STORY
Hmm...well, when I first started reading this one I didn't really think I'd like it too much. I have a general aversion to yaoi where the first sexual encounter between the main characters is coerced &/or forced - which is exactly what happens here. Nevertheless, I kept reading and was happily surprised to find the uke's reason's for remaining with the seme afterwards to be almost plausible (something else that doesn't happen too often.) There were also a couple of other twists that deviated from the norm in this type of story which were pleasant surprises, but I'll let you discover those for yourself. ;)

ART
The art is classically yummy and I especially enjoyed Yuuya's ability to draw faces/facial expressions. Something else that impressed me was her techniques for drawing older characters - so often in manga they just wind up looking...unfinished, but that's definitely not the case here. With that said, I will admit that the art wasn't perfect. Sometimes it felt like the manga-ka was being sloppy when drawing the "low interest" panels; the lines don't seem as clean and everything is a bit more sketchy. But these are mild flaws in an otherwise highly appealing style.

CHARACTER
The characters start out pretty two dimensional, with the seme and the uke acting exactly like you'd expect them to. However, this uke has a bit more fire than you might expect and instead of the seme seeing it as an obstacle to overcome, he uses it to his advantage. While they really don't grow too much over the course of the story, it's fun to see them interacting with each other. I only have two small complaints - 1)The sister just disappears...what happened to her? 2)Iwao-san should have had more "screen time".

ENJOYMENT
There are a few things that deviate from the norm in this story - I won't give anything away, but that's what made reading this one enjoyable for me - those little unexpected plot twists. The romantic scenes could have been a little better...but not much. ;) And the art, of course, was pure eye candy, which is always a treat!

OVERALL
Interesting story, gorgeous art, compelling characters and some fun plot developments. I'll happily be keeping this one on my shelf for future re-reading. ( )

Endless Rain is a disappointing volume. It might have worked better if the story was split into two or three volumes, but as it is now, all the plot points are cramped together and a lot of integral details are left out.

The story starts off with Akira's mother's death. Akira and his younger brother Nao are in a bad situation now. Even though Akira has a job, they'll be living alone on a meager income and Nao is blind and so has special needs. A srange man brings Nao to Akira at the hospital to see their mother one last time. It is raining.

At the funeral, a lot of relatives are worried about how Akira and Nao will live on after this and Akira assures them that they will be fine. They all talk about how Jun'ichirou Kasuga, Akira's father, left Akira and his family because Akira was an illegitimate child. Near the end of the funeral, a messanger from Jun'ichirou Kasuga, Kyouya Hyougami, arrives to deliver money for funeral costs. Akira hates Kyouya because Kyouya is his father's employee, but Nao really likes him so Akira tries not to let his hatred show too much. It is raining.

Kyouya forces Akira and Nao to come live with Kasuga, and Kasuga puts him in charge of the two brothers. Akira sees more of Kyouya's bad sides when Kyouya makes Akira have sex with him so Nao can go to a good school. The company Kyouya is in charge of also buys out the company Akira was previously working with and the hospital that Akira and Nao usually go to. Akira is pissed, but Kyouya offers to give the hospital employees jobs at another place if Akira has more sex with him, so Akira agrees.

In addition to the fact that there is so much of this forced sex to make you choke, there's absolutely no plausible or believable plot to pad it with. Kyouya only rapes Akira because he loves him? Why does he love him? We never find out. Then Akira begins falling for Kyouya because he sees Kyouya acting nice and concerned on a few occassions. Still, that is a very few occassions. Kyouya is an all-around jerk who uses any means necessary to achieve his end. He doesn't care about other people, aside from Akira because he loooves Akira. And suddenly he wants to ruin Jun'ichirou Kasuga and put Akira in his place as chairman. Since when is Akira qualified for a chairman position? There's a lot of other little unexplained threads throughout this story, such as how suddenly everyone agrees with Kyouya and wants Akira as chairman even though they don't even know him, and how Kyouya manages to survive a fatal wound, or why/how Yuuichirou (Akira's half brother and Jun'ichirou's legitimate heir) became insane. There's also that cheesy part about how it's always raining when Kyouya is around. What would make it slightly less cheesy was if the endless rain represented Akira's tumultous situation in life and how a lot of things are out of his control. Instead the rain represents Kyouya.

Nevertheless, there are some good aspects of this manga. I know why Endless Rain was licensed and it sure wasn't because of the story. The art is phenomenal and it's obvious just from the front cover. Yuuya draws like a lot of shoujo manga artists, and gives her characters really big teary eyes. But unlike a lot of shoujo manga artists, her characters have full, pouty, sexy lips. I like her style of exaggerating the features. It's very appealing! I just hope she comes up with better storylines in the future. Or take more time with the ones she does come up with and pace it out better so she can add in more details instead of leaving loose ends and plot holes all over the place. ( )