Customer Reviews

Future Lovers Volume 1 (Yaoi) (Deux)

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

 

 

This one I read before it had been translated into English and I must say it is one of the best manga out there for all the girls-and boys who love a sweet and very real story about a couple whose not so very perfect and yet cant help but love each other through the fights, the making up, the lies, the jealousies and insecurities both share.

Meet Kento who lives with his grandparents who have raised him since he was a child, family is important to them and they want him to marry a good woman, Kento thinks he's found the right woman who can be the perfect wife and mother he needs. Meet Akira a drop dead gorgeous young man a flirt with a smirk like a fox, a flair for flamboyant clothing and a habit of just being annoying meet under unfortunate circumstances. After Kento clumsily proposes to his girlfriend with no words of love or deep meaning he's doused with a drink and meets Akira who happened to be sitting by him and gets a little wet himself, together they begin to drink and try to drown out Kento's sorrows only for the night to end differently than how Kento had expected. Under the mercy of Akira, Kento learns something about himself as they throw themselves into kisses and sex.

Of course not everything ends with an ever after for this very different couple. A one night stand leads to something more as Kento's workplace suddenly adds a new art teacher who just happens to be the first guy he ever had sex with -Akira! Thinking it an isolated event they both decide to ignore that anything ever went on between them that is until a little more alcohol is involved and Akira gets just a little sentimental. Troubles continue to follow the couple as they try to make it end and then try to make it work. In the end Kento must face what he wants for himself and not what everyone else wants for him but is it too late in the end for him and Akira?

Deux I believe is one of the best publishers out there selling yaoi manga I hope they continue to gather more because much of their collection features the best and hopefully they will continue to grace readers with what yaoi readers want most which is good art and good storytelling with the best translations attached to the best price. I think all yaoi fans will fall in love with Future Lovers and I recommend it to both new and old fans who want a simple love story between two men who don't deal so much with forces out of their elements but with problems real couples face readers will also be introduced to Saika Kunieda whose art is amazing both lush and sensual it continues to move across the pages because there is no need for so many graphics lines or buildings to incorporate into her story that makes readers appreciate it even more.

Future Lover's is a keeper and I will continue to wait for it's "Future" sequel.

-Lorettasilks
http://lorettasilks.livejournal.com/3007.html

I can hardly add to or improve on the above rave reviews, so just let me further hammer the idea into the heads of potential purchasers: GET THIS BOOK! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!! While I groove on angsty, gory, full-frontal-action-on-every-page stories, the natural, realistic (within the parameters of yaoi, of course) development of characters and relationship here makes for one sweetly satisfying read. All told, another winner from Deux Press!

What stands out in "Future Lovers" are the 2 immensely likable and well developed characters, the strait-laced Kento and the flamboyant Akira. They could not be more different but there is no denying the love between them, which is so well expressed. From the time they meet in a bar when Kento was spurned by his girlfriend, to Kento's first sex with a man (Akira of course, chuckle..), their growing love, to confrontations with Kento's shocked grandparents, Kento's girlfriend and a precocious student, their love story is so well told, filled with warmth, honesty and amusement, with touching and sweet moments. Both plot and dialogue are lively and absorbing. The sex is tastefully done. This mangaka's artwork is really lovely with such vivid expressions. I read this a straight 2 times.
I enjoy the second shorter story too, which has a meaningful title, "Winter Rabbit". This story is sweet but kind of sad.

Definitely looking forward to Vol 2 on the Future Lovers. Well done, Deux. Highly recommended.

Although she has had a long and eminently respectable career publishing josei manga both comic and dramatic under a different pen name, it was Saika Kunieda's more recent work in the boy's love (BL) genre that has garnered the greatest popular acclaim on the world stage. The two volume series Future Lovers, drawn in a typical, modest josei style akin to that of Chica Umino or Satosumi Takaguchi, is the first of her works to be licensed for release in the United States. Hopefully, it will not be the last; this is one of the best BL titles to have been released thus far in English--period--and it is one of only a handful that will sustain the interest of a readership not strictly composed of BL fans.

Why? Because this sensitive yet occasionally silly tale feels very real. As, for that matter, does the nuanced characterization of adults. The fact that it preaches a modest but clear-eyed message of tolerance and self-acceptance helps too. Those sorts of messages never get stale, and only a few other BL mangaka, namely Fumi Yoshinaga and Yugi Yamada, bother to write them regularly. Anyway, the story begins with schoolteacher Kento Kumagaya, who, as his name implies, is a gentle bear of a man living with his aging grandparents. Kento has just been dumped violently by Yukie, the woman he had hoped to marry and start a family with. Witness to his debacle is Akira Kazuki, a handsome gay man who knows exactly where Kento went wrong in his proposal. Kento, for his part, decides to get drunk and, to his chagrin, ends up having the one-night stand of his life in a love hotel with Akira.

