ellelainey's reviews
2461 reviews

Haru Kosaka is a regular guy, but while attempting to stop a potential stalking/beating he stumbles upon something he doesn't quite understand and ends up being hurt instead. He's saved by a man called Akihito, who claims to be a vampire!

Akihito is an ancient vampire, the leader of a ragtag group of vampires, and in saving Kosaka's life, he inadvertently creates his first Tank: a human he's turned into a vampire.

The story is super cute, with a lot of potential for more, and a detailed world build around the concept of human rights evolving. The year is 2096, and humans have adapted to a less caring community, so the number of orphans is HIGH. Society has potentially lost it's humanity, but the story also deals with war, PTSD, abandonment, and the concept of vampires hiding in the shadows.

The artwork is gorgeous. I would have liked more story, or at least more exploration of 'romance' between Akihito and Kosaka, because it all came across a bit like obsession, insta-love and a lot of duty/responsibility bred by the fact that Akihito turned Kosaka.

Right now it's billed as a solo, but I'm hoping there might be another volume in the future?

This was such a super cute story! The art is GORGEOUS! After seeing all the variant covers, this is one of those books where I'd want EVERY cover design!

Haebom lost his parents as a young kid, so their best friend took him in. Only, her son Taesung didn't want him to live with them.

There are some flashbacks to when they were little - cute, adorable munchkins who were drawn so friggin cute! - which shows some ambiguous wording taken out of context, they way kids can do when they're already nervous or upset.

Now he's a senior, Haebom is shocked when Taesung ends up in his class for the first time. Haebom feels like a burden on the family, so he doesn't want anyone - especially Taesung - to find out about the other kids who have been bullying him.

Taesung is popular and no one knows that they live together. They both believe the other one hates them, so they haven't been close since they took Haebom in years ago. Now they're in the same class, Taesung sees the bullying and tries to help.

I loved how blank, stern but composed Taesung is. He's quite unemotional at times, but Haebom brings out those emotions the way no one else can.

I'm SO looking forward to the next volume!

Bullying, Forbidden romance, Non-related brothers (?), Enemies to lovers, Grumpy / sunshine

DNFd at page 136.

Okay, this had a weird but interesting first few chapters. Paul summons a demon, Astaroth - really reminds me of Bedknobs and Broomsticks - to help him get up the courage to speak to Elena, his secret crush.

Only, we find out that Elena works for the Holy Order to eradicate demons...
Complicated, right?

I find this hard to admit but I really do not like the art style. From the cover, it looks fine, but there are some ugly looks, whole panels with no colour, I presume to portray a particular emotion, and some of the faces are downright ugly and demonic for no reason. Paul, in particular - and I assume this is deliberate - goes from cutesy hearts to full on menace between panels.

And, I'm sorry to say that everyone just comes across as an absolute idiot! The Holy Order heavies spend FIVE pages arguing and fighting over who is the best Powderpuff Girl! Paul is supposedly super powerful - enough that the Holy Order think he's a group of magic users - but his big party trick is to make his hand appear, like a statue, on top of a building, doing the peace sign...like...WTF? Why make a huge monument of his hand? Why on top of a building? No idea, because he only does it because he can!

It's supposed to be a comedy, but it's cheesy and not at all to my taste. I don't even care what happens next. I don't care about Paul, Astaroth, his minions, Elena, the Holy Order, Paul's sister, or the poor kid at school who keeps ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Overall it just comes off as really immature. I can see the type of teenage boy who would love the so-called empowerment of Phil and envy it, but Paul is literally stalking Elena and threatening any man who comes near her. That is not the kind of story I signed on for. And I find the cover completely misleading as it suggests that Astaroth is willingly helping Paul, but that's not the case at all. He's locked into a contract where Paul seems to have all the power, then storms off like a child when Paul thinks he's got a better deal. I'm pretty sure there should be consequences to breaking a deal with a demon.

However there's a lot of suspended belief to believe in any of this story. It just doesn't make sense. The plot is thin, the characters are a mess, the art goes from super cute to sloppy within the space of a panel, and Paul is such a huge red flag you can see the signs from an ocean away.

This was a nice little breather after the long arc of the battle. It felt like a collection of vignettes, giving us a bit of insight into their travels. Gil imposed a no-reading ban on Lizel as punishment for his behaviour during the battle, which was surprisingly funny.
I'm looking forward to seeing where volume 11 goes...

