Customer Reviews

You Will Drown in Love

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

 

 

I love this sequel to You will fall in love. It is more light hearted, the romance tender and sweet and the 2 guys very likable. I actually prefer this one to the prequel.

Reiichiro (the older brother who "lost out" in the prequel love triangle) is an endearing character. He is guileless, almost unearthly, and bad at people interaction which gives the false impression that his is cold when he is actually vulnerable and sensitive. Archery grounds him and is his sole outlet from human feelings that he struggles to understand. Coming from a rich family and obviously the favorite son certainly does not help.

Freshly graduated, Reiichiro naturally takes over the management of his father's fabric store. Jinnai, the assistant manager, who is eyeing the job himself is of course appaled more so when this President's son seems almost air headed as he stumbles in his dealings with customers. But Reiichiro's genuineness and humility soon wins the 10 years older and street wise Jinnai over. From initially teaching Reiichiro in his job, Jinnai finds himself listening to Reiichiro's troubles and giving advice, including "what is love". Things back fired when Jinnai has to help Reiichiro sort out his feelings for his once best friend. You have to read the prequel to get the most out of this as both sequel and prequel take place in the same time frame. Jinnai's growing feelings for the clueless Reiichiro is fun to read, their developing relationship tender and sweet.
Takanaga's artwork is ofcourse lovely, and her 2 manly seme and uke here is certainly refreshing. This one is a keeper in my Yaoi collection and I am glad Blu has given us the complete story.

You Will Drown in Love is the follow up story to You Will Fall in Love but these two stories are actually happening at the same time. If you haven't yet read You Will Fall in Love, this one will be a touch confusing. In fact, it's been awhile since I read the prequel and found I was even getting confused.

You Will Drown in Love involves Reiichiro, who is Tsukasa's brother and Haru's former best friend and rival in archery, and Jinnai, his employee when he takes over the family business. Jinnai was certain he was next in line to become manager and is none too happy when the owner's son waltzes in out of nowhere to take over his coveted position. To make matters worse, Reiichiro is a terrible sales person and continually drives away the customers. The rest of the story revolves around these two and Reiichiro dealing with the budding relationship between his brother and best friend, which is occurring in You Will Fall in Love.

Plot wise, it's a cute story but if I'm being honest, You Will Fall in Love was better. After reading "Fall", I really wanted to read "Drown" to see what happens with Reiichiro. I don't really feel all that fulfilled. If you read "Fall" and found yourself curious about Reiichiro's story, then go ahead and pick it up but I don't feel like you're missing much. If you haven't read this series at all, go read my other review and decide from there if you want to invest in it. I did find this follow up to be a bit more explicit than the prior but I wouldn't call it an "explicit" title. The characters are definitely sexy and seeing Reiichiro in his archery gear and his kimono definitely sexy! Translation and readability seemed on par with the prior release.

Plot = C
Characters = B
Illustrations = A-
Sexual Content = C+
Translation = A

Overall Grade = B

Jinnai, loyal employee of a kimono shop, is a bit disgruntled when his boss retires and hands over managerial reins to his son Reiichiro. Reiichiro is just out of college and has no relevant work experience. He is also painfully blunt; he immediately starts losing potential customers and alienating previously loyal ones. Although Jinnai is repulsed by the thought of having to train his new boss, he takes the task up anyway and is able, slowly but surely, to win Reiichiro's trust.

Soon enough, he knows way more about Reiichiro than he ever dreamed possible--including the younger man's problems with a previous romance. It soon becomes eminently clear to Jinnai that Reiichiro is just as naïve when it comes to matters of the heart as he once was when it came to matters of business. It makes him instantly appealing, and Jinnai is falling head over heels before he knows it. Will he be able to teach his boss about how love works and convince his boss to accept his own ardent declarations of love?

You Will Drown in Love is the sequel to You Will Fall in Love, also published by Blu. In her afterword, creator Hinako Takanaga worries that readers who read this manga without having read the prequel first will be confused. Fortunately, though, her concerns are for the greater part unfounded. Haru Mochizuki, the protagonist of You Will Fall in Love, appears here also, but he is a supporting character, and while you may appreciate some of the interpersonal dynamics going on between Haru, Reiichiro, and Reiichiro's little brother more if you read both books, the story is entirely comprehensible--and entertaining--on the strength of its own merits.

This level of quality, appreciable especially in the context of the sea of mediocrity that is the boys love (BL) genre in Japan, is surely due in part to Takanaga's status as a veteran of the field. She is widely published; her other works available in English include Little Butterfly, Challengers, and Devil's Secret, just to name three. Though she does not seem inclined to take tremendous creative risk, her storytelling and character development is always solid, and she knows how to put her own unique stamp upon otherwise tried-and-true genre codes. Jinnai's employment at a kimono shop, for example, does not feel gimmicky, and discussions about how to and not to treat customers have considerable heft and believability to them. Likewise with Reiichiro's archery skills.

And of course, all of the characters are lovingly drawn and almost inhumanely handsome. However, distant beauties her characters are definitely not, even when, in the context of the story, they start out emotionally remote in relation to each other. There is a distinctive warmth to her line work and screen tone choices that make the artwork feel easily accessible and unthreatening, despite the above-average quality. Well-constructed layouts also help to naturalize the reading experience. In short, You Will Drown in Love is easy on the eyes and the mind alike and recommended as a pleasant diversion that requires minimal commitment on the part of the reader.

-- Casey Brienza

This manga is a spin-off from Hinako Takanaga's other manga, 'You Will Fall in Love'. Here we follow Reiichiro (Tsukasa's older brother in 'You Will Fall in Love').

The story basically centres around when Reiichiro takes over as the manager of a fabric shop, which is part of his father's company. The other main character in the story is Jinnai, who is the assistant manager at the shop and the story is about the developing relationship between him and Reiichiro. In terms of time, most of the story runs parallel to 'You Will Fall in Love', so it's interesting to see things from Reiichiro's alternative perspective. (If you haven't read 'You Will Fall in Love' the story should still be clear enough and easy to follow.)

Overall, something about this manga really works- it's just a really sweet, entertaining read. The story is pretty light hearted, as you watch the stoic, spacey Reiichiro haplessly try to learn the ropes from Jinnai and adjust to becoming the manager when he has no previous experience. As in all of Hinako Takanaga's mangas, the characters and artwork are really beautiful. The characters are also really well developed and likeable. The manga isn't really completely explicit but there are a few hot scenes.

If you haven't come across Hinako Takanaga's work before, let me just say that I really can't recommend it enough. Her stories tend to be pretty light hearted and sweet but at the same time have a lot of depth. Her artwork is also gorgeous. I think her work is amazing- she is definitely one of my favourite yaoi mangakas!

If you're looking for something sweet and entertaining I'd definitely recommend 'You Will Drown in Love'. I'd also recommend the more serious 'You Will Fall in Love' if you haven't already come across this- both are without a doubt among my favourites when it comes to Hinako Takanaga's work!