Octave

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Life is complicated and confusing, especially when you realize you, as a girl, like girls; and this manga portrays that perfectly.

The inner conflict the main character goes through about being with a woman without having been with a man is something I think a lot of lesbians can relate to and it's incredibly realistic in it's execution. The relationship between the two leads is tumultuous and that's one of the reasons I like this manga so much. They are confused by their own feelings, for yukino she's discovering herself which makes a relationship even harder to maintain when you have so many questions about ... yourself, and yet they pull through because they love each other. Overall it depicts a very mature and realistic romance between two women trying to figure themselves out. Altough I do love that Setsuko (and Yukino after a bit) is very confident in her identity, It's refreshing to see lesbianism explicitly adressed in a yuri while not being conflicting, shameful or even hurtful for the character.

About other aspects of this manga, I would describe de atmosphere as melancholic, also something I love. I say this because some of the main character's dreams don't come true within the 6 volumes but because of that, it makes it easy for the reader to imagine their life beyond what we've read, something I think is lacking in A LOT of romance mangas and that I really appreciate. It's also a good delator of the idol scene in Japan. I will say while I loved the story development and the ending, I think at times it went a bit fast and I would've loved to read more of this. But I recommend this wholeheartedly and it is a very welcome change of pace from high-school romance yuris, as much as I love that genre!

P.S: If you're looking for other more mature girl love stories (and I'm not saying explicit) I really highly recommend ottona ni nattemo as well.

I was searching for a manga to read, and then, after reading many "top 10 shoujo-ai manga" lists, I decided to start the manga "Octave".

A "raw" image of life.


Story
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The story focuses on Yukino, a former idol in the Japanese music industry. After the end of her musical career in a girl's band, who's success was short, she is 18, without the necessary education, as she dropped out of high-school to fulfill her dreams, trying to survive in Tokyo. She still has a job in the industry as an assistant, but her life is not that easy. Yukino has always been "against" -in a ... way- men. She has always considered them manipulating beings whose's minds are only in sexual relationships. One day, while being at a laundry shop, she meets a girl -the owner's sister- and her life changes drastically. Suddenly, after having an intimate night with that girl, whose name is Setsuko, every part of her life takes a big turn. The manga talks deeply about so many things. It talks about success, about the industry and gives the audience a very realistic view of life. It shows that dreams don't always come true and that success is not guaranteed even if you really want it and try hard. It also talks deeply about sexuality, confusion, struggling in finding your true identity. The main character goes through so many different things and truly gives you a raw image of life. As a teenager, while one would believe life is easy and that this manga is exaggerating, I truly disagree. The problems the characters face are a part of life and reading this manga could easily make you be more realistic and down-to-earth without meaning that it makes you less optimistic and hopeful. I found the story very good. The development was more than enough. It covered many issues and as I have never really read anything like this before, I was truly amazed and impressed. It is a slice of life manga and shows the everyday difficulties one has to deal with. I remember there were few times when I skipped some pages just because I was tired of reading about her past in such detail, but in general, the story was quite interesting and anything but boring. There are a few sexual scenes but nothing too sexual. This is not a hentai in any way. As for the ending, I was very pleased with it. I wanted that to happen for a while and I am happy the author did it and presented it in such way.



Art
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I did not really like the artstyle. Its very simple and although simple doesn't always mean bad, this was not good. The characters didn't have the art I would have liked to see.


Character
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As I previously said, there is a lot of development. The main two characters get the most of course. The side-characters barely get any development to be honest. But that is not bad, as it wasn't really important or needed for the story. Yukino's character does evolve, but throughout the story I just couldn't get myself to like her. She was a bad character to me. She always made the same mistakes, she was not as loving as she should be, she was ashamed of who she was, although I personally believe you should be exactly who you are and if others don't like you, then just move on, and to put it in simple terms - she was a really antipathetic character. I would have never been able to be friends with a person like her. I constantly found myself face palming to her actions. Setsuko from the other side, was a great character. We see her character change as she becomes more and more loving and sensitive to the point where you truly admire her love for Yukino. She is a great musician, with perseverance. She is a very strong character, with flaws but always very nice and fun to be around. I really don't get how the two of them end up falling in love, but I guess this is also a true part of life, and shows that love is truly blind.



Enjoyment
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I really enjoyed this manga series. It was a different experience and made me reconsider many things in my life. It made me see more clearly that success isn't easy to reach and that sometimes the career you choose is not really what you are meant to do. So, while reading the manga, I was thinking and in-a-way taking a lesson in life.


Overall
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Octave is a great manga. I am not just limiting it to just a great shoujo-ai manga, because what it offers is truly much more. Its not just a nice and realistic romantic story. It is, as I already said couple of times, a raw image of life. I highly recommend anyone to give it a try.




Story - 7/10
Art - 5/10
Character - 7/10
Enjoyment - 7/10
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Overall - 7/10

Proof to me there’s nothing exciting in the Yuri genre. After all, Octave was just another drama with no merit what so ever. Sure it might be hailed for its realistic representation of a same sex relation, but does it make actually better? Author Haru Akiyama had dozen possibilities to venture the ground of Yuri at an interesting level, but instead she stubbornly decided to remain in the same circle of drama over and over again after each volume.

What I mean by having no merit is that the story itself doesn’t push itself any further when it should have. Simply put, Setsuko and Yukino ... will often be in a fight for various reasons such as misunderstandings, jealousy, “do you love me or love me not?” or “let’s move together”. Quite so, nothing here is a situation that a normal couple wouldn’t have. Don’t get me wrong, I do admit that a same sex couple will have the same problems as any couple in the world, but my problem is how the manga actually deals with dilemmas directly related to lesbianism. The author did dare to venture carefully into some subjects such as what would the others think or the impossibility of having children. Yet, these problems are simply put aside to bring us another uninteresting and dull dramatic situation. After the last volume, it really shows how much nothing really happened in Octave other than awesome sex scenes. That is not surprising since the characters never had the chance to be well developed and never had the possibility to push the story into something enjoyable.

The characters of Octave lacked the depth that this manga actually needed. To put it in simple words, the couple of this manga were after all straighter than a fast lane. This shows a lot when almost everything in the manga relies on their relationship. Sure their relationship progressed in a realistic way, but there has to be something more than that. I admit that the author did develop the characters individually, but it was either rushed or completely uninteresting. After all, Yukino would be the most well developed character of the two since the manga is told from her perspective, which is to my eye the biggest problem that this manga had. Since she always hides from her problem and almost refuses any form of communication, Setsuko is still as mysterious as she was in the beginning. I am not against characters with a lack of confidence, but in this case it was more a burden than anything else. As for the side characters, let’s just say that they don’t really matter other than giving the story more chapters.

For having average characters, there is also an average artwork to support it. However, unlike the characters, there’s nothing wrong with the art since I actually think it’s the one reason that made this manga an easy read.

In the end, some may scratch their head and still wonder what the whole point of Octave is. Actually, it is nothing more than your typical SOAP, but even though, that is not a reason to ignore this manga after all. More precisely, the drama lovers will appreciate this manga since it is an easy read and it is relatively short. The male audience can also find a liking since there’s a lot of lesbian sex scenes. And as we all know, men totally approves of this.

As for me, let’s say I wasn’t the target audience.