Customer Reviews

Earthian 1 (Yaoi) (v. 1)

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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I bought Earthian because of her current work on Loveless. Of course, based on what I could find on the net, her early work on Earthian is a different style. If Loveless has sharper, leaner, modern lines, Earthian is drawn in what I think of as the old-fashioned style, fluffier hair, sparklier eyes, rounder cheeks. At first, I was disappointed it wasn't Loveless. But that was before I read the first page.

Earthian is the story of two angels sent to Earth to catalogue the plus and minuses of humankind, before the final judgement. Chihaya is the soft-hearted plus-checker, Kagetsuya his cynical minus-partner. The first volume covers three cases where you slowly grow to love the interactions between the two, Chihaya's hope and optimism, and Katgetsuya's stony exterior being only that, a shell, under which he unwittingly falls for and cares for his partner.

This is classic Boyslove romance, but done so gradually, gently, and quietly, that the heartrending implications of the two angels' union takes a gripping hold over the overarching story at the end.

The book is beautiful - it contains one colored insert at the beginning that is in Kouga Yun's current style, and one towards the end that is in her earlier Earthian style. The cover is in matte pearl with cover art you see on the Amazon page. It's gorgeous - and makes me anticipate the future releases, esp. Vol 3 where the style shifts toward her current trademark illustrations.

This is a lovely, absorbing volume, and the re-release at close to 400 pages, it's well worth it. I bought it a skeptic, and closed the volume a convert.

It's present day, and Archangel Michael is fed up with the pathetic development of the human species. The angels, in their world high above ours, have been given the choice between destroying or preserving humanity. This will be decided by having "Plus Checkers" looking for good points and "Minus Checkers" looking for bad points, and whichever finds 10,000 points first decides the outcome. Chihaya and Kagetsuya are angels who have known each other since their days at military school in Eden, and having taken up opposing sides of this "good vs. bad points" checking system, are teamed together during their stay on Earth.

However, Chihaya is unusual even by angelic standards-he has black hair, eyes and wings. He's one-of-a-kind, unusually powerful in spite of his naive demeanor (much to Kagetsuya's dismay), but set apart from his angel kin...until the Black Cancer strikes the heavenly population, darkening the wings and hair of its victims before spiraling them down into painful death. Tension builds among the angels and between Chihaya and Kagetsuya in particular, and it looks as if the secrets to the salvation or destruction of both Earth and Eden may lie with Chihaya himself.

The story of angels Chihaya and Kagetsuya, their travels on Earth while they tally the plusses and minuses of the human species, Raphael and Michael's relationship back home in Eden, and a doomed society where loving someone of the same gender is a crime punishable by death, is both comedic and elegiac by turns. It's amazing to see how Kouga-sensei's art changes and grows over the course of the series, and the arcs of the characters relationships are just as thrilling.

dude, whoever in hell wrote that publishers weekly review thing above has not come across too many yaoi titles in his/her day. most of what's being published in the states now-a-days is plotless dribble and nonsense sex. don't get me wrong, i love a little smut for smut's sake, but after a while it's nice to get a story. earthian is not at all a "messy epic." it's a well done manga where, yes, there is your classic stoic seme (kagetsuya)and upbeat eager uke (chihaya) pairing, and uh "imaginative" plot lines (there's cyborgs in vol.1 folks) but yun kouga slowly develops their relationship, kagetsuya cooks, and some of those little plots can come back to reality. every once in a while, there are hints of the gay thing and it is mentioned, but i think ultimately, the story is driven by the people and situations the two angels come across.
yun kouga knows how to tell a story and if you're like me and was introduced to her because of earthian and have been waiting to read it in english, i'd grab vol.1.

Over 400 pages Earthian is worth thrice its price. Strong plots with 2 endearing protagonists, Earthian a somewhat gentle Shounen-ai can do no wrong. It is much better than so many of those Yaoi/Shounen-ai released nowadays. I watched the Anime first and was captivated by the idea of 2 angels deciding the fate of humans and of course their love. The Anime definitely fell short of the Manga, disregarding important backgrounds and choppy and distorted towards the end. I am very glad Blu has released Earthian. This series should not be missed by those of us into Shounen-ai/Yaoi and those who are not should try it too. If nothing just for the captivating story line!

