NightS

Every now and then we come across mangas that are simply breathtaking. May it be because of its scenic art or of its impressive storyline or maybe it just captured your curiosity. Many of the shounen ai mangas I have stumbled upon gave me a fresh impression due to its cover. Unfortunately, some failed to captive my interest and leaving me disappointed. There are also titles that were roses beneath the thorns. Making the most out of its small spaces and justifies that a good manga doesn’t have to show an impressive cover and bishounens.

Loving Doushitemo Furetakunai’s style and plot, I searched more about its author and expected to see a lot of works from her, and yes, I saw a few. There were a handful of one shots and series. Randomly picked on what to read first and was in awe after seeing them. Though a lot were good, but only one stood out.

Kanjou Spectrum.

Usually, for a common yaoi fan, a hot sensual scene is something to be anticipated. Which of course, can be one of its forte. But Yoneda Kou doesn’t use this as her work’s strongest points. She focuses more on the depths of her characters and encourages its readers to enjoy a shounen ai read even without a smutty scene.

I didn’t expect less of the storyline, again, it was clean and contemplative regardless of the cliché plot. For a one shot, the content was overflowing. It ended smoothly, leaving it up to the readers what happens next.

Yoneda once again, used her same style of art in this one. Though it may seem to be some sort of uniqueness, the characters weren’t too distinguishable. The delivery of the characters and their emotions were too dull and unstimulating. Which I think needs more improvement. However, she uses more dialogues to ease this up.

Now, for the final remark. This one shot will certainly appease Yoneda Kou fans and those who want more masculine ukes and pensive plots. I’m bringing my hopes up to see more Yoneda style works or something that maybe even better. read more

This oneshot's story isn't unique or groundbreaking (Yakuza), but it's still nice/romantic and with a surprise at the end. The art is really good as it is always by Yoneda Kou, and there a even some colored pages at the beginning. The characters are well-thought-out which is really nice, because when you do a 50-page yaoi oneshot you could do without complex characters. But Yoneda Kou gave the story and the characters a lot of thought and it make this oneshot much more enjoyable.
So yeah, it's nice, cute and short and it leave you with a happy feeling after reading.

I am now beginning to understand the hype surrounding Kou Yoneda's work. I thoroughly enjoyed this manga. The art was wonderful, I liked how fleshed out the characters were. The story was interesting and kept me reading without taking too many breaks.

My main problem was the time jumps. I'm the type of person who finds it hard to keep track of time jumps, so occasionally I'd have to go back a few pages to figure out where in the timeline we were. But other than that, this manga was great! I wish there was more to it.

Can't wait to get my hands on Kou Yoneda's other work! read more

Overall (7/10) - Even though it is merely a oneshot, I feel like it had a lot more potential but just ended it with a cliche, which in the end makes you feel like you're a yaoi fangirl looking for some nice, delicious yaoi instead of a meaningful story. If you like yaoi, go ahead and read it, it wont take long anyways. If you don't like yaoi much or at all, skip it - there are much, much better oneshots out there.

Story (6/10) - Story was cliche throughout and some might even find it predictable. The plot could also be described as 'shallow'.
One thing that readers might find strange is that there isn't much explanation with why all the characters are into guys in the first place.. perhaps they are all bisexual or something but the story kind of leaves that string hanging. I have not read any of this mangaka's other works so I'm not sure if it's her style or what or if this is what most yaoi anime/manga are like.. but I expected one of the main characters to react like "what? you want to have a relationship?! but we're both guys!" and then be all tsundere but that didn't happen.

Art (5/10) - Didn't like the style at all and it wasn't exactly commendable. It just did what it needed to and that's it.

Character (8/10) - By far the best part about this series. The characters are developed rather well considering this is just a oneshot, and left you wanting more. But the mediocrity of the story really ends up flattening the characters.

Enjoyment (7/10) - Nothing too great but leaves you with a 'aww yeaa yaoi!' feeling, which maybe that is exactly what it was intending to do, but that's not exactly going to win this oneshot any awards. read more