Verliebt in Osaka

by Hinako Takanaga, Costa Caspary (Translator)

Völlig betrunken liegt Itaru auf einem Müllhaufen mitten in Osaka. Als plötzlich der Kameramann Koki auftaucht und ihn dabei filmt, reagiert Itaru so heftig, dass die teure Kamera zu Bruch geht. Itaru ist in einer verzweifelten Lage: Er hat keine Wohnung, kein Geld, und nun auch noch Schulden! Doch obwohl das erste Zusammentreffen der beiden nicht gerade glücklich verlaufen ist, gewährt Koki Itaru erst mal Unterschlupf bei sich...

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Romance, Comics, LGBT, Boys Love, Queer

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2006

About the author

Takanaga Hinako (高永ひなこ) is a Japanese author of Boys' Love manga.
She has also provided illustrations for several BL light novels by other authors, including The Guilty by Katsura Izumi. Her first manga story, 合格祈願 (Goukaku kigan, Prayers for a passing grade?), was published by Hanamaru Comics in 1997; it was later reworked as the first chapter of Challengers. Most of her works have been translated into foreign languages. She was a guest at YaoiCon 2007, invited by Juné, the US publishers of her popular series Little Butterfly.
When not making Boys' Love manga, she spends her time collecting Wallace & Gromit merchandise and playing Final Fantasy. Takanaga doesn’t like beer and people who are ignorant.

She comments that her biggest influence on her art and writing-style was KOUGA Yun, a famous shoujo manga artist whose works she read as a teenager.

Reviews

[Bibliothecat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liberty Liberty! is one of Takanaga's few works that isn't over the top comedic and - shocker - there's no explicit content whatsoever. All of this would actually lead me to place this nearer the top of her works, but my problem with this particular story is that I find it rather boring. The characters are fine, the plot is fine, the pacing is fine, the art is fine... but there wasn't a single thing that stood out to me or truly made me feel invested. It's definitely one of the better manga of its time in this genre in terms of content treatment, it just really is a bit dull...

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phew, alte BL-Mangas, ne? :D ich liebe ja die "ich bin aber schon 18 Jahre alt" > Sieht aus wie ein 14jähriger Teenie-Uke. Aber na gut. Es ist halt n alter Manga, er ist ganz süß und hat überraschenderweise eine Transfrau dabei, die sogar nicht lächerlich oder sonst irgendwie hingestellt wurde, sondern ziemlich gut :3 das gefiel mir sehr sogar.
Die beiden sind halt die typischen Oldschool-Yaoi-Uke-Seme-Stereotypen.
Für den schnellen Zeitvertreib sicher spaßig, aber besondere Tiefe findet man hier jetzt nicht.

[John Egbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently the cover of this manga looks weird. Like that's a teenage boy and thirty something year old man on it. I didn't really notice, I didn't dwell on the cover too long, but...

GOD IT DOES LOOK LIKE THAT DOESN'T IT?



No, no, no. That's not...no. Ew. Jesus no.

Firstly, no. Just no. NO NO NO.

Now we can move on.

Liberty Liberty is really an ironic sort of manga. I read it around the time where I was headfirst in a plagiarism debate with some Cassandra Clare troll...

The main character, Itaru (the little, cute looking one) is a nineteen-twenty year old college drop out. He was getting a degree in literature, but dropped out after his senpai (upper level student) stole his idea and got away with it because he apparently executed it better than Itaru would have been able to. Itaru was unable to live with this and decided to give up as a writer. Instead, be becomes a drunk. Yay?

So, months later as a drunkard, he passes out in a heap of trash and decides to lay there until he dies, or until a garbage truck crushes him. Either way really is fine to him. Kouki, (the taller, older looking one), a twenty something reporter, stumbles upon him like this and decides to film him for teh lulz. Itaru, frankly, gets pissed and feels that Kouki is making fun of him. He throws trash at Kouki and angrily vomits for a while, before passing out on the trash heap again.

