Sakura-gari

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This is absolutely good. Likely the best yaoi manga I've ever read, well partly because I just can't bear nonsensical plot, characters and effortless art many can find in most yaoi manga.

Plot is very intense and dramatic, dealing with the ugliest part of individuals in terms of relationships all the while being coated with realism. It is a tragedy, a matter of sin and forgiveness, torture and comfort. Sex are not there to be drooled over, it is mostly very heart-wrenching and emotional. This storytelling is well planned, straight to the point and smooth.

Art is hands down gorgeous. 10 years in the making, they say. ... I don't read much of Watase sensei's work, but after Imadoki, Aya, Alice 19th and Fushigi Yuugi I may say that this is her best work. Details are there, very intricate, but not overpowering. Empty panels are there in the right space. Emotions are there, properly channeled. Characters are beautifully drawn (Personally my heart melts seeing Masataka smile, something I rarely experience in 2D world,) bodies proportional, and fashion lovely. Also the scenery, buildings, vehicles... I can go on and on saying how well she put history into her drawings.

Characters are no less intense, their dialogs spoken with meaning. Their development are wonderful. Through traumatic experiences, the way they seek for advice and face the cruel world (yeah this phrase's clichee,) are something worth seeing. It isn't sweet nor happy, they're unfortunate, but they deal with it.

Despite description and reviews, this manga is really romantic in the meaning which are not find today; if there is a word 'love' there, then it really means it. Hard to describe, strong enough to be felt. However after reading there's a chance you'll feel totally depressed, most people wouldn't like it, but this is a good hint that this manga is THAT good. I find it quite impossible to cut reading in the middle of the story, since it haunts my mind. If you're mature enough to open your mind and swallow the best part of this series (which is big,) I can't recommend this enough.

It is well drawn and has some really good shounen-ai poses and scenarios. But be warned, it's not cutesy. If you want Fushigi Yuugi, this is NOT it. Rather, it is very serious and graphic. No, you won't see any private parts but you will get as close as possible and its not entirely the happy kind of love-making. It's very raw. Bitter as opposed to sweet. It's a high-drama type manga.

As for some background information, it is set in what looks to be early-mid 1900's Japan. You see some very traditional relationships and buildings. I really appreciate seeing Yuu Watase taking on a serious ... art style and it turns out stunning.

As dark as it is, if you can swallow your tongue, you really start to want to know what will happen. That is what has kept me glued to this series: how will the characters develop? What will the main character ultimately feel towards the world and his past?

I say the type of person who wants to read Sakura Gari is someone who loves good art and intense characters and does not mind seeing blood, sex, etc.

With that, I hope you can decide if you want to read it. If you think my review should have included something else, mention it to me so I can rewrite it so it is helpful!

I'm sorry. Yuu Watase wrote what? That's right. She wrote yaoi. A shoujo yaoi. How does that work? (To be honest, I was confused.)

Story: Sakura Gari really is a gem. It's the first yaoi I've found in a really long time that wasn't ridiculous and oversexed with no plot to speak of whatsoever and unrealistic characters who scream out "No! Please stop!" while having sex but really want it in return (Because no means yes, obviously). There was a story here that had me reading it into the wee hours of the morning and had me thinking what a sick, twisted little thing throughout ... most of the story only to be suddenly thrown off the horse and have the waterworks turned on full blast. Because we live in a world of forgiveness, where humans show just how willing they are to love and let go.

It's obvious from that teeny little paragraph right there, that if you're looking for hot, sweaty sex between guys that can't seem to not be attracted to each other and can't seem to not do it with each other in every chapter because there isn't any thing else to do in the plot, that this really isn't the manga for you. I've read plenty of Watase-san's other works and I was seriously surprised to learn that she had published a new piece, that was mystery and twisted in my opinion but that was yaoi! I mean all I knew that she had done was shoujo and mostly about sort-of-magical girls.

Either way, this story was intriguing but also a bit graphic. I don't want to push anyone any from it, but to be brief, I believe that there should be a bit of a warning on it. Does anyone wish to mention that there is constant rape, abuse and torture present throughout the volumes? Even if it only happens when people talk about it? For some people, this may be to much for you to bear, but in the end it's something that makes the story so harshly beautiful. I believe it speaks to the harsh reality that people refuse to face every day. It's used for the purpose of the plot of the story and I believe that in the end, if you can bear through the scenes, that aren't pages upon pages long, than you will find yourself flying through it to see how it will end which I was so moved by.

Art: If you've read Watase Yuu's work before than there's no need to explain. There's nothing new here and I've never particularly cared for her work but there's nothing wrong with it either. It's clean in my opinion.

