Customer Reviews

Love Hurts Aishiatteru Futari

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BLU has this listed as a "comedy/romance", which suggests that either they were rushing it out the door and needed a description ASAP, or that someone was asleep on the job; of the four stories in this collection, only one is at all comedic. The other three are sad, and all focus on the theme of painful love: desperate, unrequited, or doomed. "Unforgivable" deals with a man found with his lover's bloody corpse, and the possibility that he may be the killer. "Two in Love" stars a teacher living (and sleeping) with his student; teacher loves student, but student is hopelessly in love with a childhood friend who takes advantage of him (this one is loosely linked to the first through a rather creepy side character). The last one, "Kanako's Story" is a heterosex romance between a high-school student and a female classmate who sees aliens (of the ET kind) and eventually leaves with one, or maybe not.

The longest story, the two-parter "The Fate of a Crime-Fighter's Love", is a comparatively light tale of two college-age men from a village whose inhabitants all have superpowers; one has come to the big city To Fight Crime, but he's not very good at it, and has to be rescued by his visiting friend. There's some slapstick and (of course) romance mixed in with the drama, and a pretty interesting setup that could have been expanded to book length. Even this story, however, has a side character who is being swindled by the man she loves.

The stories are well-told and affecting, and Tanaka's art is clean and professional. Aside from the completely misleading back-cover description, BLU has done a decent job on the book; the translation doesn't exactly sing, but there's nothing egregiously wrong with it. If you are up for stories that don't all have a happy ending, give this book a shot.

The previous review plus its comment has given a comprehensive view on this collection of 4 stories. Sometimes (not often) I do look for a story with no HEA and this collection suits my rare mood just fine. I am not surprised with certain parts in "limbo" here and there as it seems typical of this mangaka (remember Menkui). My favorite is the first story with its tragic undertone. Sad but original and the mysterious guy just adds to the mystique of the story. The longest about two country bumpkins with super powers turn crime fighters in busy Tokyo is enjoyable and pure fun and maybe the most "complete" of the lot. The story of the teacher in love with his student is not as doomed as we think and one creepy female student does spice up the plot somewhat.
I do get annoyed if a het-story get in the mix but in this case I am willing to forgive the 4th story as the girl who is "alien crazy" is weird enough to be adorable. I guess the questionable ending here is just up to your imagination.
And I do like this mangaka's artwork.