Kouki takes him home, God knows why, and gives him a bath and new clothes. Itaru learns that during the mini-fight he broke Kouki's camera and yearns to replace it. However, he doesn't exactly know how. He's useless, useless, and cute. But alas, useless. For a while he works at the news station Kouki and his friend own for free, but that doesn't help. Eventually, eventually mind you, he gets a real job.

He also gets a crush on Kouki.

It's an incredibly sweet manga. Itaru's self esteem is crippled from his father (a famous writer and kind of a jerk) and the entire plagiarism debacle. However, unlike in other shonen-ai's -- not like I've read that many, mind you...*coughs* -- Kouki doesn't wind up fixing him. He fixes himself, with of course some help from Kouki along the way.

Itaru is so cute. He reminds me of a character I have, only he's drunk. And more...cute. And louder. And older.

Moving on, yeah, basically, it's a good manga. Well, duh, I rated it five stars so of course I think it's good. I feel it's a solid story, although I think that the time it took for Itaru to get a job was a bit much. But it was a very sweet story, and I loved the way it ended while still hoping there was more. Here's a little morsel for ya : there isn't. No sequels. So I guess I'll just have to re-read Liberty Liberty over and over again.

[Emi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I recently reread this to rate and review, it should be noted that this was originally published in 2009 and I originally read it in 2010. I had a vague memory of finding this book rather innocuous, it doesn't contain explicit content and I thought it portrayed a decent gay relationship (or the start of one, I guess). Upon re-reading, I quickly discovered that my original perception wasn't accurate; I either lacked the life experience or social understanding to see this, perhaps our increased awareness as a society contributed to this, or perhaps I'm simply too critical about things these days and have a tendency to pick out problems in everything (that being said, I've always thought of myself as generally easier to please than others).

Before I get into it, a content warning for transphobia; and sentence structures, grammar, spelling, and repetition may occur because I had to rush to finish writing this before a scheduled D&D game I'm DMing today, so I haven't had a chance to read through it and make adjustments!

The first thing I want to address is: This book contains a trans character (Kurumi), however I suspect that this facet of her character is included to emphasise some sort of slippery slope into becoming gay that the author wanted to portray for one of the main characters (Kouki). I'm not saying that's definitely what's happening, but it's the impression I get from reading this especially since Kurumi's identity as a woman is persistently invalidated by the two main characters. In fact, the first time Kurumi introduces herself as a female anchor, Kouki outs her straight away by responding with:

"Female anchor my ass. You're a dude."

This is one of the reasons that I made the acknowledgement about society contributing to my perspective earlier, because a lot of the growth our society has gone through in the past decade has included things like trans acceptance and awareness. It may be generous of me to say, but I would go as far as to suggest that this book is at least unintentionally transphobic. Considering how trans women (in particular) were more likely to be portrayed with a negative stereotype in media, the fact that Kurumi is drawn as someone that could easily pass as a cisgender female by Takanaga is a low bar(especially when we consider how Kouki and Itaru treat her), but is something I don't think many people did for trans women in those days. Even so, I don't think this book has aged well in how Itaru and Kouki (in particular) treat Kurumi. One final acknowledgement on this point: The book I read was translated, and I haven't seen the original Japanese, so some of the transphobic wording may be down to translator discretion and has nothing to do with the original (if anyone has read the original Japanese text, I would be curious to know about this).

There are a couple of other quotes I picked out (to and about Kurumi in particular) that I also want to highlight:

(Said by Itaru) "You're so pretty today. Even though you're a guy."

(Said by Kouki) "To be frank, I just thought she was a dumb drag queen."

Kouki-san... Do you have feelings for other men? Because... Kurumi-san is a guy after all."
"Uh... She's practically a woman."
"I see. I guess so."

I did post an update commenting on them treating Kurumi better, but I can't find it. I did find Itaru thinking about her though, and describes her as "cute and cool," none of that 'even though she's a guy' stuff he said to her earlier in the book, just a nice compliment about her. I will also add, the characters do consistently use the correct pronouns for her, which is more than can be said for other trans manga characters (most notable example of misgendering in manga is Black Butler's Grell).