Oh man! I didn't realise how close I was to Volume 3's release, when I read the first two the other day. I should have waited, and gone straight into 3 but I had my dates mixed up.

I am gutted that this is the last in the series, but at the same time I actually agree with the author that this felt like a great ending for them. There are apparently a lot of one-shot stories, do I hope they compiled into another volume, like with the Candy Colour Paradox Assorted Pack.

This was such a fun volume! The handcuffs came out! And the whole acorn thing was SO cute!

"Sexy, gutter-minded patrol officer taken into custody at 12.30pm, Sir."

Wow! I thought the rumours about Haru were lies to make her look bad, but they're actually true! And just because Legoshi did something to help her, she stripped and tried to have sex with him...and like a dope, Legoshi is all happy about the fact she saw him not just as a wolf but as a man... Really?!?

The play was interesting and the argument that Legoshi is being self righteous is both fair and unfair. Yes, he is, but claiming he's weak or somehow denying his nature is untrue because he's simply more aware of it and the danger he poses.

I love Louis, with his fragile ego and hidden vulnerability.

While interesting the entire plot of Tem's murder has been ignored, with so much emphasis on Haru and this "inexplicable" draw Legoshi has towards her, that I won't be reading any further. I'm not even remotely interested in her, and in fact can see that Louis is a much better match for Legoshi. If that's not going to happen - and I checked spoilers to make sure - then I'm not reading any more.

4* for potential and art, but it's just not for me, though I can see why it's so popular.

This was such an interesting concept! This is a high school where herbivores and carnivores go to school together. The first scenes are of an alpaca, Tam, being stalked and murdered in the drama room! What an opening.

From what follows, there's the implication that things have been mostly amicable between the two groups before, but the rumours that Tam was murdered by a carnivore spreads like wildfire and tensions rise.
It very much gave me Zootopia vibes, with some sprinkles of Sing!

I loved that each character was distinct in both appearance and personality. You could (mostly) easily identify which species a character was by their design.

Legoshi is the main character and he's definitely interesting! A grey wolf, he lives with some demons, keeping to himself because he doesn't want what he is to scare his fellow students. We discover that he was actually pretty good friends with Tam, but now everyone thinks the "loner, psycho" wolf killed him! However, Legoshi is just an introvert trying to fight the demons of his species.

I like the meaning of the title, the back drop of mystery surrounding Legoshi and the murder. Legoshi is sweet and troubled, just 17 but dealing with the unavoidable reality that people are scared of him just because of how he was born. I really like the deer, Louis, too. I feel like there's definitely some simmering tension between Legoshi and Louis. Louis is from a rich family, kind of like the mean but beloved rich jock in most high school dramas, except he's king of the drama club. Late in the volume we see he's got some demons of his own - he can't admit to doing something nice for someone else without making out it's really for selfish reasons, and he's a perfectionist to the point of hurting himself.

Legoshi has an encounter with a bunny, Haru, that implies there might be some romance in their future. I'm not sure how I feel about that, because I haven't seen enough of Haru yet to decide how I feel about her, but so far she's definitely hitting all my hated Female MC tropes. I've never been a fan of the "woe is me, girl who is in unfairly bullied because every boy wants her but uses and hurts her" or worse, she gets blamed for being a seductress just because she's "so weak and frail and they must protect her only to end up hurting her". Haru embodies both of these tropes, with the added, unfortunate addition of the "She's so misunderstood and it's unfair how other girls victimise her for something that's not her fault" trope.
Honestly, if Haru ends up with Legoshi in the "I'm the big bad wolf who will protect you into death" trope, in the next volume, I'm out!

There's a lot of promise and potential in this world/series, so I hope it doesn't just drift into romantasy land...

Seiji and Shin are just as adorable in Volume 2!

By this point, they've been dating for 2 months, and have moved in together. Shin is so adorable about how excited he is about that. They get to have their first couple holiday, celebrate Shin's birthday, and have New Year together. Plus, they finally catch the convenience store robber! It's a busy volume.

Again, the one liners are epic:
"Your main dish has arrived, Sir!"
"He's hiding a god warrior in his pants."
"I got shot." <- this is actually the funniest one liner in the entire volume.

I wonder how Seiji will cope if it turns out that his precious cat is actually pregnant? She's been putting on weight for a while now and only Shin has noticed... I see fireworks from him, if that's the case, but lots of adorable cat/kitten moments in the future.

