Proof to me there’s nothing exciting in the Yuri genre. After all, Octave was just another drama with no merit what so ever. Sure it might be hailed for its realistic representation of a same sex relation, but does it make actually better? Author Haru Akiyama had dozen possibilities to venture the ground of Yuri at an interesting level, but instead she stubbornly decided to remain in the same circle of drama over and over again after each volume.
What I mean by having no merit is that the story itself doesn’t push itself any further when it should have. Simply put, Setsuko and Yukino will often be in a fight for various reasons such as misunderstandings, jealousy, “do you love me or love me not?” or “let’s move together”. Quite so, nothing here is a situation that a normal couple wouldn’t have. Don’t get me wrong, I do admit that a same sex couple will have the same problems as any couple in the world, but my problem is how the manga actually deals with dilemmas directly related to lesbianism. The author did dare to venture carefully into some subjects such as what would the others think or the impossibility of having children. Yet, these problems are simply put aside to bring us another uninteresting and dull dramatic situation. After the last volume, it really shows how much nothing really happened in Octave other than awesome sex scenes. That is not surprising since the characters never had the chance to be well developed and never had the possibility to push the story into something enjoyable.
The characters of Octave lacked the depth that this manga actually needed. To put it in simple words, the couple of this manga were after all straighter than a fast lane. This shows a lot when almost everything in the manga relies on their relationship. Sure their relationship progressed in a realistic way, but there has to be something more than that. I admit that the author did develop the characters individually, but it was either rushed or completely uninteresting. After all, Yukino would be the most well developed character of the two since the manga is told from her perspective, which is to my eye the biggest problem that this manga had. Since she always hides from her problem and almost refuses any form of communication, Setsuko is still as mysterious as she was in the beginning. I am not against characters with a lack of confidence, but in this case it was more a burden than anything else. As for the side characters, let’s just say that they don’t really matter other than giving the story more chapters.
For having average characters, there is also an average artwork to support it. However, unlike the characters, there’s nothing wrong with the art since I actually think it’s the one reason that made this manga an easy read.
In the end, some may scratch their head and still wonder what the whole point of Octave is. Actually, it is nothing more than your typical SOAP, but even though, that is not a reason to ignore this manga after all. More precisely, the drama lovers will appreciate this manga since it is an easy read and it is relatively short. The male audience can also find a liking since there’s a lot of lesbian sex scenes. And as we all know, men totally approves of this.
As for me, let’s say I wasn’t the target audience.
