Story: We have a hate to love relationship between a guy coming from the countryside moving to tokyo and a guy having always lived in the city. Many typical yaoi tropes in there, so nothing really new. Also I read this manga a few times before requesting already so I knew the story. But it's still cute, simple, fast to read. I finished a streak of exam days today and this was just easy to read and calming. Also I like when the uke/bottom is a cute, small guy so when they hug you get the feeling of the seme/top acting as a guard. Espcecially in light and kinda fast stories like these where we don't get a lot of deep relationship developement. Also they're the kind of teasing each other couple, which I think is really cute (also my relationships never work like that). Yeah so average story but it gave me what I usually desire when reading yaoi just for fun, smut and fluff.
4/5

Art: The art was simple and average I would say. Not extremely detailed or remarkable characters or artstyle. The quality of the digital version was sadly slightly bad. I was able to read smaller comments because the were too blurry. Also it was dertailed enough to enjoy all the scenes.
3.5/5

It sounds like a short OVA episode of hardcore yaoi story ... No, not so hardcore, because there is only one "more dangerous scene". In the BL genre, the title would have won more if the characters had been developed in more detail in more chapters. They are beautiful, but by nature the playboy irritates me. For fans of the genre can be seen not very strong manga. It seems to me that they are used to more developed stories, or at least they prefer them. However, you may like it. I like the genre, but I don't understand all its subtleties :D

First of all I would like to thank every party that made it possible for me to receive this arc.

Sadly, I did not enjoy this manga as much as I would have liked. The stereotype of the pumpkin guy came too strong and were a bit ridiculous. I can understand being "lost" in the way of behaving in a big city like Tokyo. But he was too naive, being in uni and not knowing what a condom is, is really weird.

The neighbour gave me mixed feelings, once he was asking for consent if he could kiss the guy but the next time he was touching him without asking ? Although I love the fact that he's afraid of insects and extremely vocal about it.

The drawings are very pretty and the mimics of the characters are very cute. But the characters and the story was not really for me.

I received a copy of this manga through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

So it was yaoi in its full glory…I didn’t quite expect to be this mature but hey, we’re all grown-ups here…😋
I liked some of the characters, especially granny and the granny-like friend. 🥰
I also don’t mind smut when it’s actually sexy and not toxic. It was hotly drawn but it was problematic. The consent was most of the time hazy and at one point it even was due to roofies…Consent is everything and hesitation means you should wait with your advances…🙄

This was a fun manga for the most part! I liked the dynamic between the two main characters and how well they complimented each other despite growing up so differently. I also liked the inclusion of Kyouhei's grandmother and she offered some nice comedic relief. I will say that the consent was not great and it would have added a lot more to the story if it was improved.

Cute story, decent artwork. Nothing particularly new or exciting, but the characters are fairly likeable. Won't go at the top of my BL list but it's certainly not at the bottom either.

*The ARC of this book was provided by NetGalley and TOKYOPOP, LOVE x LOVE in exchange of an honest review*

The translation wasn't good. Takara was hot. I didn't like how he was behaving with Kyou! Kyou was really adorable when he tried to put Takara in his place. However, there should've been a trigger warning. Now I didn't mind those scenes but some people have reservations.

I've read better graphic novels. Just an okay read.


Trigger Warnings : Attempted Rape, Graphical Sexual Scenes

DRC provided by TOKYOPOP, LOVE x LOVE via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Representation: queer protagonist and secondary characters.

Content Warning: violence, attempted rape, classism.

I'm Looking for Serious Love! by Shoko Rakuta is a contemporary manga centring the blooming relationship between a timid eighteen-year-old country boy who just moved to Tokyo and his next-door neighbour who happens to be his senior at university as well.