Things just aren't that simple, though, in real life or in Kunieda's brand of BL. Turns out that Akira is a new teacher at Kento's school, and a burgeoning relationship between them develops. As the two men gradually come to terms with their respective weaknesses and insecurities, they are both revealed as complex characters whose hearts are no less vulnerable for being gay. By the end of the first volume, they conclude that if they are to be together, it must be forever, for good, and for the whole world to see. Otherwise, they would rather have no relationship at all. The second volume features a series of vignettes about the couple as they progress through their lives together.

This is quite the challenge to homophobia generally and to Kento specifically, a man who wants to live the American Dream in collectivist Japan. Yet love ultimately conquers all--even societal taboo--and the couple copes with the many frustrations at work and at home that accompany being out of the closet in a world that does not always automatically approve of their life choices. Future Lovers also includes a bonus story featuring an emotionally intense, albeit incestuous, relationship between brothers.

It must be noted that the original title of the first volume of this series is Mirai no Kioku, which translates as "Memory of the Future." Because the mangaka eventually penned an unplanned sequel originally titled Kaze no Yukue, or "The Way the Wind Blows," the title was changed to something more generic and given a "volumes one and two" designation for U.S. release. In any case, the poetic if superficially paradoxical title phrase of the first installment in particular actually refers to a poignant narrative device. At one point, Kento has a dream of the future wherein he and Akira grow old together. Every real relationship has its ups and its downs, of course, yet he realizes in that moment that the downs do not matter. He wants to spend the rest of his life with Akira. He wants to die with Akira at his bedside, holding his hand. Okay, so maybe it's not quite the American Dream per se, but it is a beautiful dream nonetheless--one that should kindle a warm feeling for any reader, male or female, with the barest ounce of romance in their souls. Highly recommended.

-- Casey Brienza

The story centres around two teachers: the easy-going, uninhibited Akira and the more serious Kento. Their relationship starts with a one night stand, after which they coincidentally find themselves thrown together again when they end up teaching at the same high school. The plot basically focuses on the relationship that forms between them.

This is a really light-hearted, entertaining read. Even though not a lot happens in terms of plot, the story is very well handled and is entertaining throughout. There isn't really anything completely explicit but there are plenty of hot scenes.

I really love Saika Kunieda's work. Her artwork is a little bit unusual but it's still very pretty (don't be put off by the covers!). Her characters and plots lines are also always well developed and absorbing. If you haven't come across her work before I definitely recommend it!

Overall, something about 'Future Lovers' just really works. Along with volume 2, this is just a really heart-warming read. I can't recommend it enough!

Let me start by saying I had zero intention of reading this one, however a few things changed my mind. First, Deux had that awesome sale so how could I not and second I have read SOOOO many reviews about this one that said this is an absolute must read that I caved and bought it. It's not that I thought it was a bad book, I just go more for explicit than romantic so it was not one I would normally read.

Kento Kumagaya is a 25-year-old teacher whose only goal in life is to settle down, have a family and live happily ever after. The only problem is that he is so set on this goal and making his grandparents happy that it is clear the woman he has chosen as his future wife is less his soul mate and more just a way to accomplish this dream. Luckily she catches on early on and gives him the boot. Along comes Akira Kazuki and Kento's future plans seem to go out the window. Kento knows hooking up with a gay man will not only throw a wrench in his plans but may also send his grandparents to an early grave but he just can't deny the passion he feels for this man. Good thing too because otherwise we wouldn't have this sweet, funny story to read!

I love that this story jumps right into the action and I do mean "action". Wow. By page seven we're fully into a sex scene. I quickly noticed the mangaka likes to draw these scenes because the illustrations get a touch more detailed and are better than the rest of the book, which are typical (she even mentions this very fact at the end, which made me laugh). They aren't crazy explicit but she draws them in a way that still draws you in and makes you sweat a little.

If I had one beef about this story it would be that Kento falls a little too fast for Akira considering the situation. That aside, the fiery chemistry between these two makes the entire story worth while and the fact that it's quite funny is just frosting on the cake. There's also a separate story at the end called Winter Rabbit about "brothers", meaning they aren't really. It's a sweet story but nothing explicit.

