Bikke

This volume deals with Rael and Alexi studying abroad in Hannes' country, first about Alexi dealing with the prospect of Rael leaving him, then (after of course deciding to go together) with their first day of school in another country. Most of the last half of the volume is then a flashback to Alexi's father's time in the same country many years ago with his partner Gil, when he met Alexi's mother.

The first chapter here is most like those from the first volume, dealing pretty Rael and Alexi's partnership/bond with one another. The later chapters, however, move focus from the both of them to Alexi as he meets his mother, and then to Floran. As this series is pretty much BL, you might think the Floran chapters are a way of showing him in a romantic relationship with a woman as a device to explore his relationship with Gil, the chapters really are about Floran's relationship with Alexi's mother. Gil of course does have some input on the happenings, but their relationship isn't really explored any more. Alexi's mother is likable, though, and the focus change isn't bad so much as just different. Still, I'd noticed earlier Gil and Floran aren't as mushy completely obsessed with one another as some characters in this series (which while cute, can get a little boring), so I was looking forward to seeing more of their relationship, and was sad we didn't get to.

This volume continues the old pattern of exploring the 'world' it's created here by using the lives and experiences of the characters, but it doesn't do it quite to the degree of the first. The 'what happens when partners may need to split' was dealt with in the last volume, and the 'dealing with being in another culture' part is pretty short. After that it seemed like there was potential to look at 'romantic relationships with someone besides your partner,' but instead it mostly focuses on the relationship of Floran and Ilse, mostly just for what it was. We do get a little bit of a feel for what might happen to a baby born in such a situation.

For storytelling this volume actually might be stronger than the first, but if you're in it just for the boy kissing or even the world exploration, you might be a tad disappointed. Frankly that's what I'm in it for, but enjoyed it fine, actually, even if I did miss the absence.… (more)

I came to this manga, like many it seems, because it was from the mangaka of Shinkuu Yuusetsu. It's been a while since I've read this, so the details may be a little off, but this story is about the Baku Rin and his two associates. They seem to be old, formerly human creatures who've lost their memories, living off eating the nightmares of humans. They travel in to the subject's dream, fight the nightmare, and are rewarded with a little black ball which they drop into jars and store in their pantry. Yum. Only pure nightmares are edible, however, and... I vaguely recall some evilish people who caused the non-yummyish kind of dreams, and seem to have a thing against the Baku.

Shinkuu Yuusetsu wasn't the greatest manga in the world, but it had a nice focus on atmosphere and world building that you just don't see in a lot of manga. Plus it was BL, with an art style that while not all that stunning, was cute while still being very distinguishable from most other BL art. So what I saw when I heard of Baku was the possibility of a manga with the good things about Shinkuu, plus a little more punch where plot and action were concerned. I was very much looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to have been disappointed by Baku, and I'm one of them. One more optimistic reviewer said what one needs to do when they read this manga is NOT compare it to SY. People wanted a world just like the one in SY, they didn't get it, and they were upset. But I wasn't expecting SY, was almost hoping for something different, actually, and simply wanted something executed as well as SY, and this wasn't really. The plot was a few isolated stories of people with bad dreams they helped, with the evil guys hanging around the corners manipulating things a bit and being foreboding. The characters were pretty uninteresting, though Rin has that standoffish, secretive type personality that might make it fun to pick his brain, he has no one to play off of to stir that part of him up (of the other two main characters, one is rather simple comic-relief type, the other a sort of mild, pleasant, inoffensive woman). The characters seem strangely detached from one another for people who have to live and work together. That could make for something interesting to explore about them, but the story doesn't seem to be leaning that way at all. The art is pretty much the same as in SY, but there the low variability in character designs, while unfortunate, didn't detract too much as each chapter only focused on 2-4 people. Baku takes in a bit more, and while it never really gets hard to tell people apart, it hurts the look overall. As for BL, obviously it's not in that genre, but it's not 'slashy' as you may have expected either.

At the same time, it's pretty inoffensive (and I'm often easily riled up by the many and varied little annoyances and cliches of manga), and I can't help but think I'll try the second volume if it comes out, just to see if it improves. Originally, I used to think, 'Well, at least the idea's interesting,' till I found out that Baku are just a normal part of Japanese folklore. ...Actually, now I'm even more disappointed, as not only was this not her idea, but it seems as if she made some things LESS interesting than they were in the original stories. Aaah.… (more)

This manga is about a country where people have to exchange power through kissing to survive ^_^; When very young, they are paired up (usually male/female pairs, but same sex isn't all that uncommon) with the person they will exchange power with for the rest of their life (one giving, one receiving). This story centers around a certain boarding school and a few of the different 'couplings' in it. It's actually less mushy and romantic than it sounds. Though it's naturally mostly about the relationships of the couplings, the world and the participants view of their situation gets set up very well (though it's mostly kept pretty simple), and we even get to see things like how foreigners see them, and what happens when pairs are separated for a time, or one dies.

The couplings are actually a little less interesting than the world. They're sweet (more in actions than in words, which was cute), but not much else. At first the main pair appear a little distant from each other (a little strange for people who've been together for so long), which made them seem possibly a litte more complex and intriguing, but in the end of course they are just kind of in denial of how close they really are, which is to be expected. But it got resolved so early on it seemed like an awful waste. And then they spent the rest of the time beign undestatedly sweet to each other, just like the rest, heheh. The characters never identify their relationships as anything more than close friendships. It's just very suggestive that they ought to. ^^

It really actually wasn't bad (even for me who doesn't like a whole lot of pure sweetness, which is probably an accomplishment), it just would have been nice if they could have developed or run around a bit more with this neat world they created and strung out the tension they made in the relationships a bit longer than perhaps this one volume would have allowed. This could have been really neat if it were a longer running series, I think. As it is though, it's still very nice if you's like to see sweet without being uber-mushy, and a rather simple and harmelss but very nicely made fantasy-esk world.

EDIT: This is the reprint, with a different cover and NO furigana. Everything else is the same. A second volume also came out. Haven't read it yet, but I doubt the second volume will be enough to change my opinion of the first.… (more)