It has been quite some time since I last read a manga, so when I got accepted for this one, I was happy. My interest piqued firstly, and mostly, because of the art style. When it comes to manga, I am always visuals first and story later. I cannot manage to read a good story with artworks I do not enjoy, but the opposite is feasible. Sadly, this story was only passable (a tad cliché and I am not okay with how boundaries were crossed) and the drawings were the one compelling selling point. Still, I hope I get to review more manga in the future because I missed the medium.

This was a pretty typical bl manga. Plot was pretty basic and short. It was just alright. There was some pretty good spicy scenes but also a confrontation where it was leading to SA but that wasn't between the main character and love interest.

This felt so messy and unorganised, I could barely follow along. Maybe it’s just me, I’m not sure but I DNF’d this at 20%.

I thought this book was a fun, short read. It's definitely not for everyone and I can understand the criticisms but for someone who is used to reading boys' love and unrealistic scenarios, I found this one to be more enjoyable. I've already read the ebook of this particular manga before but it was a delight reading it again.

I am unsure if it because this is a one-shot so everything is moving so fast, but I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I love one-shots because everything gets addressed and resolved pretty quickly. However, I feel like this manga was trying to get a multi-volume story with all these characters into one volume and so it ends up moving in such a rushed pace that you have a hard time feeling sympathetic to some characters and/or believing some of the relationships that they present. Especially one of the main characters. I honestly don't know anything about the guy. If there is a second volume to this series I may take a gander at it, but as a singular volume, there is much missing.

I'm Looking for Serious Love! was an okay manga. It follows a typical city-boy-meets-country-boy trope and is thus fairly predictable in terms of plot, but the artwork is good. There's plenty of dub-con here, though, including an incident of drink spiking, so that's not going to appeal to everyone, but if that kind of plot line in BL manga doesn't worry you, it's a fun and quick read. Just be aware that the story does gloss over the issues and is not as cutesy as the cover suggests. It gets three stars from me.

One of my favourite tropes in any type of romcom media—manga, novels, tv, etc.—is in the same vein as enemies to lovers, but not quite at that antagonistic level. It’s the terrible first impression! I just adore a cute love story that starts with the protagonists having the wrong idea about each other, and that is exactly what happens in I’m Looking for Serious Love! by Shoko Rakuta.
Overall I enjoyed this manga. It’s very cute and the two main characters, Kyouhei and Takara, were super funny and likable. I’m also a sucker for a manwhore redeemed by the clueless virgin, especially in BL. However, it was nice to see that type of narrative, but with a virgin who wasn’t afraid to stand up for themselves. Kyouhei let it be known when he was not pleased, especially where Takara was concerned.
While the story was good, I have to say that I wish it had lingered more on some of the plot points. It felt like it breezed past some major events, like the party and the entire situation with Kyouhei’s childhood friend. Instead it felt like the random encounters between the two main characters were stretched out more, which got a little repetitive because they usually ended with Kyouhei freaking out and thinking Takara was making fun of him. However, stand out—the art was fantastic! I love Shoko Rakuta’s drawing style.
I’m a little upset that as far as I can tell, this is a one-shot. I wish that we were getting a volume two, because this story doesn’t feel super complete, but it is enjoyable. I would certainly recommend it if you’re looking for a quick read.

An appealing art style can't compensate a run of the mill plot and characterisation, especially when the main character seems just to breeze through all kind of harassment into the arms of the very source of a lot of the boundary crossing

I'm Looking for Serious Love! has an appealing art style and cute story, but in my view is marred by a lot of involuntary groping and even spiking of drinks.
Kyouhei Miyazawa moves into an apartment in Tokyo (kind of an utopia in premise already) to attend college and meets cool guy Tomohiro Takara who is just breaking up with a one night stand.
Soon he pranks Kyouhei (who is too gullible to be believable) by giving him strawberry flavoured condoms when the former asks for candy. That all borders on asshole despite also being hilarious from a certain angle, but then we move into sexual harassment much territory. Apparently as long as there is no penetration anything goes seemingly, even worse when a spiking of drinks leads to someone being carried over a back home, all wasted.

