Shimizu Yuki: Love Mode

[wereowl]

Host Club. Love. Hate. Betrayal. Romance. Kidnapping. Violence. Rape. Lots of hot sex scenes. Eleven books of tears, sweat and blood and sperm.

karoupin had been talking about this manga long time ago so when I found myself a bit bored last weekend, I thought I could try it and see. I am scared of long mangas/anime and 11 volumes of Love Mode seemed to be a bit much for me. Especially after reading few pages and finding out I didn't like the drawing style much. The feeling lasted about one volume, then it faded away. I fell in love with the story, got used to and then started to like the drawing (or maybe mangaka started to draw better). It took me only three days to finish it. And I want more.



The manga revolves around several people connected together by a host club Blue Boy. In 11 volumes, there is lots of space to introduce many different characters (so anyone can choose his favourite ^^), but there are six of them who appear regularly or whose stories are not revealed at once. The first pair that is introduced in Volume 1 is Takamiya/Izumi, for me one of the most boring couples in the series. Trust me, Izumi is the worst type of uke that whines all the time. *shivers* Takamiya is a friend of Reiji, seme in the second pair. Actual nature of a relationship between Takamiya and Reiji is revealed in the last volume and this is the only thing that justifies Takamiya's existence for me. He is too nice for my liking, were I him I'd kill Izumi right away.

Reiji is undoubtedly different. He seems cold - untouchable owner of a host club, that cares just about his business. As we are slowly finding out, nothing is far from the truth. He picks up a lost kitten, Naoya, who lost almost everything in his life but still tries to fight for himself. Development of their relationship is maybe the sweetest thing in the series and as much as I hate to say it, I fell for them. Maybe I had some hurt/comfort period or something. And of course, Reiji is sexy as hell ^_~

It's very funny to compare those two pairs, and scenes where there are all four of them together are one of my favourite. Such as this scene where ukes were attacked by a random group of villains and saved by their semes. Takamiya is all caring and worried, but Reiji chews Naoya out first and "consoles" later ^^

The third pair is Haruomi/Kiichi. Unlike before, I'm not going to talk about seme. Kiichi is uke only technically, in fact he is the one who manipulates people around him. Especially his younger brother Reiji ^^ (example one, example two). If I remember correctly, Kiichi is karoupin's favourite character ^^ At first, he seems to be just a funny figure who brings fun and aphrodisiac-filled cookies, but reading his story sent chills up my spine. I'd already read several mangas that in some way described a rape, but this time I wanted to throw up. It's not descriptive in a way "he shoved his *** to *** and then ***" but it perfectly portrays the feeling of being raped. The story of Kiichi and Haruomi is the most terrifying one and left the strongest impression on me, but I was glad when narration switched back to Reiji and Naoya.

Love Mode is a manga full of yaoi cliché, some stories are rather boring, others are over-stuffed with not so believable dramatic events, but nonetheless it's highly readable and amusing. I give 9/10 within the bounds of yaoi genre.

Comments

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I absolutely LOVE Love Mode, and yes, my favorite character is also Kiichi, though Reiji runs a close second.

[rozarka-cz.livejournal.com]

It seems everyone loves Kiichi ^^ Both brothers are lovable, especially when they are fighting XD The series is one of those I'm sure I'll read once more at some time in future. I'm curious about Shimizu Yuki's other works, I'll have to find out what else she has written and where to find it. Thank god for free_manga and yshare ^^

[(Anonymous)]

No, it means there are many intelligent^^ readers who love a good written not-so-schematic characters (with sexy long hair^^) who are (thank God!) manipulative, sarcastic and breaking the uke characteristics.

[karoupin.livejournal.com]

It is me, sorry, I wasn't logged. Baka!

[rozarka-cz.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's why he is the most popular character there. And everyone likes him. So he becomes too popular for me. It's my deviation, not to like characters others like the most. Snape, you know, or Wolfram. And many others. I don't know what to do with it. Maybe a shrink could help.