Moving on, another thing that really didn't sit well with me was Kouki calling Itaru, his love interest, "kid" several times throughout. Towards the end, he did it right after they share a passionate kiss and Itaru asks him if it means Kouki likes him too (he says "jeez, kid. Yeah, I guess that's what it means" to be exact). Not only is Itaru sort of infantilised with the way he's drawn (he's clearly supposed to be an adult, since he's first introduced as someone of drinking age and homeless after dropping out of college or something, but he's drawn with large doe-like eyes and a smaller frame that's typically associated with younger people in manga), but he's also infantilised by his love interest, who seems to have decided that 'kid' is an appropriate pet name.

Asides from that, there were moments I did sort of like in this, but they were short and rare, and sometimes tarnished with one of the things I've already mentioned that I have an issue with. One of my favourite moments was a funny miscommunication that happened between them:

Kouki: Hey. Itaru? It's bleeding. You should lick it. Right there. (points)
Itaru: What? (sees a cut on Kouki's hand) "You want me to lick it?
Kouki: ? Yeah.
Itaru: Okay. Then... (picks up Kouki's hand and licks his cut)
Kouki: (leaps back) "WHOA! What the hell are you doing?!"
Itaru: But you said... To lick it."
Kouki: "You idiot! I was talking about your elbow! Look at it!"
Itaru: Oh.

Another moment I liked was when Itaru finally opened up to what happened to him (someone plagiarised a story he wrote in college), Kouki validated his feelings, telling him it was terrible. I think Itaru started crying because he was overwhelmed with the relief of feeling validated after so many people told him to just get over it, which is something I can personally relate to. It does feel good to have someone tell you it's okay to feel how you feel about something like that, and I really like that Kouki did that for Itaru in this book.

There is also another part that happens in which Kouki tries to force himself on Kurumi, who is in a loving relationship with someone else and is not interested, and says it was a joke when Kurumi reacts negatively (I think Kurumi punches Kouki and asks him what the hell he's doing?), Kouki responds by saying it was just a joke. This entire scene is unfortunately realistic, isn't it? No means no, Kouki.

Anyway, there's my thoughts on this book. I would rate lower, but this isn't the worst thing I've read (it's had a few small moments of redemption). I would rate it higher, but I can't say I particularly enjoyed it or would read anymore if the author ever decided to release a sequel of some sort. It's not terrible, it's not great (not even good or okay), it's just sort of bad.

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the BL titles that I love simply for its diversity from the normal flow. Is the uke character sweet and small? Yes. Is the seme character a bit stoic and bigger? Yes. But that's about all that is the same when compared to the standards of things.

Itaru (uke) is much more self-assured when it comes to the relationship that starts between himself and Kouki (seme). He's the first to tell Kouki his feelings, the first to initiate things, and the first to crave more while Kouki wrestles with his emotions and is unsure of himself. Its a nice change of pace but without losing the entire typical seme/uke dynamic that you find in most BL. Instead it throws a dash of something new to the mix.

What's also nice about this title is that they don't fall for each other right off. Actually they have a rough start where you wonder if they'll even be friends and its only through working with each other and getting to know each other more that the feelings develope.

Plus you get Takanaga-sensei's artwork which is great for expressing emotion and has some cute humorous tones at times.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is soooooooo cute, I can barely stand it. All the characters are really charming (ahhhh I love Kurumi-san!) and the underlying message of being emotionally open and working toward what you want even if you can only do it slowly is so... wholesome? I was kind of surprised, honestly. And as always Takanaga-sensei’s art is beautiful. Very happy I picked this book up.

