Product Description: There is a rumor going around school that Mikami can "hear" when one's death is near. Uka has just turned fifteen, but doesn't know how much longer he'll live... Will the budding love between Mikami and Uka have a happy ending?
Amazing. As with all of Yumeka Sumomo's work, The Day I Became A Butterfly has this gorgeous, artistic quality to it--it feels fragile, in a way, and beautiful. This will probably remain one of my favorite BL mangas of all time.
Beautiful artwork If you are looking for hardcore, explicit sex this isn't it.
The day I became a butterfly is a gentle, sweet collection of stories with emotion. I liked the first story the best. It is a bittersweet story about the desperation of finding and receiving love, and the uncertainty of the time we have on this world to be with the ones we truely care about. The butterfly tattoos tugged at my heart.
I really loved the art in this book, it was a welcome change from a lot of yaoi books where the characters have freakishly large hands, oversized shoulders, and outragous heads of hair.
Wonderful Series of Vignettes! I'm really not sure why the Publisher's Weekly review above was so harsh on this manga and I think it will, unfortunately, turn many people away from what is a wonderful manga.
Personally, I love Sumono's work. Her short stories are very much like visual poems. Of course, this means that certain things aren't always presented as clearly or straight-forwardly as they could be, but I feel that's part of the reason this mangaka's work is so thought-provoking and unique. There's a soft, tender quality to the manga. Also I am completely infatuated with her artwork, which is clean and elegant. June has also packaged this volume with the quality it deserves. The art is reproduced on clean, heavy pages and there's a nice non-glossy, satiny cover. (If only BeBeautiful would learn something from them!)
The only issues some might have with this volume are:
1) There *are* a couple hetero stories in the mix- a fault of June for selling the volume as only 'yaoi'.
2) Sumono's ukes do tend to have exceptionally long hair and/or very feminine features. This doesn't happen to bother me. Although I generally dislike ukes that are too 'girly', but I adore Sumono's art enough that it doesn't bother me. (May I add that gender ambiguity is just not as big a deal in Japan?)
Overall, I highly recommend this volume as a thoughtful, lovely alternative to the many insipid yaoi titles that happen to be floating around on the US market. I love hardcore yaoi as well as the next girl, but if you're looking for something with a more mature feel that has depth and romance, you won't be disappointed (hetero stories and all)!
Good collection but a serious issue with Junemanga! When I buy BL I expect to get all BL. So why are there 2 heterosexual romance stories here! Junemanga is ridiculous or have they conveniently forgotten the meaning of Yaoi and BL?! Back to this BL (including 2 hetero) manga with implicit sex. By the mangaka of Same Cell Organism, this mangaka once again proves her remarkable story telling skill. Her words are simple yet so expressive and effective. 6 stories here and they are bittersweet and touching with a surreal and haunting quality in them. My favorite is the deeply moving "You at the end" about a mute boy finding love. The titled story on a boy who may not live till adulthood and his seme who senses death is melancholy but lovely. The one on an abused boy finding comfort may be the shortest but by no means lacking. "Tokyo Alien Ulala" is comically sweet. One of the hetero stories on a student in love with her teacher is pretty good but I have an issue with it as I do not go for heterosexual romance mangas. I like this mangaka's fluid and graceful artwork but I wish she will stop drawing her ukes with long hair. And again my rightful wrath with Junemanga, for injecting heterosexual into this manga. I will definitely lodge a complaint!
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
