Customer Reviews

Embracing Love 5

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

 

 

Passion, emotions, angst, tragic star-crossed lovers, erotica... This volume has it all. Why tragic ? Just read the beautiful and captivating Winter Cicadas, a tale of samurai love during the Meiji period which nearly takes up half of Vol 5. The mangaka asks the question of how this period piece which she states is the prequel is linked to Iwaki and Katou. For me, Winter Cicadas tells the previous tragic lives and love of our 2 boys. And you just need to believe in reincarnation for a moment to love this. Deeply emotionaly, and hauntingly tragic, Winter Cicadas is one beautiful and heart-rending love story as I find myself tearing towards the end (oh dear...).
Fortunately I am much cheered up by the antics of our 2 lovers in the current era. We have the continuation of Vol 4 in the beginning of the book, in which Iwaki's stand-in manager, Asano, schemes and drives a wedge between the couple. Misunderstandings, angst, passion and hot make-ups ensue, which are the very reasons we love this series. The scene when Katou confronts Asano is wonderful, as readers realize just how much Katou truly understands Iwaki. And Katou and Iwaki making-up is one emotional and erotic scene. As always Youka Nitta does a marvellous job drawing out the characters of her 2 boys, the sensitive and vulnerable Iwaki and the bold and loving Katou .
We are also treated to 2 bonus stories. The first one features the boys taking a break in a hot spring resort and the sex here is just sizzling hot. Sounds like Kizuna Vol 7 but the sex is ofcourse more explicit. The second bonus story may be just 6 pages without any "action" but it is just so sweet and romantic.
Last but not least, Youka's artwork is simply gorgeous. This is one series which I will read and reread and reread...

Incidentally I could not help but compare Winter Cicadas with Kodaka's Midaresomenishi. Both are tales of samurai love but totally different in style and tone. While I love both stories I have to say the sentimental side of me find the much more romantic Winter Cicadas more to my taste.

It was recently I found out that the publishing company closed and so far, no more Embracing Love.
The series is great and I got so hooked, I'm sad.
But please, don't let the publishing closing discourage you on not buying them. I love those guys!

What a great series. I like these books much more than Casino Lily (as far stories go) I could have done with more story in this volume about our to hot guys, but the bonus story (which is most of this book) gives an interesting idea to the reader when you realize Nitta may be saying the boys are reincarnations.
The guys have a bit of a spat because of a media scandal...it does look like the end for these two...can it be fixed?
As always the scenes are hot but appropriate for the story not just random "Oh let's take our clothes off because it's Yaoi manga"
I say to the readers buy buy buy buy!

What can I say? It's one of the best drawn stories I've ever read.

Thank you Youka

Hugs Nita

I was only going to give this volume four stars, but then I reconsidered and I'll tell you why: BeBeautiful's fabulous work. Their translations are always well done (even when they do less than commendable things like laughably stating obvious child characters as adults *coughMidaresomenishi: A Legend of Samurai Lovecough*) and in this volume they even included an interview they did with Youka Nitta herself. They always include character profiles and the "story so far" page, which is very helpful when they sometimes make us wait 6 months or more between releases. This time around was not one of those long waits, though. Embracing Love 5 comes just a few months after the release of Embracing Love 4 and my hat's off to you guys for it, BB. Thank you very much!

As for the story itself there is a lot more of the same old, same old in this volume (which would have been the reason for giving it four stars). The easily predictable outcome carried over from the not-really-angst in volume 4 might have been completely boring if it were not for the well played emotional relationship Nitta has developed between the two men. And let's not forget to mention the hot love scenes as well. Considering that the main storyline only comprises half of the book, and in most of the first half of the main storyline Katou and Iwaki are separated from one another, we can forgive that we only got two of these scenes this time around. The scene I really liked, though, was the extra short story "Always Asking for the Moon," where a somewhat insecure Katou and a comically stoic Iwaki talk about hairstyles of all things.

The second half of the book is a period piece (Meiji era-1860s-samurai love story) called Winter Cicadas and, while the ending is a bit heart-wrenching, according to Nitta herself at the end of the book it has some carryover "prequel" allusions to the Embracing Love storyline (reincarnation, anyone?), so we're supposed to be more hopeful about it than upset.

If you're in love with this series, by all means pick up volume 5 as well, if you are browsing this title for the first time, you might have trouble getting into it since the characters and situation are already so well established that you don't really get that kind of backstory explanation anymore. I would recommend checking out an earlier volume instead.