Customer Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic shounen-ai series with a good plot
Comment: Wow, I only just read the first volume in the Fake series and I'm already thrilled by it. I'm sure that I will like this series just as much as I loved the Kizuna series by Kazuma Kodaka. Actually both series have certain similarities, while maintaining their individual characters.
Ryo and Dee are two New York City cops and become partners at work. Their first job is to investigate the murder of a drug dealer and the resulting events of their investigation not only get Dee kidnapped, but also increases the emotional level of their partnership.
I really like the characters of Ryo and Dee. Ryo is the thoughtful person, who is quite overwhelmed by the feelings Dee awakes in him, and Dee is the funny person who instantly begins flirting with Ryo. The story is gritty, as you would expect of a police story. Altogether a fantastic read.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Guaranteed to make you want more.
Comment: Book Description:
The story revolves around two cops Ryo and Dee. Ryo is just transferring into the department and gets hooked up with the wild child of the department (Dee) that the chief wants reined in. Poor Ryo has his hands full when Dee's attention turns to more than just giving him a hard time on the job to getting him alone at home. All the while the duo are solving crimes and saving the innocent.
My Review:
This book is a must for yaoi lovers. What more can you ask for 2 cops; one with a heart of gold and the other with a heart of passion for his partner. The story line is full of plots each chapter ties in well with the next. As the pages turn, the storyline grows-a nice variety of supporting characters are added in the mix to spice things up. And a wonderful selection of antagonists and triangle love interests (new and old) pop up. All which cause the main boys woes and worries, misunderstanding abound which lead to those wonderful kissing scenes we all love. The art work is good and the imagery is detailed. Ryo's mixed personality of innocent vs. seriousness charms you right off and Dee's devilish side enthralls while the sideline commentary makes you giggle.
Other Great Series/Manga by Sanami Matoh
By the Sword
Tenryu: The Dragon Cycle
Until the Full Moon
RA-I
TRASH
For those who like this series I recommend checking out "Yellow" by Makoto Tateno
Customer Rating:
Summary: FAKE, a YAOI classic
Comment: This manga is one of the best YAOI out there; it's fun,it's got hot guys and it's realistic. You basically can't put it down: once you start reading, you never stop!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Very Nifty Hero. So-So Plot.
Comment:
FAKE is a frequently hilarious, sometimes touching, sometimes kind of lame series about a pair of male NYPD detectives who have the hots for each other. FAKE at its best often reads like an NYPD "Britcom", with an extremely unrealistic police department full of wacky gay detectives. At its worst, it's like a bad STARSKY AND HUTCH rip-off, or a scary date. If you want to try FAKE, I'd say that Volume One is a fairly strong showcase for its best qualities.
The best of its qualities would be Ryo: The blonde-in-more-ways-than-one, part-Japanese detective hero, who starts off the story by getting transferred into the standard rag-tag precinct of American cop show cliche. Ryo is earnest, well-meaning, and far too nice for his own good - which makes him an irresistible target for both the jokes and the come-ons of his mercurial smart-ass partner, Dee Laytner. Poor Ryo cannot figure out whether Dee's sexual overtures are sincere, any more than he can figure out whether he wants them to be. His deep-seated cluelessness about himself extends to weightier matters than romance, as we see in later volumes.
Dee is likewise engaging and energetic, with an overabundance of personality. Despite his confident swagger, he can be pretty clueless about his own intentions himself, which brings complexity and additional level of interest to his lecherous pursuit.
These complexities, and the unfolding of the relationship over the course of the series, is FAKE's greatest strength. FAKE's biggest flaw is that the ending fails to follow through on Ryo and Dee's character development to the extent I would have liked. Even Ryo's foster-child never becomes anything more than a device to break up Ryo and Dee's clinches, and Ryo never becomes self-actualized enough to do this on his own. The Dee/Ryo sexual assaults that start up in Book 2 are painfully unfunny: And while we can eventually deduce that rape is not Dee's intent in these scenes, what I suspect to be his (far more interesting) real motive is never properly addressed.
Other problems: While the epidemic of nonconsensual smooching which seems to plague this particular precinct is far too BENNY HILL-ish to be remotely offensive, Matoh's humor hits a nastily sour note in other cases. It may be funny when Ryo's homophobic foster-brat Bikky beats up on Dee. When Bikky beats up gay kids at summer camp, or when Dee threatens to molest Bikky's little girlfriend in order to get him to do something, then not so much. The precinct banter is hilarious, but there isn't enough of it. And the crime stories which take up such huge chunks of the manga are just plain bad; boring, implausible, and grim. Even Dee's backstory was forgettable.
On the plus side, FAKE doesn't present actual rape as part of the romance, which seems to be rare in the genre, and is therefore appreciated. The heroes are grown ups, look like men instead of girls, and are equals in age and strength. The art sometimes feels cramped and boxed in, but when it opens up (usually in kissing scenes) it's very nice, and Matoh doesn't sacrifice energy and personality for wan prettiness the way some mangaka's like to do. Likewise, the romance was frequently moving, Leo was cool, and I laughed out loud a LOT.
There is a lot to like about FAKE. Particularly Ryo. I think I might buy Volume 1, just so I can look his goofy expression anytime I feel blue. I just wish his story had a little bit more of a payoff, and a lot less filler.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Micari Shelly - yaoirealm.com
Comment: This entire manga series is a definite "must have" for any Yaoi fan.
Each volume has it's own storyline, yet the main relationship story develops throughout the series.
The characters are very well developed and defined, making them very easy to idenify with. The story progession is also well timed and interesting. The sexual tension between the two main characters is flawless, and doesn't hold up the story with pointless erotic scenes. And, though the artwork is not "amazing", it does have a nice style to it.
The only negative thing I can say about this series is that the bonus stories (at the end of each book) aren't in the same genre, and they raise some mysterious questions that are never answered.
But, overall, I have to say that this is my favorite Yaoi series so far.
|
