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kudos mangaka of Passion. the art is original in the way the faces are drawn, so that was very refreshing. ^^ i like this series. its very good.
Hikaru is allowed to "play" at being Shima's lover as long as he keeps his grades up, and by the end of the book, Shima seems to be developing some tender feelings for his rapist.The art is sparse and mostly unattractive; plenty of panels don't have backgrounds, and the characters don't look polished enough to carry the story on their own. With a name like "Passion," I was expecting something more.well, passionate. Combine it all with the weak and unbelievable plot, and I'm just glad that I won this book in a raffle; if I'd spent money on it, I'd have felt ripped off. The translation is awkward and dialogue unnatural, though I have seen worse. All I see here is a few power and mind games, sprinkled with not-very-erotic sex scenes.The story opens with Hikaru, who is obsessed with his teacher Shima, raping Shima in an empty classroom. Shima, instead of getting angry or, you know, calling the police or anything, tells Hikaru that he should think about how he's going to make up for what he's done.What follows is a bizarre series of events that I just can't swallow--a teenager with stalker tendencies obsesses over his teacher, while the teacher, fully aware of the obsession, uses it to manipulate his student.
The artwork can take some getting used to, but the main attraction for me was that the characters do not look like little girls- though Shima has his moments. For example, Shima, the teacher and elder of the pair, is the uke(bottom) yet he also exerts almost all control in the relationship, limiting how often Hikaru can see him and insisting that Hikaru finish his schoolwork before they do anything romantic. what were you expecting. To start with, I've read both volumes, and I'd have to say it is absolutely necessary to read Volume 2 to truly enjoy this manga. The characters are well portrayed, and that's what makes the story worth reading. As for the story, something I found particularly enjoyable about it is the way the balance of power is shifted from expectations. For those who enjoyed (or didn't quite) this manga, I also recommend: Loveless (soft-core shonen ai-ish, dark/twisted relationships).Kizuna - Bonds of Love (hard-core yaoi, difficulties facing an established relationship).
As with any truly good yaoi manga, the story is more about the emotional aspect of the relationship than the sex. It's about a love forbidden on two different levels. All I can say is, yeah it's kind of a dark story. The translation is awkward at times, but if you take the spirit of what they're saying rather than the exact words it doesn't impede the story. A lot of reviews talk about the illicit nature of the relationship depicted.
(The series is complete with Volume 2). "Passion" is a very complicated story in which almost all of your first perceptions of the central relationship are eventually challenged. .There really isn't anything else I can say about that, except that you get used to it. The sex is on the less explicit side of explicit; that is to say, the artist relies on angles to obscure all the "important" stuff and subscribes to the "vague outline" school of drawing when it becomes necessary. As others have said the translation of honorifics is clumsy.
Not to mention Hikaru throws "sir" into his speech at the most irrelevent times ("I could imagine it was painful, sir"). Before you're through the 1st volume, you'll already have stopped caring.Rape is a common occurance in yaoi manga, and there is usually a lot of deep angst or emotion involved in it, from one or both people involved. and you're truly desperate for more, I'd pass on this one. But it's okay, Shima doesn't seem overly upset.
and he must then make it up to him by "play-acting" as his lover, and also by maintaining a high GPA (don't even ask). But unless you've already bought the many better-quality yaoi manga that are now available in the U.S. I have been a fan of yaoi (gay-themed manga) since before it became popular in the U.S., so I used to just take whatever I could get. Unfortunately, this is the first manga I bought that taught me that just because it's yaoi, doesn't mean it's gonna be good. There's none of that in "Passion". Now if that's not true love, then I don't know what is.
And to top it all off, the sex scenes aren't even very impressive.This is definitely one-star yaoi, but I give it two stars because "Passion" is still better than a lot of sappy shoujo manga out there that manage to be twice as unbelievable and melodramatic as this is. Like any good teacher, he just criticizes Hikaru for doing it wrong and tells him to "think about what you should do to make up for what you've done today." Okay, I know yaoi isn't supposed to be realistic, but "Passion" asked me to suspend my disbelief way too much. We never find out why Shima or Hikaru act in the bizarre ways they do (volume 2 attempts to offer some belated explanations, but fails). The language sounds dry at best, but it's often so awkward and unnatural that it made me wince. Hikaru just raped him because he loves him so much. There are some side plots and additional characters that add length, particularly in the 2nd final volume, but they supply nothing in entertainment value.In addition to all that, the English translation is horrible. The main premise of this story is that Hikaru, a high school student, rapes Shima, one of his teachers (on the very first page).
It isn't that they act out of character, it's more that they don't have "character" to begin with. He even blurts out "Will you marry me." right afterwards. Will Shima ever decide to become Hikaru's "real" lover. Really.
So if you are a true Yaoi Fan get it but if you only collect the good stuff, pass by this one. The art didn't catch me and neither did the story. After all, two of the main characters get girlfriends and that's not my cup of tea when I prefer reading boys boinking. Another of DMP's Yaoi Manga, it's not like most Yaoi Manga having the teacher as the Uke and the student as the Seme. It wasn't necessarily DMP's fault for my low rating of this Yaoi Manga but it simply the fact was I disliked it.
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