Product Description: A long-awaited rendezvous with his long-distance lover leaves Hikaru's heart aflutter. However, things never seem to work out as planned with this couple. Hikaru ends up stuck at work and his co-worker Nagisa bumps into Shima-sensei as he waits for Hikaru in front of the school building. Nagisa finds Shima-sensei incredibly cute and adorable and invites him for a drink since his night with Hikaru is ruined... and Shima-sensei says "yes?!"
Definitely better than volume 3... ...And not just because there are love scenes in this book. Volume 3 was boring. Not only was it boring it felt drawn out unnecessarily, like it needed to justify making the second series (the first sreies being volumes 1 and 2) of this storyline two volumes. After reading volume 4 I have to say my original assessment is still very true, but without a number of the background details (mostly new minor characters) introduced in volume 3 some of what happens in volume 4 would be too confusing for me to recommend skipping it. I will complain, though, that they could have taken only those necessary elements from volume 3, removed some of the unnecessary elements equal to it in volume 4 (including some of the angst; the angst, while interesting, did seem to be a bit too prevalent in this book), and have had a fantastic one volume follow-up to the original two volume storyline that would have cost us all half as much money to enjoy.
And I do have to admit that I actually did enjoy volume 4. I have always had a problem with Hikaru's character design (I think it's the hair...), but for the most part I enjoy the art in Passion. I also like that the storyline is based strongly on delving into the insecurities and inner thoughts of both main love interests.
The most surprising and enjoyable aspect of the volume wasn't even the numerous (though very reserved) love scenes, it was the comic relief. This is particularly surprising because while Hikaru and Shima are off angsting and fawning, Onoda and Nagisa, the romantic rivals for Hikaru's affections, are getting all the laughs. Nagisa is revealed to be just a rich man with a lot of free time who is willing to pursue anyone (including Onoda and Shima) and Onoda's fangirlish interests in Hikaru, her "Umino-sempai," are hilarious in a somewhat sad, "feel sorry for her" way.
Unsurprisingly, the story has a happy ending for Hikaru and Shima. All the rivals are easily pushed out of the way and our love-birds reconcile their anxieties and revel in each other's company. To be honest, I expected as much from the very beginning of volume 3 and I have no problem with an easy resolution.
I think my biggest complaint would have to come at the expense of DMP's choices, or rather lack thereof, in regards to Japanese honorifics. They seem to have decided, possibly to the detriment of proper English flow, to have Hikaru only refer to Shima with, "Teacher" instead of, "Sensei," but Onoda and Nagisa both use honorifics (Nagisa calls Onoda, "Onoda-chan" and Onoda refers to Hikaru as "Umino-sempai"). The inconsistency is annoying and I wish DMP would work a little harder with their localizations seeing as they are the single biggest producer of BL titles in English.
If you've come this far you may just need to buy volume 4 for the resolution (and relief of frustration at lack of love scenes in volume 3), but if you are new to this series or new to BL you might want to start elswhere and see about this story later and from the original two volumes. Don't start here.
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