Steel Rose

Steel Rose is an enjoyable josei romance with a gender bender feel to it although it is not technically a gender bender. The personalities of the two characters are sort of opposite of what is "typical" of the sexes The characters in it are the best part. I would rate it a 9 on characters. Li Ting is a very tough strong athlete is an abrasive personality while Louis is very sweet and sort of feminine seeming for a guy, they are like polar opposites that attract, and that can make it a lot of fun. It canalso be frustrating that she is so mean to him for so long where you want her to just stop and admit he is a nice guy instead of hitting him at every opportunity she gets. But he takes it good naturedly. The only off putting part of it for me at times was that Louis is just drawn way too femininely. I think the artist could have gotten his personality across and still let him look a little more male, but I still love Louis That is the reason I rated the art lower, I think she could have drawn him as as gorgeous but still like a guy, say like the twins from The One. So at times the art is a fail. I really liked Lulu though, he is a fun character to read about. I wondered about the shoujo ai tag on it, cause it is not. It's not really shounen ai either, so that tag is odd. I liked the settings in NYC and Paris and the actual places and buildings were enjoyable. Overall it's an enjoyable story, I give it an 8.