Absolute Boyfriend by Yuu Watase - A Series Review (Spoiler Free)

Shy high school student Riko Izawa aches for a boyfriend but guys just won't look her way. Then one day she signs up for a three-day trial of a mysterious "lover figurine," and the next thing she knows, a cute naked guy is delivered to her doorstep--and he wants to be her boyfriend!

Has Riko died and gone to heaven? The cute naked guy turns out to be smart, super nice, stylish and a gourmet chef. Plus, he looks like a million bucks.... Trouble is, that's about what he's going to cost Riko because she didn't return him in time! (From Goodreads.com)

I rated this series about a 4.5 out of 5 stars (There are 6 volumes and it is a complete series)

This series is pretty cute. I was really craving a light shoujo series that doesn't take much thought and had a squee-worthy romance.  This delivered just that. For starters...I have been a huge fan of Watase Yuu's work for a long time. I think she writes amazing stories and her art style is perfection.  Her characters are adorable and her men are perfection.  I had started this series a long time ago, and recently decided to pick up the last three issues and binge read it. I have read bits of her other series and have enjoyed them as well, but this is the only one that I've finished.

I really enjoyed all of the characters. Riiko is your typical derpy, flat chested girl who feels like she needs a boyfriend and always gets rejected. You know, your standard shoujo female. I could see that she might annoy a lot of people, but I found her to be ok. For the most part. She definitely had her moments when I wanted to hit her (like her indecision over who she loved more).  The love interests were fantastic, and added a lot to the series.  This was the kind of series where you kind of wanted to cheer for both of the guys.

I was annoyed by the indecision that was the driving point of this series (I'm glad that it was short for that reason). I also like that the story wasn't all about sex. Yes, it was important, but a lot of the story is Riiko saying she isn't interested in sex until she falls in love (not lust). 

I think the best part was the ending though. It was a super bittersweet ending but I think it was well done.  And like I said, it ended at a good time. Any longer and I think I would have become disinterested.  All in all, I really enjoyed this series. It's nice and easy to read and full of good feels. Would highly recommend for lovers of shoujo manga!

I hope you pick it up at some point!

Until next time!~ Tschüss!~

Ai Ore Volume 1 by Mayu Shinjo - A Review

Ai Ore by Mayu Shinjo (Volume 1)

Mizuki is the female “prince” of her all-girls school and the lead guitarist in an all-girl rock band. Akira is the male “princess” of his all-boys school and wants to join her band. Love may be on his mind, but romance is difficult when everyone keeps mistaking Mizuki for a boy and Akira for a girl!

When the lead singer of Blaue Rosen announces she is moving overseas, Akira does all he can to convince Mizuki and her bandmates to let him join. But will a resistant Mizuki allow him into her band, much less her heart? (from Goodreads.com)

I rated this book 1 out of 5 stars...


Boy was this manga disappointing on SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many different levels. 

Let us start out with a positive or two:

First of all, I liked the art. The cover art is pretty cute and the character designs and their outfits are fantastic...it was pretty hard to tell who was who though. I also really liked that this artist dressed up her characters in popular goth/punk/lolita brand names.  She mentioned h. naoto a couple of times and a lot of the girls who were going to the concert were wearing lolita clothing. Which I really enjoyed, and it initially got me interested in this manga.

Now for the negatives...

I thought this manga was going to be about the band. It was a main focus of the first part of manga but once Akira joins the band and they see the former leader off, the band doesn't really isn't a thing anymore.  I thought it was going to be Mizuki and Akira working to try and make the band good again, but it was insta-love and just really weird. I felt really awkward. 

The characters were also very wishy washy.  Akira flipped his character as soon as he joined the band and Mizuki was an odd character. Yes, she was tsundre, but I don't think she was a convincing one. But maybe that's just me. 

The thing that REALLY pissed me off was the amount of rape in this book.  Rape is never ok. I realize that Japan has some...interesting...views on rape. The whole, "we act like we don't want it, but we actually do," that's one thing..and it happens in this manga...but there are scenes in this manga where Mizuki is drugged and almost rapped by one of her female upperclassmen and then a male upperclassmen attempts to join in. After the attempted rape is stopped, Akira decides to get back at the woman who tried to rape Mizuki by having one of his guy "friends" rape her as revenge. His dad is a member of the yakuza so it's ok, right? No.  He didn't want to do it, but Akira promised him that if he raped her, he could touch him...ok....so I thought maybe he'd go to a certain point, prove that attempting to rape someone is bad and then leave. Well no. They didn't show it, but it was implied and it wasn't ok. Rape is bad, and it DEFINITELY shouldn't be used as a way to exact revenge or teach someone a lesson.  NOT OK.

Needless to say, I will not be continuing this series, nor will I be supporting the author or offering it as a suggestion for someone who wants to read manga.