Beyond My Touch

They say the ones who die with great regrets become a ghost.

Beyond My Touch by Tomo Maeda is a compilation of three stories. The main story tells of Mizuno and Mamoru; two classmates who only get to know each other after Mamuro's death. When Mamuro dies he returns as a ghost to try and get closer to Mizuno and kiss him once, as that has been his one regret in life. And so begins an unusual story of love, friendship, realisation, and growing up as Mizuno starts to feel for Mamuro as well.

This manga also contains two short stories: "Cool Lips" and "Recipe." But we'll leave those as a surprise. But I can tell you that both are adorable, and we get to see both some angst and some comedy.

The art in this manga is gorgeous! The shading is not too dark and the lighting is perfect and flattering. Tomo Maeda is a brilliant artist and the lines drawn flow, making the boys look natural. The face expressions drawn are very realistic, and some of the faces Mizuno makes especially are hilarious. All boys are adorable to look at.

As for character design, in "Beyond My Touch" Mizuno is perfectly distinguished through his quiet, mysterious, and cold persona and Mamoru by his energetic, optimistic and bouncy self. To see the interaction between these two opposites is great fun. Also, Mizuno is the obvious seme in this story, although both boys are very cute.

But what is the most striking about Beyond My Touch is the emotion it puts forward. It has joyous, bittersweet and amazingly heartbreaking moments that will make you laugh and cry. But most importantly of all, it's REAL. The emotions seem really and unbelievably realistic; something which I do not come across all too often in manga. The pacing also deserves noting as Mizuno develops slowly enough for it to seem real, but fast enough for it not to get boring.

However, I would not advise a beginner to read this, and by that I mean someone who has not read manga or comic books before. This was the first manga I ever bought, and to my dismay I realised that I couldn't understand it. Where were the arrows in each bubble which showed who was speaking?!? But for us who understand how to read manga this is no problem.

The only negative aspect in this compilation is that the different stories are very hard to tell apart, and the boys in them look too similar. The supernatural features were also a bit of an obstacle for me, but in the end a love story is good in any genre. I'd also liked to have seen the first story a lot longer, but we can always hope for a sequel.

This is truly shounen-ai, and if you were looking for some yaoi fun this is not the manga to read. But it is the manga to read if you are looking for a story dealing with the blossoming of friendship, companionship and love between two boys. It just goes to show that yaoi is far overrated.