Apparently, 'Takumi-Kun' is a series of boy's love novels published in Japan, and the manga is based on this series. The manga story begins in the *middle* of the novel series, though - no doubt because that's where the 'yaoi' portion of the story begins. Unfortunately, this makes the story in the manga really confusing for anyone who hasn't read the novels - and since they're not available in English, that will probably be most of us!

The manga's first 19 pages are taken up by an explanation of what happened in the novels up to the point where the manga begins. It sounds like an interesting story that I'd like to read - but we only get a very brief synopsis. A lot of characters are introduced, with a short explanation of how they fit into the novels' storyline - but, since most of them never appear in the manga (at least not in this volume) I found this introduction confusing and mostly unnecessary.

The first chapter after the introduction dives right into the story - Takumi's new roommate Gui, having declared his love for Takumi, is challenged by another student and they 'duel' each other in a sports contest. At this point, I didn't know the characters, didn't understand their motivations, and the duel was uninteresting to me.

I gave this manga three stars, though, because in the second chapter, the story starts to come together. Gui goes home for Golden Week with a friend, they spend a lot of time talking, and we begin to understand who he is and what his motivations are. Then, in the third chapter, we finally get to know Takumi, his background, and the source of his emotional problems. This portion of the story is quite good and even a bit heartbreaking.

The artwork throughout is nice - the characters are attractive and distinctive, and the yaoi elements are handled tastefully.

So, although the first 75 pages are confusing, the rest of the book is not bad - I recommend it to yaoi fans willing to take the time to sort out who's who.

B.Anne also recommended: Passion, Time Lag,
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