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The basic idea of 'The Tyrant Falls in Love' is very catchy and unique. The title itself indicates a contrasting story concept and straightforwardly discloses the rough but humorous theme of the manga. Though as events take on their course, the whole plot gains a deeper meaning and becomes a lot more emotional. One eventful chapter follows another and the constantly dynamic pace makes it hard to get bored while reading. Another rare thing about Tyrant is, that it actually shows how difficult it is growing up and being a homosexual, especially when the family turns their back on you, which is pictured very convincingly in later chapters as we're introduced to Mori's past. But no matter how angsty the story gets, there is always a bit of humor involved, making the ensemble more appealing.

Takanaga's main characters do not exactly fit into the standard scheme of usual boy's love characters, which makes another aspect of this manga a lot more exciting and clingy.
The role of the seme is rather affectionate and introverted, quite the contrary to the aggressive, untamed and bullying uke. Such unwontedness in the yaoi genre is either rare or unconvincingly impersonated. Those role assignation in 'The Tyrant Who Falls in Love' however work out pretty naturally.
It's nearly impossible not to grow fond of Mori and Soichi, because with each continuing volume you get to know more and more facets of their personalities and eventually they get under your skin.

The art style is good enough. Nothing too special or innovative about it, even though the mangaka did a good job expressing all the sparkling emotions... especially when it comes to those romantic scenes and the parts where they fight.

As for the enjoyment. Well I had my fun with it. Actually lots of it. You suffer and cheer through all ups and downs along with those two trippy lovebirds. It reads well and you get hooked almost instantly. So if you're a fan of boy's love this series should be the next on your to-read list. read more

The anime adaption of Junjo Romantica became a big hit and justifiably so, because they really put a lot of effort into the production. But in the end it all paid off and even turned out to be better and more popular than the original manga.
Let's elaborate all aspects of this anime starting with the visual impression.
Compared to many other series and OVAs it can show off with its great character design, which is very important if not primary in the world of boys love. The art style in general is very clean/definite and not too aggressive or extreme, meaning that they mainly used soft colors and the proportions are acceptable. And another thing that I noticed is, that they occasionally change their clothes which is a rare occurrence when it comes to anime (usually a character sticks to its unique outfit during a whole season or longer).
All featuring backgrounds and items are very detailed. And they always seem to make the atmosphere more intense, without distracting the viewer from the main happening.

As for the story, or rather stories... I like to look at them individually, even though they are connected in some ways. The mangaka gave different names for these three story-lines for a reason: Junjo Romantica, Egoist and Terrorist.
Junjo Romantica is pretty much cliche and well known as a shounen-ai plot. A student (Misaki) with bad grades getting tutored by a famous guy (Usami), with a bit struggling, hesitance and romance mixed in... there's nothing too exciting about that and everyone knows the eventual outcome. At least that's what many people would think of it. But it is the way it's all settled up. This couple moves a lot more dynamic and aggressive than one would anticipate and it is not as predictable as it seems on first glance (due to a few surprising plot twists, not the final outcome).
Then we have Junjo Egoist where we get to know a rather chaotic couple that suffers many ups and downs, some more unnerving than others. Basically it starts off with a rejected and broken Hiroki and Nowaki who wants nothing more than to give him all the love he never experienced. This story contains a lot more suspense and is rather emotional, which makes it a bit less foreseeable.
Junjo Terrorist holds our third and last couple (which is my personal favorite). Our two main characters appear to be very stubborn and relatively cold towards each other (apart from one or two attempts of convincement), or at least it felt that way, because even though Shinobu confesses his love to the much older literature professor, You Miyagi, it was nothing like the sparking emotions between the other two couples even though their first meeting is supposedly fateful.

Despite the few similar streaks or outward resemblances all six characters have very different personalities and background stories which you come to know better with each episode. But it's funny how all three ukes seem to pout and panic a lot as opposite to the semes who are mostly in a good mood or smirking.

Another thing I enjoyed was the voice acting. They chose the perfect actors for the individual roles and breathed life into the whole series.
Both opening and ending captured the essence of Junjo Romantica in an appealing way. The songs don't sound irritating nor sappy at all.

I wasn't completely satisfied with the animation though... it seemed somewhat stiff and some motions were not really fluent. The anime itself doesn't contain lots of action as it is and and many movements happened off screen.

But all in all it is a great series and I believe that not only shounen-ai fans can enjoy it. In fact it has the potential to turn you into a fan or make your hate towards boys love go away, because there are many situations where you can see yourself in place of the characters, which intensifies the sensations and feelings. read more

What we have here is a delicate anime series based on the award-winning manga by Fumi Yoshinaga.
The animation style is very unusual for a shounen-ai type of anime, because it merges together 2D characters and (mainly) 3D backgrounds, which often occurs in mecha and sci-fi. In my opinion it takes some time to get used to it, especially if you don't favor 3D in general...

Compared to other shounen-ai anime, antique bakery has a storyline that is not as overused as it could have been and it holds an unique flare that makes you almost nostalgic. A solid and continuing plot shows us enough without getting overly confusing and reveals necessary background information bit by bit, in order to make the viewer curious as well as avoiding repetition ... even though it moves along at it's own pace.

