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Written by Jen Parker
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Monday, 26 November 2007 |
Dash! (See YaoiWiki Entry)
Review through volume 1, no spoilers.
Sex rating: R
Art: A-
Story: B+
Action: B-
OVERALL: B+
Dash! is good, but a bit of a Tease! if you ask me.
| Dash! is sort of an unusual BL manga in that it contains not just one story, and not four or five shorts, but two stories. I guess the uniting theme would be a slightly stodgy, earnest seme and a tricksy uke. |  |
The first (and main) story is about a high school freshman / newbie judo club member Akimoto, who attended Miya High specifically to follow a high school judo champ he admires, Saitou. The fox-eyed Saitou is happy to take advantage of Akimoto's adoration by making him into a menial servant.
As they get to know each other, Akimoto keeps screwing up in a fashion that reveals weaknesses and other layers of Saitou's character, which makes me like him a lot. Akimoto's kinda eh himself, though...just very sweet and earnest. And horny.
The second story features a college basketball player and his troubled 17-year-old playboy cousin who decides to move in. I'm sure I hardly need to explain how that goes.
There's nothing amazingly unique about the stories, but I have to say, I really like Natsume-sensei's ukes. Both Saitou and the cousin, Youshirou, have a lot of little complexities to them that are also fairly realistic, and they're also just mischevious and naughty. ♥ The semes are both very stolid, good-hearted guys...the older cousin, Taka, is kinda stodgy. Nothing too interesting about them.
So I really liked how relatable the stories were, but I did think there were some pacing oddities. The Akimoto/Natsume story felt like it cut off a bit; I felt a little jarred when it moved into another story. (There is an omake involving them at the end though.) Also, it felt like the characters' relationships in both stories jumped a couple of times. In the Akimoto/Natsume story it felt like the initial hurdle of one guy really liking another guy was leapt over awfully quick. As for Taka/Youshirou, I felt it concluded a little fast.
My other complaint is that the make outs are awfully sexy, but not actually sex scenes. I know, I know, it's easy to dismiss this as "eh, Jen always wants more porn in her stuff," but the kisses were so immensely hot that I definitely felt like I wanted more than that...but the book just doesn't go there.
Mangaka: Natsume Isaku
Publisher: (Upcoming Releases | YaoiWiki Entry)
MSRP: $12.95
Censorship: N/A
Warnings: Incest (cousins).
Disclaimer: This was a free review copy, courtesy of Juné. |
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 25 November 2007 )
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(1) Discuss on the forums.