1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worth the wait, August 2, 2007
This review is from: Aoi House In Love Vol 1 (Paperback)
After Aoi House 2 ended, I anxiously waited the long 6 month gap between books. When I got ahold of Aoi House in Love... needless to say I was thrilled.
Aoi House in Love picks up where the second one stopped. It's right after Christmas and the gang is going off to Hatsu con. For some reason I was expecting it to have some of the same elements like in the series "Dramacon" . (The guy in the schoolgirl outfit for instance.) Hatsu con proves to be filled with drama itself. Aoi house collides with those-who-must-not-be-named(Yuri House) and Elle goes about being her bitchy self. The con does brew some romance has we see Alex and Morgan's inevitable romance brewing, Sandy and Maria shyly dancing together at New Years...and Elle realizing she doesn't really love Alex at all. With all this romance happening even Eichiboo gets some special attention.
Overall Aoi house in Love lives up to it's name seeing has most of the characters are falling in love. It was sad at the end beacuse Elle decides to leave with Uri House, leaving Sandy to drive back home.(With hilarious results I might add.)
I can't wait for the 4th book, if the title is a sign than I'm assuming it will be the last one. *tears* I hope not. *sniff* But hey, maybe that means a anime is in the works? *perks up* I hope so...
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun concept, disappointing in parts, February 4, 2010
This review is from: Aoi House In Love Vol 1 (Paperback)
I love the Harem comedy genre, and the initial concept of this OEL manga - two straight guys sharing a place with a number of crazed yaoi fangirls -, as well as its being set specifically in Western/American fandom, is very appealing. The art is well done, in fact, it is one of the very few OEL manga series that look and feel like a Japanese product, and there are plenty of references to anime, manga, games, music, television series... as well as "fan life" that add to the fun. I also do like the explanation for the entire situation that is given in the end.
But although the manga starts out promising, and does have its great moments, sadly, it strays from this basic concept too much, to early. While the girls threaten at first to turn their "yaoi pets" into yaoi fans or even lovers, this idea is quickly abandoned and forgotten. There is not as much comedy based on the differences between the various characters as I had hoped for and as the concept could have yielded; instead, there are confusing parodies that take up too much space for my taste (Fruitcake Fantasy, the Utena thing, the Silent Hill story arc - and yes, I do know the games and anime parodied) while the series finale hints at several situations that could have made fun episodes, but are only shown in passing. And while the Hatsucon story arc is fun, the specific aspect of the characters being American anime fans could have yielded more and better story material as well.
So... while I did enjoy Aoi House overall, it neither truly fulfilled its promise as a harem comedy (the heart and soul of which is character-driven situation comedy) nor as a comedy/manga about Western anime fans. (Dramacon was much better in that respect, although the initial concept is entirely different). Ultimately, it all comes down to the kind of series you like. If you enjoyed the over the top surreal craziness in harem manga (such as the Molmol story arc in Love Hina), you will get a lot more out of this series than if you prefer the more slice-of-life stories in the genre (such as Ai Yori Aoshi or To Heart).
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