Things get even more icky when a childhood friend pops up out of the blue, we get confessions of childhood sexual exploration and we end up with someone almost being blackmailed with video footage. Everything is seemingly accepted without much of a beat by the main character, maybe an overdoses of a pure heart does that to one...

The personalities of the characters are very thin, I could not tell you what ever of them is supposed to study, what family Tomohiro comes from, what their hobbies are or aspirations after graduation. Boys love comics with a cool douche guy turning out to have a heart of gold and a softhearted innocent love interest are 13 in a dozen, and need something special (not overly much involuntary sexual innuendos and more, please) to differentiate themselves and rise above the genre in my view.

** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK FOR MY READING PLEASURE **
Copy received through Netgalley

~

I'm Looking for Serious Love, by Shoko Takuta
★★☆☆☆
208 Pages
Content Warning: mentions a spiked drink, implied sexual assault, grooming, and emotional blackmail


While I could have enjoyed the story, it was lacking in quite a few areas. The story needed more expansion and exploration, more character development and less glossing over the serious issues. Kyou is naive and sheltered, while Takara is an arrogant jerk who is never serious. Kyou's friend, Murachin, was awesome, but the attempt to make Granny special and funny failed, for me. The best friend from the country, Yuuta was a total creep, giving flashbacks of manipulating and practically grooming Kyou.

Storywise, I felt like everything was really sudden. From strangers to Takara groping at Kyou. Later, despite knowing Kyou is either drunk or suffering from a spiked drink, Takara takes advantage of the situation for more groping, insisting it will make him feel better. The oldest story in the book.

The story rushed the physical relationship between Takara, and there is almost ZERO character development, relationship development, or chemistry between Takara and Kyou to justify their romance. Yet, saying all that, Takara was the only character I actually understood. His personality is quite common for yaoi/manga, and familiar and consistent throughout. Kyou was a flake, while everyone else seemed to feel like a pervert who didn't understand the word 'no'.

The art was nice, but sometimes too busy, and – sadly – the formatting of the copy provided by Netgalley was all over the place. I'm not even sure what happened to it, but it's showing portrait pages on a landscape screen, with pages completely out of sync. I ended up buying a copy, to be able to read it properly.

Overall, everyone was a creepy pervert, there was no growth or development, and the relationship felt forced and rushed beyond all belief. There were one or two funny moments, and Takara's honest personality was about one of the only things I liked about it, aside from the art style.

I really wanted to expand my manga horizons this year and pick up stuff I didn’t normally read to see if I liked it. So basically more contemporary type manga.
This was unfortunately a bad choice. I think some of the translation was clunky which took me out of the story but my biggest issue was the very blurred lines when it came to consent. There was even mention by a character that there is nothing worse than not getting consent from someone and then that character proceeds to not get consent from a partner. I don’t know if this was just because of the weird translation or something else but it made me uncomfortable because I feel like this was supposed to be a very cute story.

I enjoyed certain aspects of this story like the main character was so adorable and the LI being afraid of bugs but the whole thing with the best friend… just no.

I’m so thankful I got to read this early but unfortunately I didn’t enjoy it. Within a few minutes where he found the condom, I knew i’d hate it and put it down immediately. It’s too sudden and really creepy and wrong on so many levels because there’s zero consent and they just met?? I wanted to enjoy it because you don’t get to see a lot of 18+ mangas like this.

I liked this read, but it doesn't really stand out. At the same time, it's hard in one volume to stand out among all this mass of yaoi. We have here a boy who comes from the countryside, who arrives in town for his studies and who will discover a neighbour who is, at first, not very nice. The consent is a bit average, at least at the beginning. I think we can find a healthier relationship. The characters are cute and rather endearing. I liked Takara's character at the end. Overall, this is a yaoi that reads well but I won't remember the story for long. Especially since stories with non-consent are not my thing.
I recommend to those who are okey with a little forced romance.
2.5/5