AI Yori Aoshi Volume 1

Kaoru Hanabishi, a lonely good-hearted college boy, who has cut ties with his father's family had a "normal" college life living by himself. Now all of that quiet life shattered when he meet a pretty young girl, Aoi Sakuraba, lost in a train station. She is on her way to meet somebody in his town and much to his surprise, Aoi is actually looking for him! After much flirtations and right out confession of being engaged when they were kids, Kaoru grown attraction to his new found fiancee, along with it, some mature urgings. Then he finds out Aoi ran away from her current arranged marriage and the only way for him to be with her is to either go back to his estranged family, or Aoi to leave hers. To answer your question, YES! As the front cover shows, this graphic novel IS for 18-SX mature readers, due to the available mature scenes and adult humor only 18+ could actually understand. The artwork is beautiful and dialogs are engaging as well as funny. Plots are simple. I had an awesome time reading this one.

Kou Fumizuki's manga series Ai Yori Aoshi has so far published nine of the (I believe) fifteen volumes here in the US. Each manga is divided into ten or so chapters of roughly twenty pages each. It has also spawned 25 half hour anime episodes and a second season of 12, the Enishi series. AYA is a romantic drama/comedy based on the reunion of Aoi Sakuraba and Kaoru Hanabishi, who were betrothed to each other eighteen years ago, when they were both little tykes. They played with each other and Kaoru was very kind to Aoi. However, Aoi, now in her twenties, goes out in search of Kaoru when she discovers their engagement is off, and to find out why. Aoi, dressed in a traditional kimono amid the Western-clothed populace, She is quite bewildered at the Tokyo train station system, as it is her first time out alone and the lack of kindness in the busy metropolis. A young man helps her find the right direction train platform and even mends her hanao, the strap on her sandal. Guess who it happens to be? To Aoi, Kaoru is the best thing that has happened to her. "When I think of him, I am truly grateful that I was born in this world," she tells him before she realizes who he is. But with her reappearance, Aoi is the best thing that has happened to Kaoru, as she cooks the best meal he's had in ages, and her habit of clutching things when she sleeps includes Kaoru, who gets flustered. She is also overly polite, cute, kind, and later, as it turns out, overly trusting, but quite a worrier. In fact she initially thought Kaoru left the Hanabishis because he hated her. As for Kaoru, a college student, he had a rough time with the Hanabishis, his adopted family, who owns one of Japan's keiretsus (conglomerates) and after suffering years of abuse from the patriarch of the Hanabishi, severed ties with them to live alone. He even initially distrusts Aoi, thinking the Hanabishi sent her over as a lure to bring him back, A brief separation occurs when Miyabi Kagurazaki, the tall stern businesswoman in charge of Aoi's education, comes to take her back, but in the end, Aoi and Kaoru are left to start their new life together, but under Miyabi's care. The series will introduce Kaoru's fellow student, the American Tina Foster, Taeko Minazuki, another student who becomes housekeeper to them, the spoiled rich kid Mayu, whom Kaoru befriended a few years back and who now has an insufferable crush on him, and the adorable Chika, Taeko's spunky and energetic cousin. All of them become like a great family together. There are a few racy shots of Aoi, while she's showering or in the bath, part of the fan service, to be sure, but overall, she is one ideal woman. The literal translation for the title, Ai Yori Aoshi, means "bluer than indigo," but with "ai" also meaning "love" in Japanese, the title can also mean "true blue love." At the end, Aoi says to Kaoru, "I am an inexperienced person, but please regard me kindly." As a reader who considers Ai Yori Aoshi my fa

I won't recap the story or anything, but I picked up the manga in the store and found it to be a fantastic read. It's an extremely adorable and heart-warming love story, with plenty of plot and suspense and so forth. No action, or super-human magic/technology or anything like that, which makes it that much more sincere and close to home.

Kaoru Hanabishi was a lonely college stundent, who had willingly left his father's family, even after they had adopted him. Now, into his life, came a pretty young girl. A girl named Aoi Sakuraba who had come to marry him. A girl he hadn't seen since leaving home.The problem is, in order for her family to approve of this marriage, he would have to go back to the family he hates. Will he go back to his family? Will she leave her's? What will the families do?The first volume has the first ten chapters and seem to be the foundation for the first four (of five) anime episodes of the First DVD. The manga is for age 16 and up, higher than the DVDS, because mangas can get away with just a TOUCH more in mature scenes and adult humor. I would suggest you only buy it if you are a REAL fan of the anime OR don't have the anime.

"Ai Yori Aoshi" (in English, "Bluer than Blue") is shaping up to be one of the best romance mangas, up there with "Maison Ikkoku" and "Love Hina." Japanese comics tend to fall firmly into "boy's comics" and "girl's comics," and this story is intended to be for boys, but I think it crosses gender pretty easily. The story is quite sweet, but with some wacky humor thrown in for good measure, and a few curveball characters.Aside from the usual screwball antics, there is some real tenderness between the two main characters, Kaoru Hanabishi and Aoi Sakuraba, that sets this series apart from other romance-comics. Also, unlike most in the genre, the two characters are happily in love with each other and they both know it from the very beginning. This beginning volume sets the stage for the story, introducing the characters and such. When the full cast is assembled, the fun begins.The inside art is really nice, much better than the covers lead you to believe. The style is pretty usual, but it is very nicely done. A great comic, one that you really can't go wrong with. Pick up this first volume and find yourself hooked!