Reviews in Brief: Hinako Takanga's Love Round

It's no secret that I've been very favorably impressed by the yaoi of Hinako Takanaga. I've commented on several of her works here ("Reviews in Brief" here, here, and here) and at Epinions (see sidebar). So, I was looking forward to sampling her lighter works, starting with Love Round

Kaoru Komatsuna is small, very pretty, and has a "girly" name ("Kaoru" is one of those names in Japanese that may belong to either a man or a woman). The school boxing champ, Kubo, happens to pick up Kaoru's dropped notebook and makes a comment about his name that sends Kaoru over the edge: Kaoru turns around and floors Kubo with one punch. Kubo won't rest until he persuades Kaoru to go out for boxing. Kaoru is finally persuaded -- he's been a boxing fan for some time -- and then Kubo finds himself drawn more and more to Kaoru until he finally confesses that he loves him. And then things get really edgy.

As I noted above, this is a light comedy, without the depth of other works such as You Will Drown in Love or even Little Butterfly. The running joke of Kaoru's one-punch KOs gets a little stale after a while, and the characters don't display the depth one finds in her other works. It's an earlier work (first published in 2003) and, I think, simply lacks the polish of later books. This is also true of the graphics: Kubo and Kaoru fit into her usual character types but lack the intensity and range one finds in Tsukasa or Reiichiro.

It's not up to later works, but is still entertaining enough. The age rating is 18+, which I think is too conservative. There is one sex scene which is not at all revealing, and in general the story seems aimed at younger teens. (Keep in mind that this age rating is for an American audience; my understanding is that the Japanese are rather more relaxed about things than Americans, who tend to be extraordinarily hung up on sex.)

This one's from Deux.