Barairo My Honey by Tomu Oomi

 I just don't understand page views, I guess, that number just keeps going up and I can't figure out why! Thank you, everyone who has dropped by for every single one of my 2,000 page views. I realize it probably doesn't seem like a lot but for me it really is amazing, and I can't believe I even made it this far. Its been quite some time since I decided to go ahead and do that randomly chosen first post, and I really should go back and do a little editing (where the heck are all the pictures??), but I never thought I'd actually have readers come look, honestly. I just thought its intimidating picking manga, and I hope I can turn someone on to something good they didn't even know was out there, because I really enjoy it when someone does the same for me. 

Barairo My Honey by Tomu Oomi 

Art and story (c) Tomu Oomi

Genre: Supernatural, Josei
Length: 3 Volumes – 13 Chapters


           This is the third time I've reviewed an Tomu Oomi manga, and I've probably said it every time that I love the art style, that I fall in love with the male faces, and it just plain draws my eye, and here I said it again. I'll try to keep the gushing to a minimum, and I assure you it won't be near as bad as it was for Kindan. The faces are always easy to read and the body movements are natural, there were a few times the hands looked a little big. There is a distinct look to Oomi's work, with dark, thick lashed eyes and mouths with the upper lip darkened for emphasis. Actually, the leading man in this manga looks very much like the lead in Midnight Secretary, though much less cruel, which is a positive in my book. The clothes are a little less noticeable in this manga and I'll get into my thoughts on that in the last paragraph. There's really nothing I can complain about, except for the usual lack of backgrounds, but the page compositions really mask that well I think. I know, none of that was very nit picky, but what can you expect, I've praised Oomi every time I've reviewed her work, and even started this blog because I was mad at someone for dissing it so…
           Koume is a working girl at a very small printing press who tends to say whatever she's thinking once her mouth opens, ruining her doll-like appearance. When she's scolded on the street by a man in a suit, she fumes and goes back to work, but it turns out he's the recently returned Vice President of the company that owns her workplace and he's come to shut them down! Koume is convinced there is nothing she can like about him. Then, strangely, when he gets angry a tiger with red coloring (barairo literally means 'rose color') appears and wrecks the place until she calms it down, marking her as the Tiger-tamer to him, the Tiger-master. Now they will have to be together.
           My brother walked by and asked me what the manga I was reading was about and I found it kind of hard to explain it to him. “Well, uh, there's a tiger because its the man's emotions in physical form but only she can see it, so not really completely physical and…” Truthfully, I really enjoy this manga but it's nowhere near Kindan and it's not quite as endearing, either, though the end is very 'aw' inducing. As I alluded in the first paragraph, just as the clothes aren't eye-catching, the story doesn't catch the interest quite as fiercely as the other two manga of Oomi's I've reviewed. The premise is original and the tiger is a fun addition to the mix, it just doesn't force you to see what happens next. The tiger is the best part of this story, actually, and

I mean, seriously, lookit that tiger face.

there just simply isn't enough of him (notice he is in every single picture I chose)! Koume is a good lead, she's mouthy and temperamental, much different than the moony Hisako of Kindan, and her ways of speaking up when Mikage won't make them a perfect couple. The emotions are solid, but there really isn't a lot of conflict to keep up a totally keen interest in the story, really. Some people tend to find Oomi's works boring and this one just may fall on that half of the intensity scale, but this mangaka's way of telling stories full of reality doesn't hit me that way. In fact, sometimes shojo and josei tend to get so overly dramatic that they just wear on the nerves, but Oomi's easy going way really adds to the depth of the romance. Still, Barairo is not the best representation of Oomi's work, even if its still very enjoyable. There's not a lot to overly praise or overly criticize, due to the pacing. The way it is presented is a bit rushed, though you don't really question it as you're going, but at the end it just feels over with far too quickly. Especially after Kindan's long and amorous relationship Barairo feels rather flat. By itself its a really good manga, a complete story, but it isn't Tomu Oomi's best. If there had been copious amounts of that awesome tiger, that would have been a completely different story, as it is its a little generic in plot line with a supernatural tiger thrown in. I still love it, though, and, because Koume is the antique repairer from Kindan's granddaughter, its fun to think about the two couples meeting some day.


4/5 Really enjoyable but a little too quick and shallow for full marks. 

More of that rose-colored tiger love.