Barairo no Hoho no Koro

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Pity that there has yet to be a review...don't mind if i do. Nakamura-San can really summon up some of the darkest facets of life and drag you right in and this manga is no exception. I particularly enjoyed this manga of hers because of the way she elicits drama out of her characters. The relationships constantly alter throughout this manga and uncertainty lingers page after page. The dramatic style of her writing complements her impeccable line-work, drawing out every ounce of emotion she can from each character so you can not only feel their pain through the story but you can see it written ... all over their face. (how many puns did I just unintentionally crank out?)

I enjoyed Morgan as a character, I feel that his father being the head of the school adds a little twist to help display how little he cares about the world around him and aids the reader to show the progression of him beginning to care about Paul and his own struggles. Paul is clearly a cold character up until the reveal when he reads his fathers old letters, so I enjoy that we see various sides to her characters.

Artistically, Nakamura-sans work was very unusual to me and I did not enjoy many of her faces, but as you continue to read her works you realize everything in undeniably intentional. Of course in manga we love to see the perfect elegant "pretty" tears from glossy eyed characters but in Nakamura-sans case she gives us the raw unleashed emotions and disheveled characters scrambling to keep their lives and wits together.

Factors I was not so pleased about was actually the fact that it took so long in this manga to reveal a large plot point, about the letters that were sent to Paul from his father, it took a while to get to and then progressed too quickly for me to digest how the drama built so quickly, but thats a Nakamura charm and although you may read her work and not like how it made you feel by the end, I believe she intended that and you are left thinking about it for quite some time after you read.

I don't have the words for it, I don't read much manga, but this was one of the first ones and it ended up disappointing me. The beginning was promising and suddenly the "bomb" broke down terribly. What a disappointment, what a bad romance. I don't recommend anyone to read it, but if you want to see what this experience really is like, it's only 6 chapters. The art is incredibly wonderful, perfect.


Synopsis:

Paul, a serious honor student, meets the violent and rebellious Morgan in their all-boys school. What follows is a story of the struggles of youth and painful but powerful self-discovery.

This is a prequel ... to the series J no Subete, involving Paul and another boy named "J."

Spoilers free. In short: don't read this manga. It's horrible.
Why? I keep asking myself that too! Why does it exist? The famous art style doesn't help the situation. With Nakamura Asumiko's name you read the manga expecting good things to happen but they don't. Instead, silly and unreasonable things keep piling up.
What to expect from this manga: good art style, unreasonable characters and ridiculous situations, whoring shown in a good light, pedophilia shown in a good light, suicide taken lightly, stupid things said about the holocaust. A bit too much for only six chapters... But it was supposed to be all serious and dramatic and ... deep, eh, Nakamura Asumiko-san? It was published as a prequel to J no Subete three years after JnS was. Makes you think...