Manga-ka: Aco Oumi
Publisher: 801Media
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: March 2008

Synopsis: “Somehow over the summer, Yamaguchi ended up going out with his best friend, Takagiri. But now that they’re together, something’s really been bothering Yamaguchi; why does Takagiri love him so much? It is his shaggy hair that begs to be petted? His often stubborn personality? Or the way he blushes when lavished with Takagiri’s umm… affection!?”

Yamaguchi and Takagiri are best friends and over the summer they’ve started to date. While Takagiri is very open about his affections, and desires, Yamaguchi has trouble expressing his feelings, or accepting Takagiri’s.

Between going to Takagiri’s cousin and his own sister for advice, Yamaguchi spends most of the story going around in emotional circles. Good thing for plot’s sake I suppose that his boyfriend is very forward: forward in the way that numerous nos means yes and resistance is cute. Their whole story just felt to me like Yamaguchi being on the fence about everything with his boyfriend forcing him into things, which didn’t really give me a romantic vibe at all. While not my cup of tea, it still fell into the realm of a pretty stereotypical yaoi and perhaps will still appeal to those looking for this kind of get-on-with-it relationship.

Aco Oumi’s art was nice overall. I liked the style for the most part but did find some panels often inconsistent in quality with varying anatomy issues. Other quips were characters that looked far too much alike, and how unattractive a character could look the moment they were intended to be looking their most beautiful. On the upside, fans looking for it shouldn’t be disappointed by the scattered sex scenes, which are completely uncensored. No invisible or sparkly extremities here.

No complaints from me about 801Media’s publishing work here. The cover slip was attractive and I enjoyed the basic paper they used for the interior, not as high quality as some of their other series but very easy to page turn and gave the book a pleasantly light weight. As usual the bonus 801-chan comics on the back cover slip sleeve are cute and entertaining!

In the end, while I didn’t really enjoy it, admittedly I can see attributes of Love Circumstances that other yaoi readers can enjoy. There are plenty of sex scenes, numerous attractive guys and enough emotional exchange to keep the semblance of a plot going. Not something I would personally recommend or call anything special, but it may be worth a look-see for some.

Review written July 2, 2008 by Lissa Pattillo.
Originally written for MangaJouhou
Book provided by 801Media for review purposes

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About the Author: Lissa Pattillo

Lissa Pattillo is the owner and editor of Kuriousity.ca. Residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia she takes great joy in collecting all manners of manga genres, regretting that there's never enough time in the day to review or share them all. Along with reviews, Lissa is responsible for all the news postings to the website and works full time as a web and graphic designer.