TROPES: age gap, policeman/uniform, opposites attract, double bi-awakening, first time, "pick me"
TRIGGERS: references to mild violence, PTSD

Shin Nakamoto (30) is a rookie cop, recently back in town after training. Seiji Tajima (38) is the cop who once saved his life, eight years ago. Shin became a cop so that he could work with Seiji, only to discover that Seiji soon left the police force. Now, 10 years later, Shin is a casual visitor to the convenience store Seiji runs. There's a lot of back story for these two, which is nicely filtered throughout the story, rather than just being dumped in as a whole block. It was nice to see the little trickles of information sprinkled throughout.

Shin and Seiji have an 8 year age gap, but they communicate brilliantly! Shin is very open about his interest in Seiji, even having an epic PICK ME moment that was swoony. Seijji, despite being older, is actually more shy and reserved when it comes to romance. However, he's very open minded and has already paired up a couple of friends, who began a gay relationship.
There is a reference at the end of the book that their story was an unofficial prequel, and this is the spin-off of that story, however I can't find anywhere to buy it. But you don't have to have read that to understand this story, but it would be nice to connect the dots. I hope SuBLime publish it, as well.

I really loved the way that Shin and Seiji's friendship became a romantic relationship, with lots of chemistry. They knew each other pretty well, had good banter, and didn't feel uncomfortable with each other, despite both making a point of their age gap being quite big.

Speaking of big...Seiji was hilarious! "Concealed weapons violation" was brilliant! Shin's Godzilla! There were some brilliant one liners, with a very fun, flirty relationship. I loved that they didn't play games with each other, but were open and honest all throughout. I particularly loved that, because they were both new to being with another man, THEY. DID. THEIR. RESEARCH! They both were eager to delve in, but with Seiji being nervous of Shin's...*cough* Godzilla *cough*...he made sure they did due diligence by being smart and careful. I love that.

Big thumbs up. I can't wait to read Volume 2, though I probably should have waited until Volume 3 was closer to release...

TRIGGERS: possessive/jealous/controlling and abusive ex, student/teacher relationship, coersed into sex, age gap


This was such a surprisingly beautiful story.

Minobe Chihiro is a 1st year high school student at the private fine art school, studying classic ballet. He's got everything a ballet dancer needs - except the drive, the passion and the ability to draw the eye when on stage as part of a group. In contrast, Ichinomiya is a talented ballet dancer, who has recently transitioned over to contemporary dance. He's got a reputation at school, for being unapproachable and grumpy. Underneath the exterior, he's actually really sweet and lonely, separated by his reputation as a dancer and a grumpy student.

They're perfectly imperfect characters who are adorable together; cute, friends-with-benefits, and have a sort of tutor and student vibe.

We mostly see the story through Minobe's POV, but at 59% we get to see some of Ichinomiya, who has such a tragic story.

There is a seriously messed up "relationship" between Ichinomiya and a teacher at the school, Futima, who becomes obsessed with him, abusive and violent; he's controlling and actually ties Ichinomiya up at one point. There's some off-page stuff that hints at even more violence, but it's hard to tell what really happens between them because Ichinomiya is so closed off a lot of the time, and we don't get to see much of his POV. It keeps the violence/aggression and most of the student/teacher relationship mostly off-page.

There are a few pages of sex at the end, but the build up is lovely and because it's between the MC's - Minobe and Ichinomiya - you don't feel too weird about them being teenagers, because they've had a legit relationships that has grown and evolved to the point where it's almost the inevitable result. Though they are teenagers and it's a little squidgy to read the pages, it did feel like where they were heading. It felt like a nice culmination of all the work they'd put into their relationship until that point.

Overall, the chemistry and connection between Minobe and Ichinomiya is what makes this story so amazing. Minobe is outgoing and fascinated by Ichinomiya right from the start, captivated by his talent, attracted to him but super excited to see him dance. In contrast, Ichinomiya is curious about how un-jaded Minobe is, that he's dedicated and eager to work hard, to learn dance, to share that experience, and he's not put off by Ichinomiya's reputation. That begins their work together, where Ichinomiya realises Minobe is a little over-eager about dancing together and encourages a physical relationship that eventually, slowly, blossoms into more.

I can't wait for Volume 2, to hopefully see Futima get his comeuppance.