Yubisaki no Koi

Oh my god! What an amazing manga! I like the ratings myanimelist has, "Masterpiece" is the perfect description for Yubisaki no Koi. It was just perfection. I don't even know where to start. The one thing I did not like about this manga is that it's way too short! She could have gone for at least another 40 chapters. AT LEAST. This is the kind of manga I feel like buying two copies of (you know, one for reading and one for keeping safe :D). I guess I can start with the art. It is so beautiful. The characters look real and man-like. They aren't thosegirlier-than-girls yaoi characters, but they are not the bara kind of manly either. They're just normal. That being said, they are still really handsome, but realistic handsome (I love Nakagawa's glasses). There are also some fairly grotesque scenes in this manga, and I think Naono sensei handled them really well (though I admit, I closed my eyes, I am not very good with blood or dismemberment). Since I already went there, I think I'll talk a little about the story now. Many mangas romanticize situations or themes (such as the yakuza, the mafia, rape, pedophilia, etc.) that really should not be romanticized. And I think this manga was in danger of that with it's setting of a detective agency. But the mangaka did not fall for that trap. Yes, this is a fantasy yaoi with the premise of ESP, which romanticizes the idea of detectives a little. But other than that, everything is pretty gritty and dark, and frankly it's arguable that Maizuru's powers add to the grittiness (he can read people's minds, but in general what he finds is very unpleasant [understatement] and the manner in which he got those powers isn't really fun either). Over the course of the manga, Maizuru and Nakagawa deal with some really awful situations that I think deserve a trigger warning (I was totally caught by surprise, the summary makes this manga out to be some sort of fluffy, supernatural yaoi, and it isn't). On to the characters. What is there to say? Maizuru, Nakagawa and even Hajime are all complex and well-developed characters with their respective emotional baggage. Maizuru has trust issues, which at first seem to have arisen from his ability to read people's minds, but by the end of the manga I got this feeling that his general mistrust comes from his own self loathing (in other words, he thinks of himself as an awful person, so he figures everybody else is too). Nakagawa also has trust issues, but I think his issues come from growing up in a yakuza family. That is never out-right stated, but he keeps calling Maizuru "boss," and I can put two and two together. Finally, Hajime is just a jaded and cold person who has seen way too much. I just read over my review, and it kind of makes the manga sound super depressing. But it really isn't. It's funny and cute and rather romantic at times. It's just not cheesy or over the top. So, as you can tell, I highly recommend Yubisaki no Koi.