Tomoe Tatsumi is lost in Tokyo and is rescued by Mitsugu Kurokawa. Little do the two suspect that fate is about to complicate their lives by throwing in a bit of "romance"!
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Funny shonen-ai! (Yaay),
By A&M Junkie (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Challengers, Vol. 1 (Paperback)
Challengers is Hinako Takanaga's debut work - a four volume story - published by DramaQueen. Hinako also brought us the for the charming and sweet Little Butterfly series. While not as good as her sequel series, in terms of storyline or artwork, Challengers is still a great shonen-ai manga and a very funny one at that.
Mitsugu Kurokawa, a young working professional, is out drinking late one night with his friend. When his friend Isogai falls down and throws up on a passerby Kurokawa meets young college hopeful Tomoe Tatsumi. Tatsumi is a remarkably naive and sweet young man who is in Tokyo for a college entrance exam. However at the same time he is a scatterbrain and lost in Shinjuku while looking for his hotel. Kurokawa, feeling guilty for his friend's drunken behaviour, invites his friend and Tatsumi back to his apartment for the night. The next day Kurokawa, concerned about Tatsumi getting lost again, escorts him to his college and spends the day with him. While not realising it the normally straight Kurokawa gets enchanted by Tatsumi's childlike innocence and warmth. On their final day together Kurokawa finds himself kissing Tatsumi goodbye - an action to which Tatsumi promptly faints in shock. Believing that this was a normal foreign culturally unique way of saying goodbye, as Kurokawa's former stepfather was American, Tatsumi agrees to move in Kurokawa's apartment as a tenant. Kurokawa meanwhile is confused by his sudden love for a man and undergoing a nervous breakdown on how to show his affection to Tatsumi without scaring him off or getting arrested (as he is just underage). He also has to cope with Tatsumi's good looking but frightening older brother who is over-protective of his younger brother and has figured out Kurokawa's true intentions. The story and Hinako's artwork are both extremely funny as we watch Kurokawa's inner struggle as he is torn between his friend's encouragement and his fear of losing Tatsumi (and getting killed by his brother). Although Kurokawa's actions are suspicious - as he is always tempted to give into his feelings and take advantage of any given situation - the reader is aware that Kurokawa is a good guy and that his love and affection is real. The art work is similar to that of Little Butterfly and also the Loveless series. This is a very funny, light-hearted and sweet shonen-ai (not yaoi) story about unrequited love (but lets hope its not so unrequited in part 2!)
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hirarious!!! I Raughed a Rot!,
By Karnation (Queens, NY USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Challengers, Vol. 1 (Paperback)
CHALLENGERS is a funny and fast paced comedy about a young office worker named Kurokawa who helps out Tatsumi, a college freshman who is a genius with robotics, but otherwise very clueless and naive. Kurokawa falls for him like a rock, and when Tatsumi needs a place to stay, Kurokawa offers to share his apartment. This brings him under the scrutiny of Tatsumi's fiercely protective brother, who hates all homos, and is certain that Kurokawa is having nefarious thoughts. Kurokawa hopes to hide his passion long enough to allow Tatsumi to fall in love with him. But he must contend with his best friend Isogai, who enjoys seeing Kurokawa unhappy in love for a change, and mocks him mercilessly. Then there is Tatsumi's openly gay American classmate, who speaks in tortured Japanese and believes in "free rove".
One thing I don't like in the BoysLove genre is when one partner is treated like a cute little wide-eyed pet. But Tatsumi, clueless or not, has self-respect and is assertive of his own rights and needs. He gets into knock-down, drag-out fights with his brother, pursues his own goals, and sets effective boundaries with those in romantic pursuit, even when he doesn't even know they are pursuing him. Kurokawa, likewise, isn't an aggressive jerk, but is trying to keep a lid on his feelings in the hope that Tatsumi will eventually return them. There is more character development than you find in a lot of shonen-ai, even though the focus is on fast-paced farce. The art is like the characters, lively and full of personality. The overall impression is of a bunch of people that you want to spend more time with, and an author one would like to see more of. And if you need to laugh till you gasp for air, this will do it. There is one problem; the preview for the art in Book 4 shows Tatsumi looking like a wide-eyed little kid. The author confesses that she forgot he was in college. That doesn't bode well for the development of the character or (since there's already a bit of an age gap) for the relationship. So that is a bit disappointing, but I will check out the sequels anyway and hope I'm wrong. It is my first DramaQueen manga, and they do a beautiful production job. They are normal sized manga, slightly thinner than normal, with dust covers and lovely paper quality. Unlike with some publishers, the attention to the actual product within is just as impressive, with proper attention to spelling and translation, and actually getting the characters' names right.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Challengers Vol. 1,
By Mainframe (Ireland) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Challengers, Vol. 1 (Paperback)
Hinako Takanaga's "Challengers" is funny, witty, character rich and very, very addictive.
I actually found this story via the branch-off series this spawned "The Tyrant Falls in Love". After reading this series I discovered that "Challengers" existed and instantly bought all four volumes because I knew it would be brilliant...it was better than I expected. Much better! The mad over-the-top antic's of the Tatsumi siblings is a delight to watch unfold. The eldest brother, Souichi Tatsumi, is more of a father figure to his two siblings as their father is abroad working most of the time; as a result, he is very over protective of this family. Tomoe Tatsumi is the younger brother and one of the main characters in "Challengers", he is exceptionally intelligent, but, as with most geniuses, not so good at the day-to-day living. In short he's a ditz and often makes mistakes, gets confused, gets lost and generally floats through life. Kanako Tatsumi is the youngest, still in school but way, way too perceptive for her brother's liking. We get to follow they're antic's as Tomoe ventures down a road he never even contemplated, Souichi tries to prevent it and verges on homicide. Beautifully drawn, very funny, and excellent character dynamic's - Enjoy!
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