[Yoyomaus Die Büchereule · Rating 2 out of 5]

Verliebt in Osaka von Hinako Takanaga

Zum Inhalt:
Itaru Yaichi wird im betrunkenen Zustand von dem Fotografen Koki Kuwabara in einem Müllhaufen entdeckt und dabei gefilmt, Vor lauter Schreck darüber, reagiert Itaru ziemlich heftig. Koki nimmt Itaru mit zu sich nach Hause, damit er seinen Rausch ausschlafen kann. Obwohl das erste Zusammentreffen der beiden nicht gerade glücklich verlaufen ist, zieht Itaru daraufhin bei Koki ein. Je länger die beiden zusammen wohnen, desto mehr fühlt sich Itaru zu Koki hingezogen. Doch zunächst scheint seine Liebe ohne Hoffnung zu sein, denn da ist noch Kurumi, die Journalistin, für die Koki etwas empfindet. Als Itaru sich schließlich ein Herz fasst und Koki seine Liebe gesteht und ihn sogar küsst, ist Koki zunächst schockiert und verwirrt. Aber so ganz kalt scheint ihn Itarus Liebesgeständnis noch nicht zu lassen…

Cover:
Das Cover an sich gefällt mir sehr gut, auch wenn ich wieder einmal gestehen muss, dass ich den zweiten männlichen Charakter von der Optik her wieder sehr feminin finde und ich zu Beginn nicht wirklich sagen konnte, um was für eine Art von Manga es sich hier handeln wird. Dass die Zeichnung mich an sich trotzdem angesprochen hat, animierte mich dazu hier zuzugreifen. Zu sehen sind hier die beiden Protagonsiten Koki, welcher unnahbar scheint mit seiner Zigarette in der Hand und Itaru, welcher sich scheinbar glücklich an dessen Hals wirft.

Eigener Eindruck:
Stockbesoffen wird Itaru von Koki fotografiert, als er in einem Müllhaufen schläft. In seinem Dusel schlägt er Koki seine teure Kamera aus der Hand und macht sie damit kaputt. Als Itaru wieder zu sich kommt, befindet er sich in Kokis Wohnung. Während Koki dem mittellosen Itaru verklickert, dass dieser ihm die Kamera ersetzen soll, bekommt dieser Panik, denn er ist bettelarm und kann sich so etwas nicht leisten. Itaru soll die Sache abarbeiten und so zieht er bei Koki ein. Während Itaru sich mehr und mehr in Koki verguckt, scheint dieser unnahbar, nicht zuletzt, weil er auch eine Freundin hat. Doch als Itaru mit in der Firma von Koki zu arbeiten beginnt und diesem schließlich seine Gefühle gesteht, kommen Koki Zweifel, ob die Beziehung zu seiner Freundin wirklich das ist, was er will...

An sich fand ich die Idee nicht schlecht zu dem Manga, bei dem es sich hier um einen Oneshot handelt. Aber, ich muss ehrlich gestehen, dass ich von der Art der Zeichnungen wirklich mehr als enttäuscht war. Es waren bisweilen eher nur Skizzen und mir hat einfach die Liebe zum Detail gefehlt. Schade war auch, dass die Story nicht wirklich in Fahrt gekommen ist. Es fehlte mir an glaubwürdigen Emotionen. Dann muss ich auch zugeben, dass ich die Wahl und das Charakterdesign der beiden Protagonisten auch nicht so prall fand. Während Koki als knallharter und erwachsener Kerl rüber kommen soll, wird er manchmal auch recht schnell kindisch und Itaru, nun der ist eine Nummer für sich. Besaufen wie die Großen, vertragen wie die Kleinen - der erste Eindruck war einfach, nun ja, sagen wir daneben. Und dann ist der Kerl eine weinerliche Klette vom Herren und wirkt dadurch so unreif. Auch im Verlauf der Geschichte allgemein fehlte mir einfach die gewisse Spannung. Das war jetzt wieder so ein Manga, getreu dem Motto: Hat man mal gelesen, war nicht besonders, kann man wieder vergessen. Schade.

Fazit:

2 von 5 Sterne und keine Leseempfehlung meinerseits, weil mir hier einfach der Tiefgang und die Liebe zum Detail fehlt.

