Selfish Love: Book 1

Rating:
Summary: Thank you Be Beautiful Manga!!
Review: After reading the manga -FAKE-(great story). I wanted to get more yaoi mangas at the book store, yet, their selections are so limited, I was really dissapointed at that. Then, I found this copy of manga published by Be Beautiful, I had to get it. And I'm very happy that I have bought it. The story is great, I love Orito! He is so cute!! Ryuya is GREAT too(-^_^-), the story is very nicely drawn out, there are other short stories at the end, all of them are very HOTT..(I like the last one best). Really, I have to thank Be Beautiful, if it weren't for them, I don't think we can get this kind of manga. AND WE DO DESERVE IT!!!! Thank you!!

Rating:
Summary: Different, but Great
Review: Despite the title, the love between the two is so cute! Yeah, the one guy might be rich and selfish and think that money solves everything, but he also very sweet and loving. I love this story, and I cannot wait to see what happens next.
Ryuya always gets "attacked", but I think that deep down he likes it, even though he always protests and grumbles.

I think that in the end, they will maybe both confess and become a great couple. But it's going to be hard, and oh, so juicy to see how they will get to that point.

The extra stories were pretty hot, and there is some non-con, but strangely, it's still sexy. The art is different, I cannot really describe it very well. It's defenitely not shoujo, but it's good nonetheless.

Rating:
Summary: non-typical art and entertaining plot...
Review: i'm pretty familiar with naduki koujima's works, namely bokura no oukoku (our kingdom) which i got through scanlations online (i believe it was recently licensed). selfish love doesn't veer far from the usual koujima fares. put an aggresive seme, a defensive uke, lotsa groping, a sprinkling of quirky sidekicks and supporting cast, a dose of highschool drama, mix them well together, and bam! you get the perfect recipe of a fun, light hearted yaoi manga. don't get me wrong, i enjoy her works exactly because they're fun. this one fits right into the mold.

the plot is pretty much summed up by the publisher's blurb. however, be beautiful has a tendency to change the ages of the characters involved -- they made them college kids when in fact they're highschoolers in the original manga. like i've said before, god forbid high school kids indulging in sex... *sarcasm* i mean, i've yet seen universities that require uniforms (and i should know, coming from a country that requires uniform from kindergarten through high school). but hey, i might be wrong. this revision doesn't interfere with the story too much though, and that's good (usually i'm a stickler for accuracy but hey, american yaoi readers can't be choosers). one nice thing is that ryuya (obviously the uke) is not only attractive, but athletic AND a perfect student. he's there on scholarship, after all. quite refreshing. orito might mostly be the arrogant selfish rich guy that he is, but unexpectedly koujima also shows that he has moments of self doubt as well. i like strong semes with weaknesses... makes 'em more believable.

anyway, i like koujima's art. her lines are exceptionally sharp and clean. depiction of background images are adequate (it's not too detailed like some mangas that i've seen, but i'm quite happy with it), and very well drawn. surprisingly, the panels don't feel empty either but rather have an airy feel to it. the character's physiques are bulkier compared to the prevalent sylph-like (and sometimes unrealistic) bodies of most yaoi mangas. not that i have a problem with pretty/femme boy, but... well, it's nice to see boys who ARE obviously boys. koujima's boys have muscles, believable proportions and she makes 'em very expressive too. her art's pretty much recognizable and that's pretty nice as well.

where selfish love contains no sex scenes (at least not yet so far), the accompanying 4 sides are quite sexplicit. they're in essence 2 stories each with 2 chapters, one of which involves salarymen. the other kinda has an underlying theme of blood (blood = hot sex? *grin*). both are fun and pretty engaging, even if they're just an excuse for explicit bedroom scenes. oh, and don't expect to see any dangly bits... in this manga they are relegated to the invisible variety, with perhaps fluids outlining them.

all in all, i'd recommend this manga for those who are into explicit yaoi tempered with not too angsty plot. oh, this manga also includes a few 4 panel comic extra of selfish love, which is funny and super cute. thouroughly enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Yummy bishies, college politics, and non-con...
Review: Ryuya, a young sophomore, has become the object of affection of the president of the honor's society, Orito. Orito is a rich spoiled bishie who gets what he wants. Basically he keeps intruding into Ryuya's life and "molests" him and won't stop... Ryuya resolves to "tough it out" because he can't seem to escape. But oh, that's not all. There's Kyogo, a handsome bishie who's a good friend of Ryuya's, but he wants to be more than that... and when he learns of what Orito is doing to Ryuya, oh he wants to get bloody.

I enjoyed this book very much. The art is very beautiful and pleasant, and this story is very very cute. Highly recommended for the yaoi fan. And oi! Traces of a heart-gripping love triangle, oh my! Definitely buying the next book and definitely looking forward to this publisher's other releases.

This book also has some short side stories that are separate from the main story that are basically just smut-filled light plots. They are yummy too. Warning, they are graphic and hard yaoi, but so yummy. The last one was kind of scary and anger-inducing, but strangely enough it still turned me on. This author kind of gets formulaic with her non-con angle, but hey, I still like.

5 Stars overall and I can't wait for the next one.