Character: I truly found these characters enjoyable. Development happens particularly only between the two main characters, but that's to be expected. They are the focus of this very short series. I believe that Tagami is a very likeable character and you'll find it very hard not to find his situation...difficult and sad and moving. Souma is a difficult character to work through in the beginning in my opinion. But just as compelling and just as heart-breaking. I really loved these two in the end.

Enjoyment: Overall, I truly enjoyed reading this. I mean, I stayed up for four hours through the night just to finish it because I had to know how it would end. And in the end I was emotional. The entire time, I was thinking this is nothing like Watase-san's other work. NOTHING like it at all. Where in the hell did this come from? But I kept on reading because I had to believe that somewhere, something good had to come of it. Through the pain and the sadness, people are forgiving creatures and I had forgotten that.

I will never regret reading this manga, and I highly recommend it.

So...I read about this on TVTropes and decided to read it on a whim. Not gonna lie, if you're expecting a sweet, fluffy shoujo romp full of warm feels and heartwarming moments, you're in the wrong place, because this manga is dark as all hell. Considering Yuu Watase, the mangaka behind manga such as Fushigi Yuugi and Ceres: Celestial Legend made this, it's honestly quite a shock. Normally, I'm not a fan of yaoi or shounen-ai, namely because many of the ones I've encountered were either too melodramatic, too silly, have weird views on romantic relationships, or pretty much have no plot and nothing else ... except sex. Thankfully, Sakura Gari avoids that one last pitfall, being a strong, gripping, complex story with many layers and mysteries behind its beautiful facade. To put it simply, in a more vulgar manner: It's fucking insane.

Sakura Gari takes place in the Taisho era (the years 1912-1926), and a young high school boy, Masataka Tagami, the eldest son of a librarian from a small village, goes to Tokyo to try and find his place in life. While trying to find a job to support himself as he prepares for his university entrance exams, he finds employment when he meets a man named Souma Saiki, who lets him stay at his house on the condition that he work as a house servant. At first, Masataka is happy to be able to make some good money and support himself through school. As time goes by, however, he starts to learn, and then become unwittingly involved in, the Saiki house's many dark, disturbing secrets, and things get even worse when Souma's dark secrets come to light.

Now, Yuu Watase is known for her bright, cheery, shoujo-style artwork, giving her female characters sparkly eyes, youthful expressions, and comedic superdeformed chibis. Fushigi Yuugi, her most famous work, has all of these. But seriously, if you look at the art style for Fushigi Yuugi and then compare it to Sakura Gari, the differences are like night and day. Sakura Gari has very clean linework, softer shading, impeccably detailed backgrounds that fit well with the manga's time period and setting, and the characters are drawn much more realistically, with very little exaggerated features, and it's less...cartoony. It's easy to see the differences here and here. Seriously, Watase has come a long way as an artist. If anything can be described as beautiful, Sakura Gari definitely fits the bill, no question. Some say this is her best artwork yet, and I'm inclined to agree.

On the other hand, its characters are kind of a mixed bag. Let me say one thing first: I LOVE complex characters who have more to them than meets the eye, who have equal amounts of good qualities and bad that make them fully human. However, if a character's bad qualities outweigh the good, it can be difficult to sympathize with them in any way, especially if they do genuinely bad things. Souma (the one with the ponytail) is one of those characters. The thing with Souma is that he starts off seeming like a genuinely good person who cares for Masataka in his own way...but when Masataka learns his dark secrets and tries to run, Souma goes way too far in trying to make him stay, and does some pretty horrible things to him. If you're familiar with standard yaoi tropes, then you'll know that Souma's one of those "rapist semes" who sexually and mentally abuses poor Masataka, and it can't be denied that raping someone is a horrible thing to do, even if you do have your reasons for it. Watase loves giving her villains or troubled abusers sympathetic backstories to explain their behavior, and while sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (Nakago, anyone?), namely when it tries to use said backstory as a way to handwave or justify the bad things he does. You can make your villains sympathetic, but there are ways to do it without coming off as justifying or handwaving their bad behavior. Dilandau Albatou from Vision of Escaflowne and Claude Frollo from Disney's version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame are perfect examples of this. But...to be fair, the manga actually acknowledges this. Souma KNOWS he's done horrible things to Masataka and how serious it all is, and not only does he feel genuinely remorseful, especially when you learn his backstory, he actually does make an effort to make amends with Masataka, even if he doesn't go about it in healthy ways. The manga doesn't deny that Souma's done some pretty awful things in an attempt to keep Masataka with him, and while Watase does go out of her way to explain why he does what he does, showing that he's the product of a very, VERY toxic environment from which there was basically no escape, she also acknowledges that the people around him are just as guilty for the bad things they've done to him and unwittingly contributing to his behavior in the first place. Granted, the ending may still leave a slightly bad taste in one's mouth considering what inevitably happens, and your liking of the ending will depend on whether you actually want Masataka and Souma to get together or not...and considering Souma actually rapes Masataka several times...yeah.

