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I recommend this to first time light novel readers looking for some boys' love as I think it makes for a good branch between manga and novel. It's easy to get through, has some sweet moments, and though nothing too spectacular as a whole, manages to have its own charm. Overall I didn't have any problems reading through this translation re-write of Sweet Admiration. The first thing Katsuya does is plan to meet with a childhood friend, Kazuki, in hopes of finding a place to stay while he awaits his company's housing development. Readers follow Katsuya and Shio's steadily evolving relationship over the span of a few months, which includes short tours around the city, and an emotionally clingy stepbrother who seeks to step between them.Being a light novel, there's obviously a lot more translation work involved for the staffers at Digital Manga Publishing (June) than with a one-shot manga book. The simple writing style, reading very similar to teen books, felt a little awkward when suddenly describing such intimate details.While I didn't think much of the cover illustration, I did like the black and white interior illustrations (all by Midori Shena).
They were good representations of the scenes they were portraying and gave readers nicely drawn faces to put to the names.All in all, Sweet Admiration was a nice read. However, things don't work out as planned; that is, until things suddenly take a turn in his favour when his new boss places him with a roommate in the "company dorms", with someone Katsuya has had on his mind since childhood: Kazuki's older brother, Shio.With a believably fresh start, Katsuya and Shio's new living arrangement doesn't work out that well at first. Not enjoying the cold state between them, Katsuya kindly and ignorantly ignores Shio's requests to leave him alone and keeps giving happy hellos and fresh-cooked meals each and everyday.I enjoyed the pacing of Sweet Admiration, which though it does have a tone that's clearly suggestive of its boys' love nature, it never felt too overeager to get to the romantic coupling. The wording was simple and easy to understand and I didn't come across any glaring spelling or grammar issues. Shio remembers Katsuya, but not nearly as memorably as Katsuya remembers him. Sweet Admiration is the story of Katsuya, a country boy who moves to Tokyo for work.
Shio is understandably annoyed with the fact he was suddenly placed with a roommate. The only thing that got me was the moment near the end when a sex scene started up.
I don't want to realize just how old Takamasa was when that "incident" occurred. But this wasn't nearly as bad.I would say this is merely okay. That is confusing and extremely annoying. The story was sweet and predictable (just the way I like my yaoi). I confess that I'm not expecting anything great; just a little smut and some cute drawings.
But I am trying not to think too hard about that bit between Shio and Takamasa. In one sentence we're getting Shio's thoughts and then we're suddenly reading Katsuya's thoughts without any transition.It reminded me a little of that horrible first edition of "Only the Ring Finger Knows v01" which barely made any sense. This had nice illustrations (though they were few and far between) but it was really poorly written. I buy every yaoi novel I can find that is printed in English. I don't know if it was a problem with the translation or what but the author would switch points of view in mid paragraph.
The drawings were nice but there were hardly any for the first half of the novel (only 1 in the first 70 pages and then a little overkill for the rest of the novel).
He remembers the slender quiet young man that was SHio and his almost feminine beauty. Shio also has a younger step brother who is obsessed with him, and treats Katsuya like the "third wheel".
Take the time to read a couple of pages as I leave you to make the decision, it really wasn't in my tastes especially in the whole uke and seme roles [that's not a spoiler you can see it coming a mile a way] but it was okay nonetheless. Although I had waited for a very long time for this novel I wasn't surprised that it wasn't going to be a favorite of mine.
In Sweet admiration we follow these two unlikely candidates to fall in love with each other as they struggle to overcome their own differences. I won't say it was a perfect read but it did seem to come off as more realistic than many other yaoi novels out there in the market.
Sweet Admiration starts sweet enough, Katsuya reminisces his childhood and when he first came into contact with the beautiful Shio, his best friend's older brother. Though Katsuya is athletic looking with muscles he is not the seme in this story, in fact he is very self conscious when it comes to Shio who is unexpectedly harsh in the beginning with Katsuya when they are made to move in together.
The cover kind of swept me up, when I began reading the story I noticed many things off such as Katsuya and the way he acted throughout the novel as well as Shio though beautiful and slender came off as having more of a masculine behavior especially when it came to Katuya's feelings.
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