Home

Alright, sorry to be a buzz kill everyone. Actually, not sorry the internet needs to know this. I was extremely disappointed. When I saw that Ueda Rinko was the author I was very excited. I read her manga titled Tsuki no Shippo (Tail of the Moon), and it was one of the best mangas I have ever read, but as I said on this one, i was disappointed. The art was great, and it could have been very interesting, but I feel as though the story needed more time to develop. Things were very rushed. The characters seem to be lacking a solid foundation for their feelings. All of the emotions they feel towards each other seems very unnatural because of the suddenness and unfamiliarity at the time of the confession. Furthermore, I had to drop this book six chapters in because nothing was adding up. I won't spoil it for those who might go on to read it, but there was a sudden unexplained shift regarding something easily fixable within the plot. In my opinion, this reflects bad writing, and I won't be giving this manga anymore of my time. However, I do recommend other mangas by Ueda Rinko I just think short mangas are not her strong suit and she just needs the proper time to organize her plot and characters this was very sloppy.

I had read the mangaka's other (perhaps more well-known) work, "Tsuki no Shippo" a long time ago, and loved it. When I started reading "Home" I realized right away that the beautiful artwork was familiar, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover that "Home" and "Tsuki no Shippo" were by the same author. I think I enjoyed "Tsuki no Shippo" more, because it has a more complicated plot, but "Home" is still a very charming manga.

Story - 8: Overall, the story is uncomplicated and somewhat predictable: pretty Spanish girl meets mysterious-looking Japanese samurai, by the cliché way of tripping and falling into his arms. I could foresee the ending just from reading the summary, but the idea of a Japan/Spain story was pretty intriguing. There were a few plot twists that made me think my predictions *might* actually be wrong.

Art - 10: Ueda Rinko has some of the nicest art I've ever seen. The eyes aren't really huge, as they are in some other more modern mangas, and the hair is really well-drawn. Of course the guys are all absolute bishies, but what I really like is how proportionate and non-stick-like the bodies are. Maria actually has some shape! And I think the backgrounds were well-done, but you don't really notice them because your attention is so focused on the beautifully-drawn characters. ♥.♥

Character - 8: There wasn't a whole lot of mystery surrounding any of the characters. At some points, they may seem a little flat, but then they do something you didn't really expect and they grow a little more. By the end, you grow to like characters that you didn't really like at the beginning. But there is not much definite good guy/bad guy action, which is actually pleasant, because real people have a little of both good and bad in them. Overall, the characters are pretty lifelike.

Enjoyment - 9: The wonderful art takes up some of the slack where the story seems predictable. The characters make you want to keep reading to see what happens to them, and you feel like rooting for your favorite couple. Plus, the story was fast-moving and there's not a momentous amount of chapters, so it's not a daunting task to read. I read the story in one afternoon, but I didn't feel like it was rushed, except maybe once or twice. Besides, who can resist a handsome samurai?