Customer Reviews

Little Butterfly Volume 2 (Yaoi) (v. 2)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Liitle Butterfly is a gorgeous shonen-ai (then first volume is not yaoi) three volume story. Kojima, a friendly boy with a sunny disposition, goes out of his way to make friends with the loner, Nakahara, from his class. Wanting to know Nakahara more and have him accepted by his peers, Kojima includes the goodlooking but aloof Nakahara in his group during a field trip. However during the field trip Kojima learns the reasons why Nakahara is how he is and about his unloving and violent home life. The story charts the tender friendship that occurs between the two. Sweet and sensitive, the story boasts gorgeous drawings Hinako Takanaga and a moving and addictive storyline. If you are looking for a shonen-ai with a interesting storyline that makes you care for the characters, you really cannot get better than this. Simply love it.

I love the conclusion, vol 3 is the best in this short series. Kojima and Nakahara are simply adorable. This mangaka's artwork is something to behold. The facial expressions of her 2 boys are vividly alive, expressing their emotions and individual character beautifully. The ending is not an entirely happy one. Nakahara is never united with his dysfunctional parents, which actually gives more depth to the emotional pull of the story. The scenes between mother and son are painful to read, bringing a few lumps to my throat. His father's implicit heartlessness is chilling. Fortunately Nakahara has Kojima, who is simply endearing. Sunny, caring, earnest and wide eyed Kojima is just the balm Nakahara needs. Nakahara finding the courage to say "goodbye" in Osaka and his few words as the 2 boys stood outside Nakahara's now abandoned family home are such effective and stirring scenes.

In Vol 3, the mangaka does a marvellous job expressing the boys' love for one another, their emotions built-up and the sexual tension. Kojima's awakening desire for Nakahara is a delightful read. The quiet and more experienced Nakahara has always been the "lusty" one in their relationship and Kojima's initiation in Vol 3 is just something so sweet and cute.
This is of course soft core Yaoi. Anything more explicit and "rough" would have been completely unsuitable. The boys hugging/clinging to each other so tightly really gets to me. There is an innocence and sweetness in their love which is deeply moving. (right I am getting sappy here...)
Ultimately this is a beautiful story of two boys very much in love and no BL/Yaoi fan should miss it.

i admit, i was a bit dubious about how much i would enjoy reading this manga (sometimes, if you've read one, you've read them all), but i found myself pleasantly surprised. apparently, i underestimated! although, the plot line is a bit cliched, with the broody type and the energetic clueless, but the plot line is just fresh enough to make up for it all! not to mention just adorable. i'm already looking forward to the release of volume two in september, and will most likely be purchasing that volume and more. an excellant manga with a straight forward approach and delightful artwork.

I was expecting the usual light hearted cliché and am pleasantly surprised by a much deeper plot and well flushed out characters with the potential of much more in future volumes. This mangaka's artwork is gorgeous and her boys are pretty, the brooding and handsome Nakahara pairing with a sunny and wide eyed Kojima. Vol 1 is a delightful shounen-ai on the the boys' budding relationship with the mangaka doing a great job contrasting Nakahara's painful background with Kojima's loving family. Get this series and you will also appreciate the fitting title "Little Butterfly" .

I admit, when I first started this series, I thought it was going to be another fluffy boy's love book with just a little kissing and maybe groping when they made it to the most exciting part of the story. Man, I was wrong and how happy I was to realize that.

These boys are so cute, especially when they get all blushy. The art is fantastic (it's one were I look at it for 20 minutes trying to figure out how Takanaga can draw so well...) and although the storyline is strange, at least it's not cliche boy/boy that seems to keep coming up in yaoi books I buy.

I definitely recommend this one to those look for juicy boys' love, and also those who want a really cute love story.

The first thing you'll notice about Little Butterfly is the art. The characters are detailed, and the artist is great at expressing complex emotions through more than dialogue and monologue.



