Amato Amaro

One of Natsume Ono's short story compilations and I think this is the best yet. I can never get enough of her work. The art style she uses in Amato Amaro, in my opinion, was the best era of her artwork to date; if you are a seasoned Ono fan you remember she changes it up every book. Anyway, she can make you feel so much emotion with a panel of a simple expression, which communicates the complexities of the interpersonal relationships she writes perfectly. Coupled with the story, this refined art style gives you such a melancholy feeling, and I can't get enough. The pacingalso adds to the emotional complexity and social nuance which she is proven to be very good at using pacing to her advantage to make the reader feel the deep contemporary-society-like hurt, that a lot of moments in her manga portrays. I do not know Japanese, but I bet a million bucks that the story in its original language carries so much more social nuance, complexity, and deep emotional hurt due to the way that it was translated-- which says a lot. That's why it can be daunting to read it at first. You seriously need to read her works multiple times to understand them. It's extremely satisfying, and I wish I could capture that quality and study it, lol. I'm writing this review years after reading it because I keep coming back to it every month or so to re-read this wonderful work of hers that I've come to believe is one of her magnum opus after not simple, Gad Sfortunato, and Ristorante Paradiso, but thats probably because I'm bias to her romance and nuanced drama. Because she writes and draws the genres so beautifully. If I had to criticize something about Amato Amaro, definitely the accessibility like I said-- which is probably why her Western fanbase is so low. But it's hard to criticize work usually that is written to be complex, nuanced, and deep. Especially since this is from the early 2000's, which makes it more impressive, because a lot of BL stuff back then was not very thoughtful. So, in conclusion, live love Ono. Now stop reading my silly brain juice and read the darn thing!