Loveless

After his brother Seimei's murder, 12-year-old Aoyagi Ritsuka is determined to discover who committed the crime. He encounters a young man by the name of Soubi who claims that he was a close friend of Ritsuka's brother. But unbeknownst to Ritsuka, there is more to Soubi and Seimei's relationship than first evident. As Ritsuka strives to learn more about the crime against his brother and to solve the mystery around Soubi, he gets dragged into a world of spells, words, and magic. Meantime, Soubi tries to win over Ritsuka's affections, but suspicious due to his unhappy family life, Ritsuka repeatedly pushes Soubi away.

This manga is by far one of my favorite shonen ai manga. Seeing as only the first volume has been released (Note: at the time of this review), there is much about the story that has not yet been explained, but the aura of mystery is certainly compelling enough. I find the story to be very moving. Ritsuka is an abused and neglected child who maintains a resilience, intelligence, and optimism that is far past his years. He is one of the most complicated and interesting characters I have encountered in shonen ai manga. Soubi also proves to be a mystery that demands unravelling. Each character is different, interesting, and well-developed. Furthermore, there is plenty of room and potential for them all to grow exponentially within the series. The only contention one might have with it is that most of the characters have ears and tails. The comic makes a big distinction between the appearances of the characters. Apparently, the people without ears and tails have had sex, and the ones with them have not. This one element of the manga is probably the one aspect I found a little strange, but it's easy to put aside simply because the story and artwork are so good. Also, the main relationship is one between Soubi, a college student, and Ritsuka. There is a huge age gap between the two, which some might find disturbing, but it does not progress beyond a few kisses. Furthermore, the relationship between the two of them is very complex, and portrayed in such a way so as to characterize Soubi almost as Ritsuka's protector rather than love interest. There is also a lot of philosophy within the story. At one point Ritsuka is reading a book about Nietzsche (not something I can believably imagine a sixth grader can handle), Soubi studies Japanese art in college, and the fantasy element of the story revolves around the power of words and language. In fact, there is a fascinating editor's note at the back of the book that discusses some of these philosophical elements.

I would also venture to say that Loveless has the most beautiful artwork of any shonen ai manga I've read. The lines are strong and meaningful, the characters are proportionate, and the backgrounds are interesting. It is just generally beautiful. The biggest problem I had with the manga was that some of the thought and voice bubbles are so small that I had to strain to read the text. Hopefully, the editors of the following volumes will remedy this problem.

Loveless has also been released in a 13 episode anime series, which is just as beautiful as the manga. But one advantage the manga has over the anime is that it is much much less confusing. This is one manga I most certainly recommend. It is beautiful, thoughtful, and fascinating.