The dialogue was pretty great, and there are humourous moments throughout. This story is definitely love/relationship oriented, and less about sex. Even the "attempted sex" scenes are just developments of their relationship.

Buy it for the "Awwwwe!" factor. My heart still races just reading Little Butterfly, and it remains my absolute favourite yaoi story. =)

Little Butterfly is one of my favorite so far. Though there is child abuse in the plot that doesn't really get resolved, it has a sweetness that at least for most, won't find objectional (no non-con). From kissing and a little groping in Vol. 1 to the consummation in Vol 3 the story is believable and endearing. Could one ask for better that that? Well one thing that can be confusing and it may be because of the translation is that: Are they really going into college? I mean Kojima looks 14 at most and Nakahara looks nearly the same. Could it be they changed it from going to high school to going to college to make some more accepting? Well over all, if you look past the potential ages, it is a good read and something you can re-read.

Both the title and the cover art with flowers, butterflies and so on made me skeptical that I would enjoy Little Butterfly (I was afraid it would be too cutesy-poo), but I decided to take a chance and I'm glad I did.

To the criticism that the some of the characters are stereotypes, or caricatures, or whatever, I would say this is true but unfair. This is genre fiction after all, and a sweet airheaded boy with huge eyes is a convention of the yaoi/bl genre. To complain about a yaoi story having such a character would be like complaining about a mystery novel with a hard-boiled wisecracking detective. A work of genre fiction can either try to escape the conventions (or clichés) of its genre or else to work creatively within them. If the author merely introduces stock characters and fails to do anything interesting with them, the reader has legitimate grounds for complaint, but this is not the case here. Kojima-kun is a "type", but he isn't *just* a type. He is a complex character: loving, brave (he initiates the relationship with Nakahara, and keeps it going despite some pretty scary encounters with Nakahara's family) and, yes, maybe a little bit airheaded too, but as I said he's more than just that.

The art work in LB is quite good. When I read I focus on the story and notice the art mostly when it "gets in the way", which in this case it did not. I never had any trouble telling who was who, even among minor characters. I've run into titles where even major characters are easily confused with each other. Here that isn't a problem at all, and I'm grateful. Also the characters are drawn more or less realistically, so I wasn't distracted by strangely-shaped faces, odd-looking ears or what have you. Kojima-kun is the only character who looks caricatured to me (especially his oversized eyes), but that's a convention I can live with. On a couple of occasions Kojima-kun's already somewhat caricatured features are further exaggerated for comic effect, especially in one very funny scene in volume two when he is introduced to Nakahara-kun's uncle.

I won't say much about the plot for fear of giving too much away. Kojima goes out of his way to befriend Nakahara, a classmate who comes from a seriously dysfunctional family, and their friendship evolves into romance. Their increasing attachment to each other develops as Nakahara's family situation deteriorates, and is to some extent driven by this deterioration: Nakahara desperately wants to be loved ("desperate people clutch at straws," he says) and the kind-hearted Kojima is sympathetically inclined towards him from the beginning, and becomes more so as he gradually discovers just how bad things are at the Nakahara home.

A most beautiful conclusion to the trilogy that is "Little Butterfly". A sweet, well-illustrated and written yaoi manga. I would have liked to have seen the story carried on further than it is, but that is all I can say without giving away the ending. All-in-all though a satisfying read. I would recommend this to anyone that enjoys yaoi with a plot.

First volumes are often a hit-or-miss. The plot seems pretty stock, as do the characters--one is almost wincingly stereotypical, with the gushing enthusiasm, earnest eyes and clasped hands.

There are some stand-out elements with hints at character backgrounds, social status/accomplishment, and religious issues, which I rarely see addressed in yaoi manga. The story in this volume is a bit short, and the ending a bit abrupt. The art is pleasant.

All in all, it's a light, romantic read, mostly formula. I'd recommend borrowing a friend's copy or picking up a used one if available to see if the story is compelling enough.

If you prefer more drama and a little more balance between the 'broody' and 'sensitive' characters, try "Esperanza."