I Give to You

Synopsis

One stormy day, Ryouichi was wandering aimlessly in the wake of betrayal by his beloved who put him in debt when he suddenly finds himself in front of a tea house's door. After entering, he finds the teahouse has a unique atmosphere. After receiving lunch, Ryouichi find's himself indebted to the shop owner; forced to help with the chores. Turns out there's no such thing as a free lunch after all! Despite everything, he finds himself thinking that he actually wants to help...? (Source: MU)

First of all, I bought this manga solely based on the cover. It had caught my eye because the main character Ren resembled L a lot.(If you do read this manga, you will find a lot of similarities between L and Ren!) But neither the story nor the art disappointed me, in fact, I really enjoyed reading this manga. Plot: The plot is extraordinary and gets you hooked from the first page. It has a rather dark atmosphere that's also supported by the drawing style. In general you can say that it is rather slow-going which makes it even more interesting. While the story slowly buildsup until it reaches its peak, the tension builds up as well. I couldn't put the manga away until I had finished it! The many secrets that the story includes get slowly revealed throughout the manga. Moreover, the story is free from any clichés and it's not as dull as many (yaoi) mangas tend to be. It has a fantastic and unexpected ending that won't disappoint you! Characters: The characters are odd and original and also very realistic, which makes it to not only sympathise but also to easy to identify with them. Ryouichi, the main character, is somewhat clumsy and doesn't know a lot about life. This is also one of the reasons why Ren constantly pokes fun at him. I found it really funny to see them interact and it was nice to see how the characters developed and matured until the end of the manga. Ryouichi is a person who also questions everything and that added a special feeling to the manga. The manga itself raised questions and made you think and I personally really enjoyed that. Art: When it comes to the art of this manga, I don't even know where to start. The drawing style is really unique and the drawings are very detailed. The mangaka is not only good at drawings realistic looking expression, but also good at drawings backgrounds! A lot of mangas lack a good background setting, but in this manga, that wasn't the case. The drawing style also supports the story and as the story develops, you can see how the colours start to change. Only if you prefer cute characters, you might be disappointed. The drawing style can be compared with the drawing style of Takeshi Obata and other famous shonen mangakas. Overall: No matter how I look at it, I can't find any negative points. Of course I wished that one of the characters that is later introduced in the manga had appeared more often, but it's not something that would affect my rating. I was also more than pleased that this manga was free from clichés. Therefore, I give this manga 10/10. tl;dr: If you are searching for a good read with an interesting plot and outstanding art, I highly recommend reading this manga. You won't be disappointed!