I Shall Never Return Volume 1

ぼくはこのまま帰らない / I Shall Never Return #1

by Kazuna Uchida

Upbeat Ritsuro and downbeat Ken have been longtime friends. Although Ken leads a dark life of prostitution after dropping out of high school, Ritsuro still cares about him. When Ritsuro realizes that what Ken wants is something more than friendship he vacillates between Ken and his girlfriend Moeko, setting the stage for a bizarre love triangle. This is a true masterpiece of early Yaoi!

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, Comics, Shounen Ai, Japan

190 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

About the author

Name (in native language) : 内田 一奈

Older sister of Shiuko Kano.

Now, she writes her name in kanji as 内田 一奈 although it is pronounced the same. Also, she seems to be concentrating on BL games nowadays.

Reviews

[TT · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review is for all five books in the series. I am cleaning off my shelves and getting rid of books that I've read and have no interest in keeping and this is one of those. This series was written in the nineties and the art and tone of the story definitely reflect this. A lot of the clothing styles and haircuts are definitely dated as well as the attitudes about being gay. I I skimmed a lot of the story, there is a LOT of drama and a lot of familiar themes from this time period: naimly drugs and prostitution. I do feel the author actually did a pretty good job and with the story and art and had this been something I read when it was first written I probably would have been a lot more impressed. As it is it's a bit tedious to get through and the artwork featuring kissing was not good. Sex scenes were not bad but a bit repetitive mostly since backs, torsos and back sides are all that you see. Also both MCs spend a lot of time saying and thinking how 'dirty' they are, again this is a mindset prevalent in the nineties but it did get a bit tiresome. I was happy for the HEA though and pleased at the character development especially for our moody Ken. Overall the series is three stars, it was probably very groundbreaking when it first came out but I'm not sure it stands the test of time for me.

[Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely dated but still sweet.

[Ivo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this with pretty low expectations but the story got much better as it went on. It starts off like a typical kind of directionless teenage BL, but it picks up a surprisingly strong coming of age plotline and handles it in an interesting way. It still has a lot of kind of cringe melodrama but the consequences of these episodes are more consistent/realistic than in the vast majority of other gay themed manga I've come across. I don't care about/for teenage drama but I appreciated this for what it was and I think it does it well.

It's considerably advanced for the time in which it was published, in themes, rhetoric, relationship, etc! Definitely a unique early yaoi relic that's worth checking out. The art isn't to my liking but the composition was really enjoyable.

[okyrhoe · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is something sincere about I Shall Never Return that I hadn't experienced before with other manga titles. The emotional tension between the characters is dominated by confusion and ambivalence, typical of that age, but possibly frustrating for the reader who prefers things to be more straightforward & clearcut.

I am not sure, at the end of this volume, whether Ken's intentions towards Ritsuro are honest or not....

[Leann Marshall · Rating 2 out of 5]

The 1st book and dvd of that book almost made not read the rest of the books but I'm glad I did. The other 4 books are good.