Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Live for Love by Itsuki Sato and Jun Mayama review

Live for Love

Author/Artist: Itsuki Sato/Jun Mayama

Publisher: Juné

Rating: M – 18 and up

Genre: Yaoi, Drama, Romance

Grade: D+

*** Review originally appeared at The Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society at http://liheliso.org. Check it out! ***

In Shinjuku’s Nichome neighborhood (for those not in the know this is the neighborhood well known to cater to Tokyo’s gay community) is a small Detective agency run by Yasuie Kiryuuin and his assistant Yoshiyuki Nomura. There’s one problem they have no business and Yasu is terrible with money. Yoshiyuki seems to handle all of the business aspects of the detective agency and Yasu tries to drum up business by taking care of the cats of many of the ladies who work in Kabukicho (Tokyo’s red light district) and sexually harasses Yoshiyuki. They face a bleak future but they seem to get through it together until Yoshiyuki’s father falls ill. You see Yoshiyuki is adopted and when his adoptive parents have a child of their own he feels out of place. Eventually Yoshiyuki hits rock bottom and that’s when Yasu finds him and offers him a place to belong. That lasted for a while but his parents would like him to come back home, work in his father’s company, and start with marriage interviews. It seems like it’s going to be a tough decision for Yoshiyuki. Does he stay poor and follow Yasuie, the man who gave him a place to belong, or go home with a family and live a secure life?

Live for Love is a title that I’m going to have a hard time recommending. Why, you ask? Well many of the yaoi stereotypes are alive and thriving in this manga. I will warn you now that there is a non-con (non-consensual or rape) scene because Yasu is just so overcome by emotion when he finds out that Yoshiyuki is tossing around the idea of going back home. At least in this case Yasu realizes what a boneheaded move that was and would understand if Yoshiyuki would want nothing to do with him. Yoshiyuki is the typical tsundere type character; he seems to say one thing but means something completely different. Yasu has redeeming qualities, he’s a total goofball and that is something that I love in my semes, but he does push the line way too often.

While the story falls into typical yaoi territory the art is not really my style. Mayama sensei’s chibis are kind of weird looking and even the normal art in many places looks off. I liked the art on the cover and on the back but once I cracked it open I wasn’t as impressed. Juné did a good job on it though. I didn’t catch any spelling or grammar mistakes and they did a nice job on the production.

I will admit that there were a few spots where I enjoyed the humor. If you don’t mind setting your values aside involving non-con who knows, you may enjoy this title. But I’m leaving the decision up to you. For another view on this title be sure to catch April Kimm’s review.

***Review Copy provided by Juné***
***Reposted with permission from The Journal of the Lincoln Heights Literary Society***

2 comments:

lore said...

I don't remember this ever getting released...Or is it back on the docket now? Huh! <3

love, lore

Kris said...

@lore - Sorry it's taken a while for me to respond. I have quite the large pile of manga to review and many of them are at least a year or more old. This title has a release date of February 2009 so it may be that it is a title that is already out of print.