breath vol. 5 by Chifumi Ochi review

breath vol. 5

Author/Artist: Chifumi Ochi

Publisher: Yaoi Generation

Rating: M – 18 and above

Genre: Yaoi, Drama, Romance

Grade: A-

It's so hard to write a synopsis for the final book in a series. You don't want to give anything away yet you want to be informative as well. I'll try my best without spoiling too much.

Arata and Yanagi have finally expressed their feelings and are ready to move forward. But there is a huge obstacle in their way. That would be Ten, Arata's younger twin. Ten will stop at nothing to keep his brother out of the clutches of anyone, not just Yanagi (read vol. 4 for more details). Now that Ten knows that Yanagi and Arata are back together he's turned into a raving lunatic. After locking Arata in his room he's roped Kashiwagi (more like threatened him) into his plan by taking him to Yanagi's home. Yanagi was worried when he sent Arata home seeing how Ten would blow a gasket if he found out that they spent the night together (too late). Luckily Ten failed to confiscate Arata's phone but when Yanagi calls to make sure everything was OK Arata was unable to warn him on what horrors await him. What will happen to our lovers and the psycho brother?

The final volume of breath contains the ending of the main story, a side story featuring Yanagi and Arata, and two chapters starring Ten and the man he meets after leaving his brother. I feel that the ending was a bit rushed but I'm pleased with how things turned out. I don't mind angst as long as there is a happy ending. The only thing missing is the steaminess between Arata and Yanagi. We don't get any sex whatsoever. Another thing that was missing was a true ending regarding the situation with Ten. I really wish that there was more closure but I'm satisfied nonetheless.

Now the book isn't devoid of sex, trust me. It just shows up in the side story featuring Ten and the sexy doctor that he shacks up with. In these chapters we are able to see Ten in a different light and it redeems him in my eyes. He definitely has some major issues going on upstairs and I would have liked more development but beggars can't be choosers.

This is a great series and I'm glad that Yaoi Generation brought it to us. To me breath started out as a story of sketchy, but super hot, consensual sex with a bully of a seme and a spineless uke. I quickly changed my tune as we got to know these characters and saw them in a new light. As the story progressed it truly hooked me and made it so I couldn't wait for the next volume to come out. The characters that started out as kind of stereotypical, stayed somewhat stereotypical, but morphed into characters with more depth and made it a more interesting story.

For a first off series Yaoi Generation did a great job. I must say that I appreciate the fact that they started the series and finished it instead of getting over their heads and publishing several titles all at once. In today's economic times and the closing or missing manga publishers starting series and then going under before they finish them I really like the fact that Yaoi Gen started the series then finished it before moving on to the next. If they keep up the great work and continue to license interesting titles and release them with their fantastic production qualities they'll continue to get my support!

If interested here are my reviews for vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3, and vol. 4.

***Review Copy provided by Yaoi Generation***

RIP CMX

I know that this news has been out there for a bit now but with the demise of CMX I feel like there was something that I was probably missing. So I'm asking you readers what CMX titles should I get my hands on now before they're all gone. I have read Gals!, Emma, and Seimaden. The next series that I'm waiting on is Tenryu: The Dragon Cycle (they're in the mail as we speak) and I plan on procuring King of Cards (because it's a Makoto Tateno title and I don't know why it's taken me so long to even toss around the idea of buying it.) I've tossed around the idea of From Eroica with Love but I still don't know. What are your suggestions?

While we're at it with the disappearance of Go!Comi what are some of their titles I ought to check out? I'd love any suggestions that you might have!

Sorry!

Hello to those who check in with me from time to time. I apoligize for my silence these last few months. Again life hasn't been kind and I've been trying to deal with it. I'm hoping to be more active in the future. I'm trying to work out a schedule so I get some reviewing done as well as deal with work. It's just really hard when you spend eight hours a night doing nothing but typing and then come home to do more. But I need to get my butt in gear and get over it because I have a gigantic pile of manga that needs to be reviewed! It may take a while to get back in the groove but I hope that you'll stick with me!