Georges is a real-life "angel," a blonde boy who likes everyone and hates no one and treats everyone the same-- even dark slacker transfer student Robert. But Robert, along with Georges friend Henri and even-newer transfer student Freddy, get tired of George treating everyone the same-- especially since he also always keeps them at arm's length.

This title is a rare one for DMP in that it's both a long series (I know there are at least 7 volumes in Japan) and is decidedly darker in tone than your average DMP title-- when Robert is in a good mood, he comments on wanting to break through Georges' wall of Ubernice. When he's in a darker mood, he talks of defiling Georges like deflowering a virgin. Unfortunately, that's almost as far as the BL goes.

La Esperança is definitely a yaoi-- they have the yaoi banner at the volume and volume 3 is under the Juné imprint. It couldn't be set in a better place-- an all-boys Catholic school in France. And the boys are so, so pretty. So where the hell is all the boy-on-boy action? All we get is ONE kiss, in volume 1, and lots of flirting and hinting at crushes. That's the grand sum total to date.



Well, okay-- there's a side story at the end of volume 2 that involves an unrequited but very much open and admitted crush that's boy/boy. But there's also a het couple in the side story. Does that mean they cancel out?

It's a total shame too, because while mangaka Kawai Chigusa's art is probably a bit too frilly/pretty for some peoples' tastes, it's really, really nice. (Though oddly, the quality of the art seemed to go down a bit after volume 1...go figure.)

It's a good story, definitely. Being a longer series, the mangaka is able to set up a complex, multilayered story, and perhaps more importantly, complex and multilayered characters! Yes, the characters actually develop and change throughout the volumes. And I'm really curious as to how the story will turn out.

But...if what you want is sex and/or romance, this is definitely NOT the title for you, at least as of volume 3.

Mangaka: Kawai Chigusa
Censorship: Completely unnecessary.
Warnings: Catholic high school boys...with minimal hormones. WTF?!