Customer Reviews

Empty Heart: False Love

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know Empty Heart is an earlier publication from Lies & Kisses, but I read L&K first, which made me an instant Minase fan. DramaQueen already had me at "Brother." I love the color pages, the gorgeous print and excellent translation work of all the publications so far, but Minase's art is simply stunning.

Empty Heart is just a tad less outlined than Lies & Kisses, but Minase's expressive hands, faces and forms are hers alone. The story is once again, full of angst. Takumi is in love with his art teacher, Usami. Usami is an old school friend of Takumi's older brother. Takumi also knows a secret: Usami was in love with Takumi's brother. Takumi takes advantage of the fact that he resembles his own brother so much to try and woo Usami. In a weak (you think) moment, it works and Usami falls for it.

After a bit, though Takumi starts to wish that Usami would love him for himself, and it takes the effort of Usami's old college friend (a guy with the colloquial accent of what seems to be Cornwall, England and not the Southern US where I am actually from) to set everyone straight (ahem, not literally of course); and with a bit more humor and a revelation, things turn out the way they do (no, I'm not saying how it turns out, you have to read it).

I am a huge Minase fan, and everyone I've let borrow my book has ended up buying it for themselves. Here's why: Once you get to the end, you want to read it again, knowing what you now know. Also, it's flippin' gorgeous! Thank you Minase, and thank you DramaQueen for another piece of angsty-art.

My first impression of this book was the artwork: just beautiful. The color pictures were stunning and she consistantly draws her characters so that there is no confusion or distraction from the story. Truthfully, I *must* give this book five stars because I am so impressed by her artistic abilities in drawing pretty people!

The storyline was sweet and concise with the young Takumi a popular, handsome teen in love with his teacher Usami. There is of course, confusion and doubt on the part of both characters and there are a few fun surprises in the form of an old college friend of Usami's (which made me laugh).

To sum up, this is another well done manga that many people will undoubtably enjoy.

Empty Heart is an earlier work than Lies & Kisses, and Minase must've gone through a steep learning curve because the difference in quality between the two is pronounced. Not so much in the art--which is very appealing--as in the writing: the story in this manga is much shallower and the characterizations less satisfying than in the other. As with Drama Queen's other titles so far, the production is great and the translation is decent if a little awkward in spots. But this time there was a strange editorial decision to try and render a character's Hiroshima dialect as what's explained in a note as " 'the southern dialect' of the United States". What it actually reads like is some bizarre bastardization of Midlands speech (ever heard a Southerner say "Are ya daft"?), and the result is incredibly clunky and distracting. Although this manga is a decent diversion for an hour or two, I'd recommend Lies & Kisses instead.

I enjoy this light love story between a teacher and his student immensely though its plot is not as deep as Lies&Kisses (one of my top favorites). I love this mangaka's artwork and the translation is decent. So far, Drama Queen's effort is commendable; surfing their website there are more in the near horizon to satisfy us Yaoi fan.

Masara Minase is one of my favorite mangakas. Not only her drawing style is beautiful, but her plot lines are not your typical yaoi manga ones. I have read a lot of her work (mostly not released in the US) and her angsty yet humorous stories, makes every single piece of her work worth it. This book proving that point.

I would definitly recommend this to any yaoi fan. The art is beautiful and very clean lined from other manga's I have read. The plotline is really interesting and moves very fluidly. Definitly worth the money for any yaoi fans collection

Beautiful Artwork, good story
A most buy!

Its supposed to be rereleased this year

i hope there is ok and good story this book? thank you