Reviews in Brief: Mio Tennohji's Don't Rush Love

This is another one of those chance encounters that turned out to be a lucky find.

Morino is a new transfer student at an all-boys high school. On his first tour of the campus, in the company of his teacher, Kanzaki-sensei, he sees Kusama for the first time -- star volleyball player, student council vice-president, honor student -- and, as it turns out, Morino's roommate. Morino is immediately smitten, but Kusama is cool and remote. He also disappears every night until the wee hours, and comes back with -- let's call it "evidence of passion" on his body. Morino is convinced he's seeing Kanzaki, although gossip tells him Kanzaki has had a lover since his own high-school days. Finally, Morino can stand it no longer and confesses his feelings, telling Kusama that he is willing to be a substitute if that's all he can have, hoping that Kusama will see the light and fall in love with him. Kusama agrees, but doesn't at first realize that his own feelings have changed.

I found this one surprisingly engaging, with some good psychology worked into the characters -- Kusama is a very effectively presented repressed young man who's lost touch with his feelings, while Morino, after his initial outburst, is faced with the choice of having Kusama or his own self-respect. There are some fairly intense scenes between the two, and one surprising interchange between Kusama and Kanzaki -- the crisis scene that snaps everything into focus for Kusama.

Character is further developed in the two final chapters, particularly revealing of Kusama's history and motivations.

And I found the graphics extraordinarily appealing. There's an underlying weight to the drawing that makes it more substantial than one might expect from a first glance. Character designs are somewhat on the order of those in Ellie Mamahara's Alley of First Love -- tremendously elongated bodies, huge hands and feet, small heads -- but not so rough-hewn. Even the portrayal of Morino as the big-eyed uke was more satisfactory than I normally find that kind of rendering, perhaps because he's not also small and cuddly.

You can place Tennohji in the "explicit" column for sex scenes, of which there are several.

As I said, a lucky find

This one's from 801 Media.