Boku x Neko? and A Doll and His Master

Boku x Neko? by Kiriga Yuki
      
 Genre: Shojo? Shonen Ai
 Length: One Volume - 4 Chapters 2 Extras

Art and story (c) Kiriga Yuki

            Art style is the of the huge eyed and hair type where you can't tell gender because cute is set at about 10000% and it blinds you. It also makes it hard to guess the age of anyone, I literally have no idea how old any of the characters are, youngish. I think the main two are freshmen age or younger but don't quote me on that. The overly huge heads take up most of the panels. This type of art, I find it hard to like even when the story is good, I find the childishness off putting, especially when they act like adults. The eyes are pretty expressionless, they look the same from every angle and the feelings are given through the amount of blush lines. Clothes are rather nondescript unless they are super frilly and distracting. The chibis are really good though, and they add variety to expressions and body movements, as well as adding to that blinding cuteness

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            Subaru moves just to find that his supposed dorm is full and he has to find lodging elsewhere before school starts, as he wanders forlornly he meets a boy who seems too strange to be true. A boy who has cat ears and a tail! Of course, Subaru reasons after running away, the cat parts are fake except, he finds out, his allergy to cats goes crazy when the boy corners him a short time later. In a swift chain of events Subaru can't entirely follow he becomes the caretaker of the "cat" because it has chosen him and if he leaves the mute boy alone too long he could die! Subaru can't survive his allergies and the cat-boy can't survive alone, but when a dorm room opens for him will Subaru leave anyway?

            It's a trap! Or at least it was for me. The site I was on only called this a shojo but I wised up right quick when EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER TURNED OUT TO BE A MALE. I don't hate shonen ai but all the same I don't like being misled, either, so fair warning. There isn't much plot to this manga, it's more of a loose set of events between the two main characters and all the other crazy people in their life. The manga itself and the chapters are cute and it is about catboys so I guess it has its appeal but the art, as I said, put me off. There's only so much I can take of the same face attached to different hairstyles. The two extra chapters were disappointing as well, one didn't really resolve any thing like I hoped it would, it's just more meaningless fluff. The second was the first publishing of the first chapter before it was serialized but not enough is different to make it worth reading the premise again. Perhaps its what I get for reading a manga about cat people on a rainy day.

  2/5 Cute but not much else.

Well, might as well continue the trend, sort of.

A Doll and His Master by Yuu Higuri

Genre: Shonen Ai

Length: One Chapter - 42 Pages

Art and story (c) Yuu Higuri

            Now this is more my style, longer faces and squinty eyes, a bit generic but well proportioned. The hair is a mix of flowy and spiky, and the whole of it, including the clothes and backgrounds, has a European feel, in the typical way fantasy stories with magicians tend to do. Movement is easy to track and the body movements were natural.

            Just like the title says, the story of a doll and the magician who created him. Magicians are being murdered and getting their hearts ripped out. Who is doing these horible crimes, and who is next on the murder's list?

            This manga is only 42 pages, but it has a good chunk of story to it. Most of it is character set up but it has okay pacing and maybe a little misdirection. For a one shot it was an interesting read and made me wonder if I should look up the author further. I liked it but I wasn't in love with it, but all I ask of a one shot is not to bore me to death with wordiness so it passed, but I'm not wondering why it was never lengthened.

4/5 Cute, but with intrigue enough to not bore.