   |
Manga-ka: Mio Tennohji
Publisher: DramaQueen
Rating: Mature (18+)
Released: August 2007
Synopsis: “Yuu Ono has been waiting impatiently to have the house all to himself while parents to Guam for a weekend trip getaway. But no sooner do they board the plane than Yuu bumps into a man who whisks him away to an opulent hotel where he comes face-to-face with… himself?! Pressed into becoming the body double for the Crown Prince of Qurd, Yuu’s life is suddenly thrown into peril but Yuu can’t help but trust the handsome bodyguard who swears, “I’ll protect you, even at the cost of my life…””
Worth noting for Love Me Sinfully is that the title story lasts a mere 46 pages of this 178 page graphic novel. Though this is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s worth knowing ahead of time to avoid the inevitable surprise of the discovery.
The story of Yuu begins quickly as he sees his parents off at the airport and a moment after is swept away by the steely-eyed Brad Welsh. It’s then he meets the Prince of Qurd, a young boy who has a striking to resemblance to him. Taking on the role of the Prince’s body double, Yuu is put under the protection of Brad. After some not so gentle ‘teasing’ from Brad, Yuu finds himself in love with the bodyguard, even knowing that they have mere days together… or do they? That is what readers will be left wondering for the few pages it takes to get to the ending, an ending so cheesy that it’s impossible to take seriously.
The rest of the book is a combination of short stories including love between a priest and politician, a man and the ‘ghost’ next door and a powerful VP and his chauffeur. Ending the assortment is a brief epilogue for the cast of the first story.
The artwork in this book is attractive and detailed. Designs of the characters are kept consistent throughout and are a nice mix of light bishounen (pretty men, usually associated with more feminine attributes) and more masculine appearances so the style can appeal to fans of both yaoi artistic types. Some care must be taken when the stories begin switching to keep track of the characters due to some similar characteristics, but it’s no confusion that a simple mental note wouldn’t prevent. A combination of varying line width and well use screen toning give each page a nice sense of depth and artistic skill. This book is well deserving of it’s mature rating with several graphic sex scenes.
DramaQueen has put Love Me Sinfully together as a good quality release. The book has a glossy, colourful cover slip and a full colour image as the initial inner page. The combination of paper and binding on DQ releases makes the books floppy but definitely in a good way, light and easy to turn. How comfortable a book is to read usually isn’t an issue unless it’s a noticeable extreme of good or bad and this is certainly worth noting the good. Included at the back of the book is a preview for another of DQ’s licenses, Invoke, as well as two full colour little cover previews on the back edge of the book’s cover slip. Inside translation is easy to follow and uses a nice font, however on occasion the font does seem to change without purpose. Sound effects have all been carefully removed and replaced with English equivalents.
Overall, Love Me Sinfully is a collection of stories that suits the definition of yaoi perfectly: No peak, no point, no problem. The stories are all short and shallow with few realistic feeling scenes and problem-free ‘happily ever afters’. This book’s existing merit comes from the quality of the artwork and the entertainment value based entirely on the fact that it’s a collection of yaoi stories, each with their own sex scenes and doey eyed moments of falling in love. While each tale has its moments, overall there’s little substance to any of them.
In the end Love Me Sinfully isn’t necessarily a bad collection of boys’ love tales but definitely one that a person wouldn’t pick up for quality of story. Recommended only to fans of yaoi and this particular art style.
Written Feburary 4, 2008 by Lissa Pattillo for ComicsVillage
Book purchased online from DramaQueen
Follow
