When I first read a review for this prior to getting it, somebody had written that it was like soft porn.
It is not like soft porn.
It is a little more explicit than most shojo...ie. they actually HAVE sex...but other than a breast or two (hopefully two!) nothing leaps out at you to scare you, unlike some yaoi manga, where everything leaps out.
I found this manga better the second time I read it, which means that obviously the first time I read it I wasn't so put off that there was no way I'd read it again. However, this is by FAR not the best thing I have read. It reads a little too much like a soap opera, with everything that you can possibly think of happening in the world of showbiz happening. People are randomly masochistic, constantly desperate to bring down all that is good and true in romance/the world with a hefty dose of kidnapping or drugs, and people are so bitchy (except for the main characters) that you think the world would be better off if everybody just went and threw themselves out of a window. I'm not portraying this in a very favourable light though am I?!
However, despite Sakuya's god-awful at times fashion sense, for some reason, animal prints and knit-jumpers my dad would wear are just painful at times, it is a sweet story, and you do what them to get through all the over-dramatised trials they face. Perhaps it was better the second time through because the drama was expected in a way. The 'erotic lyrics' I found mildly disturbing on occasion, but I think that's probably just me.
Aine's character is a little wimpish, she seems to cry a lot, and for people who are supposed to love each other so much, there's quite a lot of doubting going on. But most shojo manga need that, or there is no excuse for random embracing/declarations of affection and stuff. And this series does that better than most with the doubting mostly being mild rather than the 'will he like me' 'does he like me' 'argh' thoughts that seem to go on in most shojo heroines minds. In that case I guess Aine is quite strong as a character.
Character development wise, they develop a bit, but mainly in bursts, rather than a gradual climb. I loved the side stories about the other band members however, and looked forward to those sections the most. Art is nothing special, but nothing bad either. Slightly different portrayal of hot guys than in most shojo, but that might just be the pointiness of the chins.
At 18 volumes, it's a pretty long series, though one is a bonus one, but it doesn't feel that long once you get going. I don't quite know what it is about this manga; nothing stands out about it, but I did enjoy it, no matter how much I slate it here. However, it was a bit more of a guilty pleasure...I read it because I had got it all in one go, and had I had to buy the volumes seperately, I don't know whether I would have been so enthusiastic...
