25th May 2008
Level C 1
Rating: ♦
Level C centers around a relationship between Kazuomi (seme) and Mizuki (uke). Mizuki is a model, Kazuomi is the twin brother of Haruno, the head of a corporation that wants to center their latest promotion around him. Haruno talks Kazuomi into seducing Mizuki and the plot degenerates from there.
Kazuomi runs into Mizuki at a bar and finagles his way into spending the night at Mizuki’s apartment. In return for Mizuki’s hospitality, Kazuomi promises him a “night of ecstasy that…[he] will never forget.”
The characters find that they can make each other feel very good and an affair is started. The little bit of a plot that the series has seems like nothing more than situations to get the characters back into bed.
The art work in Level C is fairly sophomoric. Oh, everything is somewhat in proportion, and it’s hell of a lot better than I could do, but there’s just something off in the execution. You find yourself staring at the page during one of the many sex scenes, not enjoying the work, but trying to figure out what body part is going where and who’s doing what to whom. Very distracting. The characters have limited facial expressions. They’re either showing extreme innocence, advanced debauchery or they’re screaming in pain/pleasure. The only real saving grace for this book is that the characters have utterly filthy mouths and engage in a lot of smut talk. Something that’s rather rare to see in BL manga. No amount of smutty words though, can carry this work past the empty plot and general bad art.
I picked up volume one because I wanted to support the genre being released in North America. After reading the manga, I realized that I can support the genre without supporting crap. I will not be purchasing the rest of the series. I think it’s fantastic that they’re bringing over graphic BL series for the fans to enjoy, but can’t they bring over some more quality work?
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