Customer Reviews

The Man Who Doesn't Take Off His Clothes, Vol. 1 (Yaoi)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Narisa Konohara's second book in the Don't Worry Mama series is quite gripping. The story practically reads as a straight novel, and had I not known it was a yaoi novel, the part at the end where it becomes one would have seemed incredibly out of place.

The translation is by Kelly Quine, an apparent newcomer to DMP's yaoi novel series. She (assuming boldy that Kelly is a woman, sorry if I am wrong) captures the language in a very accessible way, almost making it seem like this novel is just naturally an English language work. The paragraphs and dialoguies were very natural and flowed easily. There were a number of typoes (mostly in the form of simple words like "an" and "of" being missing), though, but at this point I have come to expect less than perfection from DMP's novel translations. A writer, or translator for that matter, can't be expected to pick up every mistake, and I think DMP needs to hire some actual professional proofreaders. I can only assume they do not currently employ them, given the continued mistakes I have witnessed in these books (of which I have read the entire catalogue of 6 now).

The art is by Yuki Shimizu again (of Love Mode), though there are painfully few of them in the volume. This is presumably because according to Konohara herself, the manuscript was delivered incredibly late. As a result, none of the illustrations are particularly memoriable, not that they aren't well drawn.

The characters are interesting, and while it is indeed a carryover of the universe created in the first book, Yuichi (here referred to by his mouthful of a last name, Higashiyama) and Imakura are minor characters and Kaitani, a character who is briefly introduced in the second half of Don't Worry Mama, is the focus as is his section chief boss, Fujiwara. Imakura makes no actual appearances, though he is mentioned several times. Higashiyama's purpose seems to be in transitioning this tale of conflict between superiors and subordinates in the workplace from a drama to a yaoi romance. He's the guy that mistakenly interprets Fujiwara's presence in Kaitani's apartment for something else and introduces Kaitani to the bar of his friend, Tomoharu (yes, the same from volume 1). Tomoharu is then the one who sees the stagnant yaoi focus and pushes it along to the story's climax.

If the path leading up to the yaoi theme of the book hadn't been intentionally laughable, I would probably be complaining about it here. Throughout 3/4 of the book there is not so much as a mention of any romantic feelings between the characters, and if it hadn't been set up the way it was, I'd say it was an afterthought. I do have to complain, in my impatience and not her style, about Konohara's knack for cliffhangers. She really seems to enjoy taunting the readers by finally getting to the good stuff and then making us wait for more. I have to say though, that leaving the emotions of both Fujiwara and Kaitani about what had happened between them up in the air at the end was a very good move. Since this incident is almost completely out of nowhere, forcing some kind of love between them would have really been just that: forced. The fact that we have to read a whole third book to get the storyline completed for us gives us another 200+ pages to be transitioned into it and with a story like this, which took its time and built itself up well, it will only add to the quality of the writing.

The graphic bits are not as detailed as in the previous volume of this series, but they are definitely there. In fact, the events leading up to the consummation are so incredibly out there that you are on the edge of your seat waiting for it to happen, all the while disbelieving that a collection of coincidences like these could ever have come together to create this situation. It's quite entertaining.

The only additional problem anyone might have with this story is in the things that Kaitani does to Fujiwara. The manner in which he chooses to treat Fujiwara in response to Fujiwara's attitude and unwillingness to give Kaitani what he wants is pretty mean and somewhat juvenile. This can partly be attributed to the nature of Japanese culture, where under certain circumstances the severe teasing and bullying of people becomes justified. Basically, when an individual stands out or doesn't stand up for themselves it makes them an available target. In the United States on the other hand, targetting those weaker than yourself is generally seen as a negative attribute.

If you didn't read the first volume in this series, it's probably okay. You don't need to know about Higashiyama and Imakura's relationship beyond what is revealed in this volume in order to understand the story. It does, however, add a depth to the characters and the universe and I highly recommend it in addition to this book. I give it four stars because of my impatience to see the conclusion of the storyline as well as my continued frustration with the publisher and the somewhat slow start in introducing the yaoi theme.

I really really enjoyed this book! and its sequel and though things get wrapped up in book two, I still yearn for a book three. I felt this series was in a class with S by Saki Aida and the Guilty by Katsura Izumi. Great characters and awesome build up of tensions and attractions. The Man Who Doesn't Take Off His Clothes, is fantastic. In book two it turns really awesome. but in book one I couldn't put it down nor stop laughing even while I was rooting for Fujiwara's take down. By book two I fell in love with these books, I even fell in love with Fujiwara which I have to say was hard to do in book one. But in book two I cried. My heart strings were plucked. It was just a really good and swift read. Sure there are some grammar and spelling errors in these novles but if you can look past that, the story is worth reading. five stars, two thumbs up!

Kaitani ended up being employed by a female product type of company where female employees far outnumber the males, because of family connections. Never feeling one way or another and going through life half assed, he ends up meeting and old school friend in connection to one of the projects at the company.

Suddenly Kaitani is obsessed w/ helping out his friend and will resort to anything so that his stonewalling boss will green light the project.

The plot of the storyline was interesting, but I couldn't agree to Kaitani's methods of actions against his boss. Clearly in the first book, Kaitani is not a very redeeming character and his slacker mentality does not impress the reader either.

I really couldn't help sympthahizing w/ his boss Fujiwara, because even though he was a strict hard ass type of boss he didn't do things w/o a reason. It just made Kaitani really an unenducated jerk the entire book.

Overall, definitely read this book before for the second book. While I didn't like this book because of Kaitani's personality sucked, I really enjoyed the second book which was more romantic and revealed more of both the lead character's personality.

I was pleasantly surprised on how much I loved this novel. I was never bored and the story went on quite well. The intimate parts were gorgeous, the author did a wonderful job in describing those scenes. The two characters are likable and 3-dimensional. They had both flaws and good points

What I loved most was how they fell in love. The transition from the beginning to the end(the second novel) was beautiful. I come back to this quite a lot actually because I want to witness those moments in the novel. Trust me when I say that this story is a really good one

This book gave me a few surprise laughs and was well done. But it goes more into the details of life in the business world than an out right yaoi novel. Truth is there's very little in it that is acutually yaoi.So buy this with caution. If you're looking for the juicy stuff...it's not realy here. I'm looking forward to book two improving on that.

I guess this novel was okay, all and all. The plot wasn't overly fresh, and the characters aren't particularly likeable (not *either* of the main characters), but it also wasn't the worst yaoi novel ever written. The major problem with this book, really, was all of the typos that I found. It took away from reading the book when the sentences didn't make since and words were misspelled, and I was left wondering if they even had someone to proofread this before it went to print. Can't say that it left me in a rush to find volume 2.

I expected this book to be an ordinary manga but I found out it is the first part of a novel instead with few illustrations, probably taken from the original comics, if there has been one at all.

The plot is quite simple, far from breathtaking, with two well rounded male characters. The writing is acceptable, with several typos and some grammar mistakes possibly due to a hurried translation.

The main interest of this volume to me is that a novel, with its lengthy descriptions and dramatisations, gives a fair idea of everyday life of contemporary Japan such as a manga never could.

Beside this there is really little to recommend this book to its readers.