I've heard that volume two of Future Lovers makes this all worth while. At this point I do like the story and would recommend it as a read. I'll also be reviewing volume two next so if you want to wait to get my final thoughts it will be the very next review.

Plot = B+
Characters = A- (good chemistry)
Illustrations = B+
Sex = B+ (not explicit but still effective)
Translation = A

Overall Grade = A- (but barely)

Future Lovers Volume 1 (Yaoi) (Deux) I enjoyed vol. 1 and 2 of this set. The story though silly every once in awhile contained enough angst to keep anyone interested. The uncertainty of the relationship between the two characters is the best part. It's beautiful when each realizes he loves the other and it doesn't seem to happen at the same time.

Two men, that have nothing to do with each other, end up having a one-night stand in a very unlikely situation. Kento is your average straight guy, his dream is to have a perfect wife and loving children, but he wants that future so much that he always overlooks an important detail, love. Thus, his straightforward personality leads him to be dumped by his fiancee when he proposed to her. Heartbroken Kento wants to get drunk and doesn't really care about the company, a man who seems to be just a harmless onlooker and was affected by the ex outburst. Well, it turns out that the charming stranger is no less than a very loose homosexual, and, what's more, he's looking for fun. As expected, alcohol, plus broken, heart plus debauchery incarnated in a man, are too much for our ordinary guy to bear, so of course, he just drowns in the sensation, deciding to forget later. What looked like an awful mistake, that should be buried in the depths of his mind, became a really troublesome situation when Akira, the seductive stranger, appears as the new teacher in the school where Kento works.

Future Lovers is a sweet story, there is no denying it. It has such a common plot, but it presents it in a brilliant way: a slice of life/comedy, with a proper flow for each situation. Also, it 's not overly dramatic, even when the characters are so deep, and it doesn't focus on sex, even when it begins with it. In the end, it can make you laugh and even cry with such simplicity.

Kento and Akira end up developing a relationship that wasn't supposed to be, and wasn't even wanted. You could probably say that it is all thanks to a dream of the future that Kento has. Certainly, the memory of the future helped to make things smoother, but in the end what brought these two together was the fact that they are very suited for each other. So, while Kento struggles to get a family and make his grandparents happy, Akira only wants to enjoy and forget his loneliness, no strings attached. They decide to act like total strangers, two ordinary teachers in a high school, but somehow they can't really avoid each other.

These two are truly opposites. Kento is very ordinary and even boring, always following the proper path. Akira only wants to have fun, feel pleasure and do whatever he pleases. Kento looks really plain, Akira is flamboyant!. Kento is very straightforward, sometimes rude, Akira knows how to play with words, he is charming and a good liar. Kento is very considerate while Akira is really spoiled and mean....There is no end to it, but they seem to share something that has only surfaced when they are together: loneliness. Kento and Akira find solace in their relationship, in the way they complement each other and they decide to pursue a dream that goes against their better judgment, to be happy together.

Kunieda Saika's style it's really funny and really weird sometimes. Future Lovers happens to be her less twisted manga, also her most famous one. Well, she used only a bit of her weirdness here (I almost tripped of my chair with that spark of dark humor) and the rest is just hilarious, cute and hilarious.

Even the art is made to work with these mood changes, sometimes very serious and detailed and others a bit messy, with funny expressions. She jumps from one to other with such an ease...one minute we see a very romantic scene with beautiful faces and the other we get the little devils and those tacky kiss marks! I love her art-style, is unique and very appropriate for each situation.

Future Lovers shows us, from the usual problems that a couple has to face, to other more specific situations as the inconveniences of a homosexual relationship. Even so, it is a pretty light manga, every situation is overcame with their love and a fair amount of silliness on the sides. The story is not an excuse for the sex here, in fact this is almost a soft yaoi. Nevertheless, it has a bit of sexiness, mostly in the beautiful art along with Akira's perverted behavior. Well, I have to admit I can't stop laughing at invisible genitals here, but that's fine, the feelings are the focus in these short scenes.

This is a happy story, one of those that lighten your day, even so it strikes me as a mature one...maybe because things seem to be way more normal than how this plot is usually portrayed. Memory of the Future (Future Lovers 1) is about their encounter and how they deal with it.

Future Lovers is one of the jewels of BL, not a masterpiece, but very outstanding and different. The focus here? Love, just that, there are some complex feelings on the side, but it's the beautiful relationship the one that gets our attention the whole time. And the funny moments too!

Also available on kindle: Future Lovers Vol.1.