And well... the characters... it's hard to tell weather they are exaggerated drama-queens, or just a bunch of winsome eccentrics. On first sight they seem to be relatively uncomplicated personalities, Or at least they're acting pretty predictable. As for the second sight... I have yet to find out if there is more going on in their heads... but together they make an interesting group of people, that will quite likely make you raise a smile.
The character-design itself is, if nothing else, rather unique. Beautiful would be too demanding... like they say: Different strokes for different folks.

All in all Antique Bakery is a likable shounen-ai anime... despite the lack of actual boy's love and other odd behavior. And if the series fails to satisfy your expectations, the opening and closing are special enough to make it up to you. read more

I most definetly like the way the whole plot is settled up. Although it gets a little confusing with the multiple stories featured in every volume, because of the outward semblance of some characters. Usually I'm not fond of sudden changes of place and protagonists in manga, but I guess that these aversenesses disappear at some point, as you get way to cought up in the individual relationships. The concept of the three seemingly different tales meshing togehter is another (more or less) rare occurrence.
The only thing that bothers me are the characters themselves. They're all made to a certain scheme that is already cliche in the world of yaoi. The typical macho, the one who denies his feelings, a rejected one... nothing really new comes along with it.
Both ukes, Hiroki and Misaki, act extremely hysterical and the whole 'No, Stop it! I don't want to...' is just the usual teasing that no one would take as dead serious. On the other hand we've got their counterparts, Akihiko and Nowaki, who act mostly calm and obviously too straight forward. That contrast makes the whole story more interesting. The Junjo Terrorist couple is a little different from the other two, Romantica and Egoist, which gives variety to the whole plot.
As for the artwork. I am sort of torn between liking it and hating it. A lot of scenes are drawn so cute, irresistible and full of love. And then during other parts I simply want to cut them out of the manga! The proportions (head:body and head:hands) are so miserably extreme at times, that it gets almost unbearable...
I guess the humor makes up for some of the mistakes.
But all in all Junjo Romantica is entertaining and Yaoi-fans should be able to enjoy this series (especially because it contains a lot of [almost completely] explicit sexual interaction *wink*). read more

D.Gray Man fulfilled almost every of my expectations towards it. And I was specifically sceptic, because of the little 'Shonen Jump >Advanced<' caption on its cover. However, this is an entertaining and unique series.
First off, let's get rid of the bad things. I did not like the sentence at the beginning of 'The 1st Night': "The end of a fictional 19th century..."
You can't really put yourself into the story, if you're told beforehand that it is fictional. Things like that just kill the mood and besides, everyone would figure that out by themselves anyways. Maybe I'm just making a big deal out of it...
Ok, now to the plot... It is pretty original and settled up in a very interesting way, but while reading D.Gray 1-4, I had a feeling like I've seen some of it before.
Yet, other things really surprised me (in a good way) and most of the time I was outright captivated.
Even the characters are well drawn and have exceptionally multifarious personalities with profound background stories that are revealed bit by bit as the chapters continue. Lenalee was the only person that ticked me off slightly.
There is one thing in particular, that I haven't seen coming and that was Allan's attitude. He is definitely not the cliche type of main character, being way more friendly and cool-headed then any other shonen jump frontman.
In my opinion D.Gray-Man is an amazing and crazy mixture of loads of genres and definetly worth spending money on it. read more

Normally I love watching Full Metal Alchemist, but this particular OVA was somewhat disappointing.
Those 3 little kids are supposed to be Ed's grandchildren, right? Why would they make an OVA about them, even if it is short? With no plot at all. And they look exactly like Winry, Ed and Al. So Al must have slept with Winry too, because that's the only explanation why they look identical. I am a little confused here.

Fist off I would like to say, that the plot is nothing too special, actually a little sappy and somewhat worn off (the whole 'must protect son from everyone' is just very weird). In most yaois the characters are pretty much made to the same scheme: one character is extremely jealous, the other one is your typical, naive uke and another one a cool macho. Although Kirepapa contains these models, they're matched up completely different then what it seemes at first glance. But the backgroundstories make sense and they let the differen personalities of our 2 main character bloom, which makes them an interesting couple.
The backgrounds are very well designed and, the colours add up into a comprehensive picture. Compared to many other yaoi OVAs and series Kirepapa has got an highly appealing character design. Although the animation could have been a bit more fluent at times.
All in all it's a delightful OVA that every fangirl with a liking for boys love should be satisfied with. read more

It is not what I've expected it to be... Most of you would think the same after seeing it for the first time.
Almost every episode starts off with a narrator called FABULA telling you what happened so far and at the end she makes a brief prophecy for the next one.
The characters are appealing and I grew to like every single one of them, but their design doesn't match (to be honest, they're even ugly sometimes...) with the backgrounds and effects (both really good), however... you get used to it after a while and with each passing episode you come to know them better.
Anyways, the story is imaginative and completely different from any series before. The plot is relatively dynamic and contains only very few repetitive or boring sequences. Another thing that fascinated me were the locations, because they seemed to be very well thought out.
A lot of fans of the Final Fantasy games do not appreciate this anime, because it has nothing to do with any of the already existing parts. In my opinion Unlimited is special in its own way and shouldn't be compared to anything seen in the games. That would be the same as if you'd hate F.F.X. just because it isn't associated with F.F.VII. but as in everything that shares the name 'Final Fantasy' there are Chocobos, Cactuars and Moogles featured!
So, don't listen to bad critics and judge for yourself. read more