Jazz

A senior in highschool, Naoki suffers from chronic asthma, and, in his search for a cure, goes to Dr. Narusawa. Narusawa realizes that Naoki's problem stems from the constant pressure put on him by his mother, and tells her to not be so hard on Naoki. Naoki, in awe of the way his doctor stands up to his mother, falls in love immediately. The rest of the story involves Naoki all but stalking Dr. Narusawa and forcing him to sleep with him, all the while trying to win over Dr. Narusawa's heart.

This is one of the worst yaoi manga I have read. The story is shallow, boring, and completely implausible. There is very little character development, and the character interactions basically revolve around a series of sexual encounters in which Dr. Narusawa tries futily to resist Naoki. The title only superfically relates to the story, though it has the potential for deeper meaning. The dialogue is stiff and cliche. Nearly every sex scene involves Dr. Narusawa pleading for Naoki to stop, and the conversations between Naoki's and Narusawa's encounters is cheesey and unrealistic.

The artwork is breathtaking only because it's hard to imagine anything worse. A friend of mine astutely described the characters as looking like "lumpy sand people." Most noticable about the horrible character design are the large, protruding noses of each of the characters. The shoulders of the characters are too broad, and their necks sit awkwardly on their bodies. The backgrounds of the different frames are bland, and there is too much white space.

Not only did I find this manga to be horribly written and illustrated, I also found it disturbing. Naoki basically rapes his doctor multiple times throughout the story, and Dr. Narusawa, who is several years Naoki's senior, never stands up for himself. I don't mind stories in which one person is more submissive than the other, but this was ridiculous. I could not identify with either character due to one's extreme lack of sensitivity and due to the other's inability to show any free will at all. Do not read this manga. The summary on the back of the manga is misleading. I hope in the future DMP takes into more consideration the quality of the story and artwork of the manga the company translates.