Daten:
Taschenbuch: 196 Seiten
Verlag: TOKYOPOP (1. Dezember 2006)
Sprache: Deutsch
ISBN-10: 3865805094
ISBN-13: 978-3865805096
Vom Hersteller empfohlenes Alter: 15 - 17 Jahre
Größe und/oder Gewicht: 13 x 1,5 x 18,8 cm

[Monika Kilijańska · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kouki Kuwabara, kamerzysta lokalnej telewizji kablowej, planuje złapać na gorącym uczynku kogoś, kto szpera w śmieciach, a potem nęka pewną kobietę, widza jego stacji. Jak na złość nie znajduje przy kubłach ze śmieciami poza urżniętym w sztok młodym mężczyzną. Niestety po nie do końca miłej wymianie słów dochodzi do szarpaniny i jego sprzęt zostaje uszkodzony.
Rano okazuje się, że młodzik nic nie pamięta. Co gorsza nie ma też grosza przy duszy, a do rodzinnego domu nie zamierza wracać, by nie sprawiać tam więcej problemów. Koukiemu żal chłopaka, pozwala więc wydobrzeć mu u siebie w domu – wszak nie ma w nim nic, co mógłby ukraść – i nawet zatrudnia w kablówce, by ten odpracował swoje winy. Powoli między tymi dwoma dochodzi do czegoś więcej niż tylko dzieleniu tego samego lokum.
Więcej na: https://www.monime.pl/liberty-liberty/

[Veronica Pappolla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una One-Shot davvero inaspettata. Ho conosciuto questa autrice con la serie del Tiranno innamorato. Ricordo che mi piacque ma col tempo ho rivalutato un po' la serie in quanto (quello che mi è rimasto dei volumi che ho letto) uno dei due protagonisti è praticamente stalkerato e "costretto" a "subire" le attenzioni dell'altro.
Poi ho recuperato i volumi unici, non li ho mai letti perché non mi attiravano. Pensavo di andare incontro a situazioni come quella descritta della sua "opera maggiore" e invece mi ha sorpresa. Questo, come Croquis, presenta dei personaggi particolari. L'autrice si impegna a darci personaggi diversificati per esperienze passate e per interessi.
Per non parlare che si vede un accenno di personaggio transessuale, seppure l'argomento non è approfondito.

[Bodine]

Back in secondary school, I once borrowed this from someone. While it was in my possession, someone else damaged it. So I bought a new copy to return and kept the damaged copy myself.

Now I don't usually read manga but since I'm currently reading death note I figured it'd be fun to pick this one up again. I'm not sure how I feel about it, which is in part because I dislikes several things but they could be cultural in which case they'd be interesting rather than stupid. In any case it was interesting to see how manga styles can differ.

[Tess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A BL oneshont that's perfectly fine to fulfill your craving for a sweet little love story. I remember reading some other stories from this mangaka and her characters, especially the uke types, always look the same. That's not a bad thing, per se, but it did make me chuckle. The art is a bit on the sketchy side, but lovely. On another note: I was pleasantly surprised by the trans representation in this. I haven't seen many transwomen in manga in general.

[Fairymysz · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5 csillag
Aranyos kis történet, de nem egy nagy durranás. Itaru és Kouki kapcsolatáról alig volt valami és az is inkább Itaru belső vívódásait mutatta meg. Sokkal jobban örültem volna, ha rájuk fókuszál a történet és nem a stúdióra és a többiekre.
Ennek ellenére jókat kuncogtam rajta, mert humoros volt. Kár, hogy ilyen rövid és kidolgozatlan, olvastam volna még.

[Soobie has fog in her brain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Das war besser als ich erwartet.

Die beide Hauptfiguren sind nett und die Geschichte ist glaubwürdig. Und, was ist noch besser, die zwei sind gleichberechtigt in der Beziehung. Ich mag auch das Setting der Geschichte.

Ich weiß, dass Takanaga-Sensei gute Geschichte schreiben kann.

[Ready To Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo sympatyczna, delikatna historia :) Polecam :D

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so sweet and made me happy. I loved the how organic the relationship felt and how optimistic it ended. I wish we could have had more but overall I'm satisfied.

[Mosley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a adorable one shot. I wish there had been a vol 2.

[H.K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story but Itaru sure is a whiny uke.

