don't be dull, be fannish

Synopsis: After a grueling battle against the powerful Zeros, Soubi is badly injured, and in spite of his training, the pain almost too much to bear. He goes to see Ritsuka, but Soubi's erratic behavior and unpredictable emotions take over, and he abruptly storms away before Ritsuka can care for him. Ritsuka is left tormented and confused...but the mystery behind the death of his older brother is about to take an unbelievable turn. Ritsuka finally decodes the message left by Sleepless and goes to meet one of the members of Septimal Moon!

Review: Poor. Yun Kouga really revels in violence and blood. When it's not Soubi bleeding, being hurt or tortured, it's Ritsuka being smacked around by his mother. The main characters' actions and emotions make no sense to me, I just can't connect with them. As the synopsis says: erratic. And the female characters are still naive and dumb (the teacher starts crying in class because her students are mean to her and Yuiko is talking about herself in third person? *rolls eyes*).

Also, Yun Kouga is obsessed with video games - this theme appeared already in Gestalt and here again. Over and over again. It's boring. I don't care about levels and points and fighting techniques of RPG characters.

To sum it up, even though this manga is a real hit and people seem to love it, I think I will pass on it from now on. There are much more entertaining manga out there.

It's kind of weird to call this manga "yaoi" since there's no sex at all and the main hero is a 12-year-old boy. But it doesn't fit in the "non-yaoi" category either because of the way Soubi restores his energy - through a kiss. But Soubi is adamant that he feels no sexual desire for Ritsuka, he says that maybe one day they will have sex but not until Ritsuka grows up.

Besides that, this volume is overall rather weird - Yun Kouga tries to raise interest without revealing the plot and that leads to much confusion. But the story is interesting and since I saw the anime, I know bits and piece about what will happen next, so I know better than to give up on it.

Also, Yun Kouga is quite obsessed with games, isn't she? I mean, like Yu-Gi-Oh! games. Both Loveless and Gestalt use this theme a lot (although Gestalt less and less in later volumes). Only her Earthian manga didn't have this theme at all - and that's probably why it's my favorite work by this mangaka (yes, I'm no fan of games).