Rei Sagara ( 相楽 玲, Sagara Rei) Voiced by: Daisuke Hirakawa (Japanese) David Wald (English) Portrayed by: Shinichi Wago (film) Rei is the Sena family's manager. He fell in love with Izumi when he was ten and Izumi was eight during the commercial. Even after he finds out Izumi is a guy when they reunite, he still maintains strong feelings for him. Ryōma Ichijō ( 一条 龍馬, Ichijō Ryōma) Voiced by: Takuya Eguchi (Japanese) Adam Gibbs (English) Portrayed by: Hiroki Nakada (film) Ryoma is a popular young actor two years older than Izumi, who fell in love with him as a child, thinking him to be a girl, when they co-starred in a commercial together ten years prior. Izumi is often mistaken as a girl due to his tiny frame. He is a huge fan of the fictional anime show Magical Girl Lala-Lulu. Over the course of the series, he begins to develop strong feelings for Ryoma and falls in love with him. Ten years ago, he botched a bouquet catching scene in a commercial while dressed as a girl, and since then he refuses to be involved in the entertainment industry due to his "accident" caused by stage fright. His father is a director, his mother is a film actress, and his older brother Shōgo is the lead vocalist of a popular band. A college student at the age of eighteen, he aspires to be a manga author despite lacking the talent for it. They’re adorable! The rest of the book heavily features lots of conversation, or even panels of nothing but words over a blank background, so most of it is not visually striking, although workable.Characters Izumi Sena ( 瀬名 泉水, Sena Izumi) Voiced by: Tsubasa Yonaga (Japanese) Greg Ayres, Tia Ballard (child) (English) Portrayed by: Mahiro Sugiyama (film) Izumi is the main protagonist of the story. My favorite art in the book is a chapter heading pinup that features a bunch of characters as chibi versions in Halloween costumes. She’s also trying to prepare herself better for taking care of herself, a nice theme for an end volume. His conflict is letting go of her, realizing she’s growing up and he can finally pursue his own life. Early on, he was a rival for her affections, but then he became solely her caretaker. It helps that a new character is introduced to give Nao’s uncle Sou someone to pair up with for a happy ending.
#Love stage read manga online series
Again in this case, the happy ending is just a few pages at the end, followed by the single story that inspired the series by Amu Meguro. It’s a common premise, comfortable in its familiarity, and entertaining by being softly sweet.
The shy, goofy boy and the cool, quiet, self-possessed girl seem as oddly suited as the main couple, but they’re equally charming in their fumbles to get together.Īlthough I haven’t read the series in a while, I had no problem picking up on the bigger parts of the story enough to follow it, although I may have missed out on some nuance. Now that the last challenge for the mismatched-but-well-suited main couple, Nao and Tai, has been overcome (based on the “story so far” notes), it’s time to pair up the best friends. This is a more traditional shojo wrap-up. (That’s also the one explicit sex scene in the book.) I’ll miss these goofy young stars and mangaka wannabes, even if their story wandered far afield from the original premise of cross-dressing created by Eiki Eiki and Taishi Zaou. The wrap-up is rather abrupt, with more attention paid to Ryoma and Izuki working out their concerns in the bedroom. Of course, it all leads to a happy ending. “Is this what women deal with on an everyday basis?!” Although Izumi is young, cute, and feminine-looking, he’s surprisingly determined about what he wants, which causes conflict, complicated by the threat to kidnap him and an attempted rape. “I never knew it could be this frightening to have someone stare at my ass all the time!” he thinks. While the assumption of this kind of manga is usually that a character is one or the other (with a brief mention of “reversing” not being popular among BL readers), why couldn’t two guys (who discovered they loved each other before they identified as gay) switch off? How they work through this, both physically and conversationally, foregrounds the concept of making changes and stretching your boundaries out of love for your partner.īut first, Ryoma has to quit freaking out. Izumi, usually the “bottom” because he’s more “girly”, decides he wants to try topping his boyfriend, who isn’t at all sure he’s into that idea. The big conflict, though, calls into question one of the key assumptions of the yaoi genre.