Title: Classmate
Genre: Drama, Romance, Yaoi
Artist: Kiyo Ueda
Publisher: Taiyo, Digital Manga Guild
Translation: Digital Manga Guild
Original Release Date: February 14th 2014
Free Preview: >>HERE<<
There’s only one thing that seems to preoccupy Izumi’s mind and heart at the moment: his senpai from the school tennis club, Nishizaki. However due to the person he hates the most in high school, Izumi’s chances of seeing his favorite senpai lower significantly and all hope is lost…that is, until Nishizaki asks him to rejoin the tennis club. Along with the person he intensely dislikes.
Two other stories that take place in different settings with different characters are included in the Classmate manga along with the main story -The Beginning and End of the Dream, revolving around two classmates who seem like polar opposites at a first glance, and The Drawbacks of a Warm Heart, where an office worker falls for his taciturn boss.
When reading the summary found behind the Classmate manga, one would obviously expect the story to revolve mainly around the mentioned characters Izumi and his rival/possible love interest Asakura. However after the end of the first chapter, an entirely new story with new characters makes way and suddenly, Classmate’s summary doesn’t even make sense anymore.
While I don’t consider this as a huge flaw, the fact that there was nothing to indicate the other short stories in the manga does slightly upset me. One can see this surprise as a good thing –if you like the element of surprise, good for you- yet I find it rather lazy of the editor’s part to not include what happens in the other half of the manga in their summary.
Besides the summary, there was another brow-raising element regarding the title: Classmate. Can someone please explain to me why two of the three stories do not concern classmates? The promoted story is about students in the same tennis club, but in different grades and the other story is about a guy and his boss. Either I’m missing something or something because I don’t see any classmates here.
And no, this isn’t a translation error – Doukyuusei (the Japanese title) really means Classmate. So why? Just why?
Pushing my confused feelings aside, let’s talk about the stories which were decent. They weren’t spectacular and I doubt I would remember them in the near future, but they did have their touching moments. I only wish the main story had more development and an actual conclusion just like the two other stories in the manga since it is…well…on the cover and is the only story with a summary. As for the characters, none of them were fascinating. This might be my fault because I had my skeptical glasses on before reading the first story and after the first chapter, I rushed though the others in hopes of finding the continuation to Izumi’s story since it ended on an unimpressive cliffhanger.
If I had to recommend a Yaoi manga to anyone who appreciates the genre, Classmate would have been the very last thing in mind. It’s not really because of the characters or the stories which weren’t ultimately bad, but mainly because of the way the volume was messily composed. For those who were impatient to read the final chapter of Izumi’s story, they needed to go through two stories without any relation to the chapter before being finally able to read it (or they can skip the independent stories altogether) and, as I have mentioned previously, it irks me. It really does, since this error could have been avoided so easily if they had just simply added the independent stories at the end, as bonus chapters.
Anyway, unless you desperately need to read a Yaoi, I highly advise you to look the other way and search for something else.
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Naru
Lazy blogger of a lazy website who enjoys being evil 24/7. Has a dangerous bishonen obsession that has yet to be cured.
Latest posts by Naru (see all)
- Manga Review: Classmate - August 1, 2014
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