writting wise , the author really goes into detail and tangent stuff about the where and the what.Making you see what the author is seeing.I like that.That means the translation is well done.But about the illustrations,its not to par with todays drawings, I am glad the anime animators made it better.
That said it is worth while and entertaining read. I loved the world created in this novel. I must admit that having watched the anime on-line helped me better understand the story.
And like old stories that stand the test of time (the anime still stands as a decent piece of work 15 years later), this story will be one that you will return to time and again in the future.Buy it.UPDATE: I've received up to book four now and I'm greatly anticipating book five. I caught the Ai no Kusabi anime on Veoh.com just a few weeks ago and thought it must have been a really old movie since it was obviously a Japanese anime originally on VHS that someone had put onto their computer and subtitled in English. And then to find out that it had finally been released in book form with all the back story--I had to have it.I'm really not disappointed in anything except the price to quantity ratio. They're well worth it.NOW, GO BUY IT.
These same friends had seen the movie and routinely buy Yaoi graphic novels just like I do. I've since told them to stop bending the corners and getting chocolate on my pages and get their own danged books. I've had a few friends (to whom I loaned the first few books) tell me they were surprised it was a book and not a comic. After a few rereads (yes, I had to read them again because they're that good), there are fewer typos than I thought throughout the four books and it was a welcome surprise.Now for those of you wondering (and for clarification), this is a NOVEL with a few page size images of the characters in alignment with action to the story NOT a graphic novel with all drawn panels and some dialogue as if it was copied from stills of the movie or vice versa.
So until yaoi and BL become mainstream areas of publishing, I'm willing to give a tiny bit of slack. The artwork is the same and yet new. And since most animes are originally mangas or serialized in mangazines in Japan, I did a little digging and found out I was correct by hitting up Wikipedia for a more thorough understanding of what I'd watched. Our writer has tinkered with the book slightly so although we have MUCH more insight into the characters and these changes have definitely made it different from the anime movie of old, the basics remain the same.Now, I was wrong about the price to quantity ratio after having read most of the series.
This is an old story that was liked well enough that it was made into a well drawn, quality produced anime for it's fan base. Sure there are the occasional errors, but if you buy yaoi and BL books on a regular basis that just seems the norm right now. Still, I have a feeling that someone thinks this is a "cash cow" and I'm not saying that it's only the publisher holding out their hand for the funds.Unlike many BL and yaoi stories, this isn't just a bunch of sex scenes or a heterosexual story made into a homosexual story.
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