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Today, I'll be reviewing Minami Haruka's Liking you.
There's only so much of Minami Haruka (A.K.A. Minami Kazuki) I can take. I mean, yeah, she's well known, yeah, the art's bearable... but would it kill the woman to have a bit of difference in character design? They are always so simple and predictable - smaller-in-size (and in more ways than one) uke who is so totally wanton but refuses to admit it for some unexplained reason, and a perverted seme who is well endowed and utters words of adoration as soon as he copulates with you. Liking you was more or less what I expected as soon as I saw the front cover - meaning, it was more or less the same as anything else she'd written.
Oh wait, this story has CAMERAS!
This yaoi is basically about a young guy named Isumi (or Izumi - once again, the reader is screwed over by the translators) who's in a photography club, and is a closet autagonistophilliac (that's what I think, anyway). Then there's the love interest (or sexual predator), Shinooka, who is - as expected - melancholy-looking, mysterious and all around type of guy you'd never normally be interested in. The there's the other characters - Okutsura, the guy who doesn't get away with sexual harrassment (with the main protagonist, anyway. It worked for Shinooka, though) and those other guys who nobody really cares about due to lack of character. Not that the main characters are the most in-depth people I've ever read a story about.
The story starts with our protagonist, Isumi (that may or may not be how his name is spelt, but I really don't know, so bare with me) splashing about in a pool. He explains to the reader how he is a part of a photography club, and how they are using it as an excuse to have a vacation (wow, good use of club funding there. But wait 'til later on, when you find out that not one of the members are actually taking pictures of stuff worth noting, and by that I mean taking pictures of stuff besides naked girl-men. Makes me wonder how they get by when asked to show the goods. Ahaha, innuendo). We are shown the other members of the club are doing nothing but taking pictures of him and saying how 'sexy' he is (subtle. Good work.) He, like the moron he is, lets them take pictures of him scantily clad in his mighty Speedos (which was what gave me the conclusion I might not like this manga), and tells them not to take pictures of his trunks (no, they're Speedos. You're gagging for it. Just like every other uke created in the original mind of Haruka Minami). That is more or less ignored as Okutsura takes pictures of him whilst the others gawk (SUBTLE YAOI IS SUBTLE).
We are introduced to the other characters, and at some point or the other, Isumi's trunks get stolen and we are subjected to some not particularily special fanservice. Isumi notices Shinooka watching him, and does a little monolouge about how Shinooka, when first joining the club, admits to liking Isumi and joined for that sole reason (best damn thing I ever wasted my time on, ever). I'd like to note that for some reason in this sequence Isumi points out that Shinooka is looking at him four or five times, with almost the exact same wording, which annoyed me to no end. Isumi ponders whether Shinooka might 'be secretly in love with him' (and
my suspicions on whether this guy is a dumbass are confirmed).
As Isumi and Character Number 2 (by that I mean character who's name is mentioned but is not important enough for me to remember it) walk off to buy fireworks, Shinooka poses in a strange fashion and takes a picture of them.
In the next part, there's a rather funny typo where instead of using Isumi second name, a character calls him, 'Shoujo-kun' which, seeing as 'shoujo' means something along the lines of 'girl', I found rather ironic. Seeing as I could never regard any of the characters as men, anyway.
Okutsura 'subtlely' suggests that him and Isumi share a room (I quote: "Because I want to take pictures of that lovely face while you're sleeping") but is rebuffed by Shinooka, who looks like he was dressed by Gok Wan on an off day. You know, that typical Asian Homosexual look. Another funny part is where, in possibly the most girlish way possible, Isumi is invited to Character Number 2's (apparently his name is Yuuri?) bedroom for, 'a pillow fight'. Seriously.
After a little cold-shouldering from Shinooka, Isumi questions his affections - you know, because being told that you're liked by someone means like... nothing.
Isumi then goes to take a shower, because... because the 'pillow fight' obviously wasn't interesting enough to be included in the manga. Okutsura then appears in the shower, camera in hand, and says he want to take some pictures (you know, I'm actually starting to think that he might be gay!), and somehow manages to pull some obscure reason out of his ass as to why he should be allowed to take pictures of Isumi naked. Well, it works on the dumbass and he says, "Make sure you make me look good!"
And, what do you know, it turns out Okutsura was just trying to take some dirty pictures. Hmm.
After being told "spread your legs a bit more," Isumi finally starts to think, 'Wait a mo, this isn't right,' (/facepalm), but it's too late, as Okutsura then proceeds to attempt to rape him. But this is a Minami Haruka manga, therefore the main character takes it like a bitch and of course enjoys every moment (there's a moment in this scene that brought forth a thought from Isumi, which said, "I can't believe he's actually touching me with his evil clutches!", cue much laughter from me). To be honest, I would've been fine if this had proceeded with a full on sex scene - not that Minami Haruka's sex scenes are very stimulating - however, at that moment Shinooka decided to play Prince Charming and ride in on full throttle, saving Isumi from Okutsura's 'evil clutches' (snort).Then cue someone called, 'Kobayakawa', who walks into the shower rather nonchalontly and tells off everyone. It turns out that Okutsura and this Kobayakawa guy are probably in some kind of relationship - which is revealed to be true later on (LOL SPOILERS) - and Kobayakawa drags Okutsura off somewhere.
There are fireworks and stuff that I didn't pay attention to, and Shinooka stares at Isumi some more. Later that evening, Shinooka casually walks into Isumi's bedroom and demands sex. After saying some stuff about the confession from months ago - which apparently Isumi didn't pick up on - Shinooka confesses again, saying that he 'really likes' Isumi. There is a sex scene which is typical to the artist, so I'm not going to bother going into detail about it.
So overall, I'll score Minami Haruka's Liking You a 2/5.
This yaoi had the same problem as everything else written by Minami Haruka - it was too much like everything else she's written. It had potential, but it just feels as if not enough effort was put in. There are other stories in the book, but all are way too much like the first story, so I feel like I'm just watching the same characters do the same things. I can actually only recall one story by Minami Haruka that actually had a plot that didn't rely on the seme making a surprise rape-style move. I hope I do come across some more different work of hers someday, but I'm keeping my opinion the same for now.
