Youth Gone Wild

Since this story is completed in translations now, I wanted to write a review since it is one of the manhuas I enjoy the most. It is complete at 14 volumes so it is a mid length manga - not too long to drag on and not too short to be fullfilling. Actually, I started reading this a few years ago from reading the author's Nicky Lee's other work "The One". If you are a fan of that series, please consider reading her other stories such as Youth Gone Wild and Paradise City ( an earlier work) and I think you will enjoy them. Or, If you like stories like "Skip Beat" where there is a person working on their career with and there is a blend of humor, romance and serious stuff give it a try too. It is also a story about the work of celebrities. The story is about a young woman agent who loses a music contract of a famous singer and instead of giving up, decides to create a top band that will have the type of sound and music she likes, namely a metal rock band. So she goes out to search for the best guitarist, bass etc. Then she recruits a guy she met by accident to be the singer. Each guy has a distinct personality and each of the characters is given their own "screen time" over the course of the story, although it does concentrate more on a couple of the characters. The guys also have separate romance stories incorporated into the main story. So instead of this being one romance it is three at least. Instead of it being one story it is the story of each of it's members and how they come together to work together. The romance of the main two characters, the agent and the lead singer is the "main" one but it develops slowly. Each romance is distinct and has a different tone because the guys and girls all have distinct personalities so each relationship has a very different tone, so it makes it a lot of fun. The guys sometimes being jerks and the girls talking about them together behind the scenes amongst themselves while the guys are practicing is so real. I think this manga does the best job of covering how a real band works from any other music mangas I have read. You will see the behind the scenes practices, the conflicts between the egos of the band members, the coming together of different people to make the sound, the way that contracts and the music business works behind the scenes. If you have read The One and how it goes behind the scenes in modeling you will understand that this does the same sort of thing for the music world. The story and band draw inspiration from real world bands like Guns N Roses, SkidRow and Metallica. You can find lyrics and references to real bands scattered throughout the story. Overall I give this one a 9 although it is one of my very favorite mangas to read, it is not at the masterpiece level of say Death Note but in many ways it is MORE enjoyable than some "masterpieces". The author clearly loves music and good looking guys and that comes through in her story. She has a lot of fun with the story and injects humor and sometimes draws them being silly like chibies to show that. That doesn't make it less of a masterpiece, I think it's great that at sometimes this story is silly and other times it's very serious. The art is good, the guys are hot, the characters grow and change and develop, so does the way the band works. If you read Skip Beat you will notice some similarities in the way they are sometimes hot and sometimes chibies. If you like mature shoujo or josei or you love music please give this manhua a read and please read a few chapters before you decide you don't like it because the story evolves along with the characters. My husband is in the music industry / a musician so I have seen a lot of these things behind the scene in the real world. Obviously I am a fan of this story!

Hello BARBIE IS HERE꒰ᐢ. ̫ .ᐢ꒱!¡ I absolutely adored every single minute of it. The fact that the main inspo of the thing is guns and roses, makes it even more hot than any other rock band manga idc, if you liked nana, this will lead you into a more rockish style and passion without the whole depressing sub that was going on in there, is more mature, and less childish as i can say. I absolutely loved to play my 80's and 90's rock playlist while reading this. The fact that is a continuation from a jb manga from the same artist is an incredible item,is so sad we can't read the whole jb series online bc practically it doesn't exist, but is a super good stablishment of the new era and style from the mangaka, is genius in a certain point.