Sunday, October 26, 2008

Passion vol. 4 by Shinobu Gotoh and Shoko Takaku review

Passion vol. 4

Author/Artist: Shinobu Gotoh/Shoko Takaku

Publisher: Juné

Rating: M - 18 and up

Genre: Yaoi, Drama, Romance

Grade: A

We have reached the final volume of Passion.

After spending the day on the town trying to shop for matching rings, Hikaru invites Shima over to his apartment. Shima is jealous of this Nagisa dude, but we all know that Hikaru only has eyes for Shima.

The day of the culture festival has arrived. Since Shima was in charge this year Hikaru wants to make sure that he is there. Hikaru gets a call from his boss to have him work since no one else seems to be available. Luckily it's just for the morning. At the school, Onoda is anxiously awaiting for Hikaru's arrival. She has plans to confess to him at the festival. While heading down to the school gate she runs into Nagisa. They start to argue and Shima ends up breaking up the fight. Nagisa is quite taken with Shima's beauty and starts hitting on him (he's been hitting on Onoda this whole time). Onoda freaks out and gets Amamiya and Ms. Morikawa involved. Not long after all of this has happened Hikaru makes his grand entrance. You'll have to read this final volume to find out what happens next.

This romantic series has finally come to an end. It truly is an amazing piece of work by Shinobu Gotoh-sensei and Shoko Takaku-sensei. You fall for all of the characters, even someone like Nagisa the villain! I love longer series because you can develop the characters over the length of the series and create them with many traits and shortcomings. You get that with Passion. I know that I've said this in the past but this is a great series to get started with if you haven't ventured into the realm M rated yaoi manga. I repeat, this is a great series to start off with!

With this series you get to see the great storytelling of Gotoh-sensei. I am really impressed by sensei's work and haven't been disappointed yet. Takaku-sensei's art is simple yet complex all at the same time. I know that doesn't make much sense but if you are familiar with sensei's work, you'll know what I mean. I loved this story. It was such a romantic tale. I'm not one who likes syrupy, sugarcoated romance, but I really like Passion. It has enough romance and conflict to make it interesting. Because it's romance you know that they'll live happily ever after, but the characters are flawed. Flaws are what make us more interesting, am I right?

I know I say this all the time, but Juné have made an inspired choice with the release of Passion. It is also done very well. I caught a spelling mistake here and there, but it's not enough to take you out of the story. With the larger trim size and high quality paper that they used for printing, it truly is a marvel to behold.

Good work Juné, this is a title that I'm willing to recommend to anyone. Check it out, if you know what's good for you. Sorry, I don't know why I just channeled my inner yakuza!

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