I put off buying Hyouta Fujiyama's new one, Pure Heart for some reason that's a mystery to me. Then I got that fateful Border's coupon, and pounced.It's a real departure for Fujiyama. Tozaki is a freelance writer who winds up interviewing his high-school crush, Kurata, for a design job for the magazine Tozaki works for. Kurata remembers him -- and in fact, remembers a bit more than makes Tozaki comfortable: Kurata knew who it was looking out the library window at him every day while he was practicing with the track team. Kurata, however, isn't given to romance -- it's just sex. Then Tozaki's ex -- also his boss at the magazine -- Miyata, inserts himself into the picture, telling Kurata that he might try to get Tozaki back. And then another voice from the past, Yoshioka, who was in love with Tozaki in college, calls him to offer some work -- and himself. And it doesn't really matter this time that Tozaki has a boyfriend.
This is Volume 1 of a new series, and it's great. Kurata is a very different character for Fujiyama -- hard, difficult, not really a nice guy, but we can see the soft spots that he's trying so desperately to hide. She's doing it again with character -- this one rides on it, and it's really well done.
The graphics are superb. She's built on previous characters -- Tozaki is going to look very familiar to anyone who's read Sunflower, and Kurata will to anyone who's read Freefall Romance -- but she's taken them up a level. In fact, the book as a whole starts at the place Sunflower left off and goes upward from there. (Take a good look at the cover illustration: it's pretty accurate, and gives a good glimpse of what's in store inside.)
From Juné. (And, a sign of the times, Juné has dropped the separate jackets and is now only doing a simple color cover.)
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