Wow, that sure was a long paragraph on just one character. Now onto the others! Everyone else is just as complex, intriguing, and fascinating as Souma is. Everyone involved with the Saikis has their own story to tell, from the doctor who helps Souma's father and Souma himself from an unnamed maid who only appears for a few short pages and never again. Even characters who are completely, unambiguously evil and downright monstrous have reasons for doing what they do, and while some of them don't always get developed or fleshed out, the complex, twisty nature of the series really made me want to know just what these characters are going to do next, even if they seem like they're just thrown in there just for the sake of angst and losing their sanity. Plus, if any of you are concerned that Masataka is just going to be another Miaka, or just a simplistic uke stereotype, fear not, for he's not a helpless, useless kid whose sole purpose is to be cute and spineless and be Souma's toy. He can be nice and kind when he wants to be, but he has his limits and won't hesitate to call someone out on their crap if pushed hard enough. He has flaws. He doesn't always have the best relationships with his family members. He's insecure and can be a little resentful. He gets angry, he gets sad, he actually does make an effort to escape his situation (though it fails), and while bad things do happen to him, he isn't such a spineless wimp that he can't make an effort to help those he loves and fight to survive. Most importantly, he fights back. That in and of itself really makes him stand out and above every yaoi uke stereotype in existence.

The story is where some people might get divided, and I can understand why people might have grievances with it, especially in regards to its content. This manga is pretty much a gigantic soap opera: Sensitive issues such as rape, murder, child abuse, and sexual exploitation are constantly used as plot devices like they're going out of style, so liberally that it really lays it on thick. Almost none of the characters are genuinely good or human save for Masataka, and there's little, if any reprieve from all the craziness, like comedy scenes or chapters where you're allowed to just breathe or take a break from Sakura Gari's insane, twisted, messed up world. Some people say this is the manga's strong point: There's always something going on, there's very little filler or rut, and the story is always moving forward. It helps that the manga is short too, only nine chapters long in three volumes, so it's a short read. A very, very hard short read. On the other hand, many others are bound to take issue with Sakura Gari's content and how it handles a lot of sensitive issues, and that's understandable. Even I thought some parts were way too over the top, even in context, and some parts could have been handled much better than they were. Not only that, there's a LOT of graphic, detailed nudity, but it never goes out of its way to show any genitalia, surprisingly. Half the time I was reading it, I kept feeling like Watase wanted to go farther than she did in showing the sex scenes but didn't, to the point where I was like, "Come on, Watase! Just go full-on porn! We know you want to!" I have to wonder if it was because of executive mandate or because she wanted to be kind of coy about it and maybe feel like she trusted her readers to figure out what was going on without going all out. Who knows? But honestly? I'll read this over Fushigi Yuugi any day of the week.

Bottom line, if you want a deep, complex, genuinely intriguing yaoi that's also utterly bonkers, give this a shot!...but it's not for the faint of heart. Seriously.

Wow. i got mixed feelings for this manga.

If i have to describe it in one word, I say its, INTENSE.

not your typical yaoi manga. it has some DEEP, VERY DEEP story which mess up your feelings.

If you are a reader of yaoi or shounen ai genres, you can tell the difference in this manga. the story itself is pretty messed up but it has that ART that lets you finished reading it while having that "ominous" feeling the entire time.

I recommend it if you are an open reader and not so sensitive since this has some very sensitive issues in it and i might shock ... you if you are not really prepared for it. LOL

More importantly than reviewing this, I think it's important to put a big trigger warning on this manga.

It's dark. It deals with rape, self harm, sexual violence, etc.

It's drawn beautifully but it is a very dark and deeply disturbing manga. Although I'm unfinished with it at this point, I doubt I will do so. There is no feel good to this yaoi. In fact, I'm surprised Watase would write something as dark as this.

The characters have complicated names and are tough to follow who is who, since different people call the different characters by different names (ie their first or their last). It ... is a distinctly Japanese manga that is probably hard for Westerners to parse properly. Lots of translation notes needed and so on.

To be honest, I wouldn't recommend this.

Bro this is the most depressing Yaoi I’ve ever read like there’s just so much tragedy, rape, murder and violence involved in this manga. The only reason why I’m giving this a high score is because the storytelling really sucks you in without letting you out. It really messes with your head ngl, especially with the step sister going after Tagami every few seconds because that’s how psycho they are to nearly everyone visiting the mansion. I mean you would feel bad for Youya by the way they were treated from their family but at the same time, it was still frightening to witness them ... go off on Tagami and Souma. Pretty unsettling while reading this manga if you ask me..