Thoughts and Opinions: Bloom Into You Vol.1

This is another one that I ended up leaving off my recommended reading list. It was not left off because it an on-going series nor was it because I couldn't get a feel for it. The reason is because after reading the first volume I forgot this series existed even though I own the second volume as well. The only reason I even remembered about this series is because I found both volumes while looking through my manga collection. Without further delay let's get started.  

Bloom Into You is a yuri manga written and drawn by Nakatani Nio and published by Seven Seas Entertainment. The story follows Yuu Koito, a young girl who loves romance manga and looks forward to the day that someone will confess their love to her in a way that will make her heart flutter. However when a classmate from her junior high does confess to her she feels absolutely nothing. Naturally she is disappointed by this. Flash-forward to high school where she meets Nanami Touko, a member of the student counsel. It just so happens that Nanami is in a similar situation to Yuu as even though many people have confessed to her she felt nothing for anyone... That is until she met Yuu. After making her own confession it is revealed that while she is attracted to Yuu, Yuu herself  feels nothing for her. 

After re-reading the first volume I can honestly say I feel bad that I forgot about this series. The plot is decent enough as its a story of unrequited love with the notable aspect being that both sides acknowledge it and are seemingly alright with it.  It serves it's purpose of introducing the characters and setting up character traits. The artwork itself is is passable though somewhat generic. The characters it introduces are portrayed well enough to were I can get a little bit of a feel for them. Out of the two main characters Nanami is the one that stands out in this volume. To me she is a very sympathetic character as she knows her feelings might never be returned and resigns herself to thinking that just loving Yuu is enough. Despite that she still makes an attempt to be close to Yuu even going as far as asking her to help run her campaign for student counsel president so they can spend more time together. As stated before I like reading stories in which one or more of the people involved are open with their feelings or openly pursuing the other. Yuu is also decently developed as well. While she isn't in love with Nanami she is shown to have a bit of remorse for not being able to return her feelings. She also wants to be there for her and to help support her emotionally. She even goes as far as telling her that she doesn't have to be anything special for her. Overall all the story is actually good. It does a good job of introducing the main cast and laying the ground work for later volumes to build off of.  As of the time of this post I have yet to finish the second volume or even purchase the third. If asked my for my honest opinion on this series I would recommend checking it out. As stated before I feel kind of bad that I forgot about this series as it would have at least gotten an honorary mention on my recommended reading list for 2017 (link here). Honestly I want to see where the story goes from here.

In the introduction I stated that I had forgotten this story existed. Some of you may be wondering why I did a post on this series even though I completely forgot about it. The reason is because in order to do these posts I usually have to go back and re-read books in question. Doing so allows me to refresh my memory of them and helps me pick up on things I missed during the first reading. Why is this important you may ask? Well it makes it so that my first impression is not the one I base these posts on. That is almost what happened here. I was ready to give this one a negative review and it really doesn't deserve it. This post was supposed to be out at the beginning of the month. The reason it is late is because after re-reading this volume I decided to completely rewrite it and give it a fair review. The reason I forgot about it may not have anything to do with the book itself. I was reading at least four other series at the time so it's likely that it just slipped my mind.

At the time of this post there are at least three volumes available for purchase. I will eventually get around to finishing volume two as I already own a copy.

I really don't have an idea for the next post. I am leaning towards either a post on my thoughts of NTR: Netsuzou Trap or doing something unrelated to yuri manga. I also plan on doing two reviews for romance series that are near and dear to me though I have no clue when those will be finished.

Thoughts and Opinions: After Hours Vol. 1

So unsurprisingly there was a lot of books that didn't make it onto the recommended reading list for 2017. Many stories ended up being left out due to them being ongoing series, stories I read but didn't care for, or there just weren't enough volumes released for me to get a feel for the series. As such I figured I would try something new. This will be the first in a series of posts in which I will give my thoughts a series I am currently reading. My hope is that doing so will help motivate me into doing more posts as well as give the opportunity to go into detail about the issues I have with some series. I will do my best to avoid spoilers though some stories will require me to go into more detail than others.

After Hours is a yuri manga written and drawn by Yuhta Nishio and published by Viz Media. The story follows a woman named Emi Ashiana who has been dragged to a night club by a friend that soon ditches her. While trying to find her she is hit on by some random guy only to be saved by Kei the DJ for the club and one the hosts for the evenings party. After following Kei back to her apartment the two end up spending the night together. Soon afterwards Kei begins to introduce Emi to music and the world of club performances, eventually Emi ends up joining Kei's circle of friends and even helping them with performances. 

As stated in a previous post this is one of the stories that marks Viz Media's entry into the yuri fandom. Overall the story is decent. The vast majority of this volume is about Emi and her introduction into Kei's world and the world of music. It does on alright job of introducing the characters and building the world around  them. The interaction between Emi and Kei is decent though the romance between the two is a bit lacking. The art work, while nothing special, is passable with the author going for a more mature take on typical moe designs. Honestly this really reminds of a manga called Octave (I recommend it.) that I read a few years ago in which a former idol ends up having a one night stand with a musician. One of the things I like about this story is how the romance is handled. A lot of the yuri genre revolves around young love and a lot of they time they end up keeping their feelings from each other. That is not the case with this one as both Emi and Kei are quite accepting of each other though the relationship comes off as more of a 'friends with benefits' type deal. As stated before the romance between the two is barely touched on aside from the one night stand and a few other moments but the characters and story are still being worked on so that is a minor complaint. I like how it explains some of the concepts off the club performance scene though as I am not apart of that scene I have no idea if it is accurate. This in my opinion is a decent start for the series and while it's too early to tell if the story will really grab me I am interested to see how it will continue to develop. If you can find it for cheap give it a shot as there is much worse out there.

As of the time of this post only the first volume is available for purchase with no release date stated for volume 2.