[Tankii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Die Story fängt mit einem sehr komischen Zufall an, welcher die Geschichte schon recht unglaubwürdig schein lässt, ansonsten ist es aber eine wholesome Geschichte über zwei zuckersüße Jungs.

[Pedał · Rating 4 out of 5]

Romans z menelem

[Piecz · Rating 1 out of 5]

wez o czym to jest o niczym

[OrchidWai · Rating 4 out of 5]

SWEET SWEET SWEET

For so long, I've only had one-sided feelings for other people. I've completely forgotten how good it feels to be loved.
-Kouki

Sweet little cameramen and runaway guy? lol XD it would do.

[inaword · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a cute little oneshot manga about… learning to adult, I guess. Itaru has dropped out of college and run away from everyone he knows to lick his wounds after a somewhat traumatic experience. While passed out drunk in a pile of trash on the street, he’s discovered by Kouki, a cameraman for a local news station. After Itaru drunkenly breaks Kouki’s camera, Kouki brings him back to his place to sober up in the hopes of extracting payment from him. Come to find out that Itaru is flat broke. Because of this, Itaru accidentally starts working at the news station to pay off his debt, and then he ends up falling in love with Kouki. As far as manga goes, this one is nothing special. It’s cute enough, and does have some humourous moments, and Itaru’s character development is decent, but there isn’t a whole lot here. It’s good for a quick read. The art is good, as is usual for this author, and the characters are fun. The two leads are Kouki, the older somewhat stoic cameraman, and Itaru, the wide-eyed fish out of water, and they’re pretty fun at times. The romance between them feels a bit insta-love-y, but that may only be because there isn’t really a concrete measurement of time passing (they’ve known each other at least a month, and Itaru has been living with Kouki for all that time). Also, for all of Kouki’s prickliness, he is actually quite caring of Itaru when it matters. Probably the third main character is Kurumi, who is transgender I think (it’s a bit hard to tell with older manga, and this one was first published in Japan in 2005). Kurumi is the main reporter/anchor of the news station and is a woman for all intents and purposes, but the other characters refer to her as a woman and with female pronouns but also say that she’s a guy? It’s weird, and in this day and age could be considered problematic. Aside from that, though, her character’s a non-issue. She’s pretty outgoing and fun, and is a nice foil to Kouki’s more standoffish personality. Though I could’ve done without the attempt at a Kurumi-Kouki-Itaru love triangle, but I suppose the story had to try to get some drama in there somewhere (meh). All in all, a decent read, though nothing too memorable. (Trigger warning for mild transphobia)

[Gretel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I originally read this in 2006 and I thought I could pick it up and see how it holds up. Better than "Skizzen der Liebe" because there's at least real and believable conflict but the Uke looks like a teenage boy, the Seme is good looking but is sometimes a real douche and the two have no chemistry. Zero. Seme and his co-worker, a transwoman, have a waaaaay more interesting connection. I'd rather read their story than this unrealistic couple. It feels like Takanaga smashing dolls together, screaming "KISS! KISS! KISS!" and hoping for the best.
The Uke is another girl-as-gay-boy case and the pair has no flair. Their connections is the antithesis of flying sparks.

Now I want someone to re-write the whole manga and make it about the Seme (in less douchy) and his co-worker. Now THAT'd be interesting!

Also, the translation is clumsy as hell, was was the case for many manga back then.

[Su · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of Hinako Takanaga--beautiful artwork, male characters who (generally) read realistically male and engaging dialogue. All of this holds true in "Liberty Liberty!" even if it is one of her lighter/fluffier works.

Itaru is a creative writing student who dropped out of university and ran away from home after a plagiarism scandal made him lose his confidence in his own writing. He ends up face-down and dead drunk in a garbage heap outside a bar in Osaka one night, where the cool, casual and handsome Kouki (a local cable station's cameraman) happens to be staking out a garbage heap-haunting stalker for a special report. He begins filming Itaru, wondering if he is the stalker, and in a drunken fit, Itaru accidentally breaks Kouki's video camera then promptly passes out. Kouki takes him back to his place to sober up so that he can get repayment for the camera, but being a runaway, Itaru doesn't have the cash and has twisted his ankle besides, so Kouki (who is unexpectedly warm-hearted despite being a cool drifter type) lets him crash at his place for a while while Itaru does odd jobs around the TV station to make up for breaking the camera. It isn't long before the two guys bond and Itaru starts falling for Kouki. But an old flame Kouki holds for his boss (the perky, transgendered Kurumi-chan, who is the cable station's female TV anchor) complicates matters.