Earthian is one of those series that is more than meets the eye. In addition to the Kagetsuya/Chihaya romance, you also have some heavy questions like, "What is it to be human?" and "What is taboo?" Also, there are some heterosexual romances in the background that also attempt to tackle these questions. Some of this comes off as oddly political to a Western reader (the "gay-love-in-an-oppressively-homophobic-regime" thing), but (sadly or not, depending upon your opinion) this was not Kouga's intent- it was to showcase the struggle and the character development.

Kouga Yun's style is very flowy compared to her newer Loveless style, but it in no way distracts from the story.

Long story short, good BL series. You may even want to check it out if BL isn't usually your thing, because it's not that explicit, and there's some good het in there too (as I said).

I have been praying that this manga would come to America and now I am rejoicing. First of all it's thick, which gives me plenty to read. Secondly, it describes the relationship with Chihaya and the other angles back in heaven. Which the anime never fully explained.

Earthian is a yaoi book (at over 400 pages long its hard to just call it a manga) about the 'relationship' between 2 Angels as they work to judge humanity.

Now its a bit difficult calling this a yaoi and saying that the two protagonist Chihaya and Kagetsuya have any type of relationship other then a working one.

For any one that is looking for anything more then the smallest tease of just the slight possibility of yaoi look some place else. There are the barest hint that the two leads would even think of each other in that way and if not told this was a yaoi book...would might not even get that impression.

There is great art though, even though some of the characters look so similer it can be hard telling who is who (The only character thats easy to place is Chihaya due to his black hair, and some times he's drawn without it!) it can also be hard to tell who is a girl and who is a guy (though you start to catch on that the guys are prettier then the one or two girls that show up.)

The story, which is about the Angles investigating the 'good' things and 'bad' things the people of earth do, flip flops from one small story arc to another often with a sad ending. While this is seeing the angles doing there actual job, it can seem like small tidbits of needless filler.

I would recommend this for its art, not for the lukewarm story or its distinct lack of any real yaoi.

First released in 1989 Earthian is more of a classic fantasy with a twist of BL that may bring a nostalgic feeling to some who read it. I picked up this series immediately after watching the anime for Earthian. In my opinion I love the manga much more as the character are presented with better background and depth.

The series, especially the first volume starts off a little rough and the art takes a bit of getting use to. Really, so many of the characters don't seem much different from each other but the story quickly captivated me and it didn't take much effort to tell which character is which. Personally I have grown to love the art. Earthian is also Kouga Yun's very first series so while I may have given her some slack based on that fact I am truly in love with this series.

The story revolves mostly around two angels from Eden, Chihaya and Kagetsuya who have been placed on Earth as plus and minus checkers respectively. The angels on Eden have come to the decision that the humans should be eliminated but before that, humans are at least given the chance to be judged, which is the job of plus and minus checkers. Though this is the premise, Earthian is an emotional story full of character development and the relationships the characters struggle to attain and keep. This is a BL series, the dialogue is pretty clear that there are some taboo relationships but this is also a fairly light shounen-ai series clearly more focused on devotion and the relationship itself.

Each book is bound in a lovely textured pearly cover and there is a color illustration on the first page of each volume. The quality of the pages are also better and smoother than the average domestic manga. An extra perk is the occasional new illustrations done by Kouga Yun, such as the cover and inside color illustration.

Yes, the plot meanders more than it should, and yes, Kouga Yun's drawing style here is a bit dated, but getting hung up on these issues means you'll miss out on a classic tale, one that not only becomes increasingly satisfying as it goes on but that also inspired a host of later works. Read anything with angels in it lately? Read Earthian and then go back and look at that newer manga again--chances are you'll notice some elements that look mighty familiar . . .
And a tip 'o the hat to Blu for producing such a pretty volume.

This manga is a must have for all if you Shonen-ai lovers out there. As the story goes along, you will discover secrets of angels