Baku Ai

Baku Ai by Anisaki Yuna
Overall: No Thank You
Smexy Times: Dry
Art: Shoujo-y








I apologize for the lateness of this review, but here it is, as promised on my Twitter!


The story of this manga is a little confusing, which could be the translation, but I think the plot just has a major hole anyway. But it could just be me. 
Anyway, the story starts off at a Catholic high school with two girls, Sara (the popular one) and Youko (the... other one). Sara and Youko used to be friends, but not anymore, for whatever reason. I don't really think that got explained. But for some reason or another, Sara decides she wants to be friends with Youko again. (Note that there is actually a reason, but... that's for later.)


One night, Sara comes to Youko's window (though I'm not sure how because it's on the second floor as far as I can tell) and wants to spend the night. She gives Youko a goodnight kiss, and for some reason, the taste of the kiss (cigarettes) is mentioned like five times after the kiss. Is the taste supposed to be important or something? The only thing it shows is that the little Catholic school girl isn't such a good girl, but I think we already knew that.
After that, Youko can't get Sara off her mind, so they start becoming "friends" again. I don't think friends tie each other's hands up while they kiss them though. Seriously, I don't get the hand tying thing. It makes no contextual sense! And then there's this scene with Sara and Youko's mom, and there's some sort of tension, but nobody cares. I'll explain that in a second anyway.


So they start hanging out and kissing a lot more. I'm surprised no one cares, to be honest. I mean, it's an all-girls Catholic school. They're not as ambiguous as they think they are. 
So one day, Youko forgets something at her house before going to school, so she hurries back and finds her mom and Sara's dad doing the deed. Sara enters the scene and says some pretty confusing dialogue, which I'm assuming means the whole relationship was a lie or something. See, this is the point at which nothing makes sense anymore. Now note that Anisaki Yuna tends to write a lot of smut, and this is the only yuri manga she appears to have. One-shot smut generally doesn't do plots very well (or at all), so this could be on the fault of the mangaka, or it could be a stupid translation. Because I honestly just have no clue. This is the whole problem with the manga. This one page! And suddenly the somewhat decent manga just falls apart completely. 


So to fix this problem, Youko decides to visit Sara while she's smoking at school (I honestly don't know how she hasn't been caught yet!), and Youko decides to prove her love to Sara by burning her leg with the cigarette. Somehow or another, this works, and they make out on the school stairwell.


Now obviously, this ending doesn't solve anything! Seriously, no conclusion about their parents, no real explanation for what the hell changed, nothing! This manga actually started out decently. It seemed like it could be a cute, fluffy story about forbidden girl's love. Cliché, yes, but not terrible for someone's first yuri manga. But then Anisaki decided to try to throw in some dumb plot line, and the whole thing just fell apart. The art is decent, certainly nothing special. And the biggest irony is that the only really sexy stuff is done by the straight couple. This manga could have been decent, but it's just stupid instead.