Jazz, Volume 02

Jazz

by Sakae Maeda, Tamotsu Takamure (Illustrator)

by Sakae Maeda & Tamotsu Takamure
Fearing that he would someday lose Naoki, Narusawa runs away to America to avoid the empty emotion of a breakup. However, Naoki tracks him down, and embraces him with his declaration of love... and so, their life together across the Pacific begins anew. But with the holidays drawing close an innocent gesture turns into a terrible misunderstanding. Two guest character appear in the latest volume of Jazz, adventures in America.

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Romance, Shounen Ai, LGBT, Relationships, M M Romance

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2006

Reviews

[Ashley E · Rating 3 out of 5]

Naoki and Koichi have such a fucking dysfunctional relationship. But they're like... weirdly honest?... about how horribly dysfunctional they are. Naoki is a jealous asshole with anger issues and he knows it. Koichi is a needy, lonely fuck with self-esteem issues and he knows it. This is a train wreck and I can't stop reading it. And yet, with two more volumes to go, I'm strangely hopeful that they'll work their way around to something semi-healthy? We'll see.... >.>

[Adriana · Rating 1 out of 5]

No! You don't forgive your abuser just because he cried!! WHT!

[Kati · Rating 1 out of 5]

Double yikes. So, the barely-of-age psychopath now went fool on rapist. Out of love. Gimme a break. The drawings are still pretty, though.

[Andrew ✝️ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hmm. I'd absentmindedly put off reading this second installment in the Jazz series because of having a lot of books to choose from and a temporary fall out of the reading bug.

Now that I've read it, I have a couple comments of constructive criticism. Having parental issues for whatever issue does not make you gay, and I hope that isn't what the author was trying to put forth. Also, gay men are men. There is a difference, so I was a bit confused by Naoki's gift to Doc: perfume?? Even Doc was confused by the feminine gift.

Also, (this is strictly based on my interpretation of the illustrations), I can't help but ask why Doc is with Naoki. He seems to yell at Doc a lot, and also jumps to conclusions without mature analysis. Then again, I've met a lot of people who do that, so i digress.

I am bi myself, and the only times I've had a similar relationship to that of Doc and Naoki, it wasn't a good or healthy one. In my last review, I believe, I said that I was on the fence about what kind of relationship these two have. Kinda close to jumping off that fence and onto the side of it being a bad one. My current relationship with my fiancè is nothing like this whatsoever.

Finally, the thoughts and talk bubbles along with the illustrations didn't seem to flow together as well as they did in this graphic novel's predecessor. It also felt like there were big jumps from one thing to another, and I only think I got why the bonus manga at the end was there. Sort of related to the story itself?

I'm gonna give this one 1 out of 5 stars.

[Leiothrix Erithacus · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought the rape stuff would stop now that they're in a relationship.... but no.
Really not my thing. Wish I would've known before I bought them.
I also dislike how self-deprecating and one-dimensional the main characters are, it's tedious.
If anyone is super into this kind of story or just collects June Manga, I will send you Vol 1 + 2 if you want them.

[Sparrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this one much better than the first. There was better development of character and plot.

[xartemisx · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost cried at some part TT_TT... Really great story. ❤