A fun read with very light BL/shounen-ai. Recommended for fans of the genre and/or Hinako Takanaga.

[Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty fluffy, a light, pleasing and inoffensive read.

Itaru and Kouki fit that mold where one's clearly an adult man and a bit of a loner in some ways and the other's an enthusiastic but somewhat clueless/clumsy young boy who can't quite take care of himself. Very different body types, eyes and apparel. A big trend, also with the younger boy tending to rely on the older man for financial help. But in theory, Itaru's 20, so...he's not meant to actually BE a young boy. In this case, other than Itaru being a bit of a crybaby, I wasn't too bothered by the pairing. (And really, it's a pretty classic plot from straight romance novels.)

They're both very likeable in their own ways, with Itaru being cuteness overload and Kouki a bit more layered (and really attractive in that complexity). A few panels captured emotions *so* well that I had to stop and savor.

I like both the ending and the bonus story, in terms of where Takanaga chooses to leave us.

Nice to see a clearly (and positively) developed trans character, particularly compared to the character in Yellow who left me a bit uncomfortable. I also liked, again, the direct way that characters discussed their sexualities.

[Judyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

~3/5

This was just a pretty average story. The artwork is not as great as Awkward Silence, though all right.

This one is about a photographer who ends up taking in a stray—a guy who has no place left to go, and ends up staying with the photographer. He ends up working for their cable company, then getting a job of his own, and stays as a roommate. The photographer has a female friends who was nice, and pushy enough for them.

The romance is very slow here, especially since the photographer doesn’t think he has any interest in men. But I liked the stray, and I really felt for him at one point. The plot is slow, and the romance is just starting to develop when the book ends.

Overall, it was okay. The storyline and characters didn’t really grab me, but it was a nice book. I hope to pick up more of Takanaga’s previous books, and I hope some of them are better.

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

[Rowan McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never would have picked up this book if my copy of Gakuen Heaven: Nakajima hadn't fallen apart and a friend hadn't talked to someone at Blu AND that someone hadn't sent me two bonus manga in addition to the replacement copy of GH. But I'm really glad the stars happened to align that way because I enjoyed it very much.

The story didn't have the typical seme/uke dynamic, with Kouki being a bit gruff but not cold, cruel, or aggressive. More often than not it's *Itaru* who moves things forward in the relationship, because while he's young and innocent (on the surface, typical uke), he's also straightforward with his feelings when many manga characters would hedge.

"Liberty*Liberty" was a lot of fun. The first volume was a gift. I'll definitely be buying the second.

[78sunny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Die Geschichte ist ganz süß, ein typischer Boy-Romance Manga halt. Koki, ein Kameramann, findet einen betrunkenen Jungen (Itaru) auf der Straße. Er nimmt ihn mit nach Hause und gibt ihm einen Job in seiner Firma. Daraus entwickelt sich dann natürlich mehr.
Der Manga ist ab 15 und mehr als küssen passiert hier auch nicht. Es ist einfach eher niedlich.
Der Zeichenstil gefällt mir unglaublich gut. Die Charaktere sind sehr niedlich und dieses Mal auch gut zu unterscheiden.

Meine Wertung:
4 von 5 Sternen

[Freyavenlyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

2nd read: still nice. rating stands.
3,5 stars
If you like your mangas on a more steamier side, you are pretty wrong here because it's a very nice, very sweet love story.
Takanagas's style is very easy to read, the art is very likeable. She always has pretty interesting side characters, even if you seldom learn more about them.
Nice, nice, nice.

[scarlettraces · Rating 4 out of 5]

Takanaga's trademark cute! and sweet!