You Will Fall in Love

`You will Fall in Love', by the talented Hinako Takanaga, is a manga that excels in bringing to life the tender interplay of love, loss and self worth.The main focus is Haru, a first time teacher at a high school. It is here that he is reunited with Tsukasa, a student several years his junior. Tsukasa is the younger brother of Reiichiro, an old friend of Haru, whom he had competed with in Archery during high school.There is, of course, more to this than would meets the eye and Tsukasa soon forces out the truth from a tearful and shamed Haru. The feelings Haru expresses toward himself are heartbreaking.Tsukasa, with a straight forward and sweetly dedicated manner (if occasionally pushy when swept by strong emotion), pursues Haru, attempting to convince Haru to SEE him and the love that he offers, while Haru struggles with shame and self doubt at the very thought of being homosexual, of loving a man.Intertwined with this sweet and true love story is the sport of Archery, which Haru had left behind, and which Tsukasa is attempting to bring back for him. Haru opening to Tsukasa is sharply paralleled by his opening to the sport of Archery again, and is done beautifully.The feeling this manga evokes in me is both bitter and sweet, the time lost and self doubts that Haru had experienced are very real and yet misted over with the brush of time, with the fresh new wind of Tsukasa bring forth something new, something bursting with life and promise.And perhaps even giving Haru the courage to draw a bow again...

It's really cute.... I keep it on my nightstand....

You Will Fall In Love is yaoi fluff at its finest. The story revolves around three main characters: Haru Mochizuki, a substitute teacher and former archer; Reiichiro Shudo, his former best friend and archery rival; and Tsukasa Shudo, Reiichiro's brother and Haru's archery student. Haru was madly in love with his best friend Reiichiro four years earlier, so much so that he gave up archery and moved away to go to college in order to protect their friendship. The only thing is that he left without any real notice and did not keep in contact with Reiichiro. Four years pass and he is now a substitute teacher at a private high school where he runs into Tsukasa, Reiichiro's younger brother and rather quickly develops feelings for him. So what will Haru do when he unexpectedly runs into Reiichiro at Tsukasa's archery tournament? Does Tsukasa stand a chance in the competition for Haru's love?This is a very typical yaoi plot, one boy runs away from his true love only to run into him again years later, forced to confront his feelings. Throw in a brother vs. brother twist and you have the makings of a typical yet surprisingly sweet story. I didn't hate it and I will probably read the follow up to this book, You Will Drown In Love, which I won't go into as it would give away the ending to this story.So let's get into the mechanics of this one, shall we? As discussed, the plot is typical. However, I did like that it involved archery as seeing the boys in their traditional Hakama (archery gear) was really rather enticing. I did think the mangaka jumped a little too fast into the story as it almost felt like there should have been a prequel to this book. The book itself is nicely put together with a pretty illustrated cover but no inside color pages. The black and white illustrations are nicely done and the character design, although pretty standard yaoi are attractive and varied. The translation into English was fine and I had no real trouble following the speech bubbles. That just leaves one thing, the sex. This is a soft yaoi all around so no explicit sex although they do have sex once in the book. You won't see any frontal nudity or "bits `n pieces". At best, you get some wonderful kissing and groping and sometimes there just isn't enough kissing in yaoi, know what I mean? If you're in to cutesy sweet yaoi, this is the title for you. If you like your yaoi with a little more substance and a lot more sex, I would pass on this one.Character Design = B+Plot = B-Illustrations = A-Translation = ASex = COverall Grade = B

I enjoy this one alot. 2 brothers in love with the same man. The difference is that one does not realize it until it is years later and the other brother knows right in the beginning who he wants and waits patiently for the opportunity to prove his love. Haru is the lucky guy but who will he choose, the older brother or the younger one ? No spoiler here. Just love the emotions struggles among these 3 very likable characters as they resolve their feelings of love lost, love found, love confounded, regrets and love fulfilled. Of course one brother is left out in the end. He has my full sympathy but Blue has licensed the sequel and I look forward to it :).The Japanese archery as a backdrop is refreshing and expressing the guys' emotions through the flight of their arrows is so convincingly done. Did I miss the absence of hardcore sex? Definitely not as I love a tender, "angsy" and expressive love story too and this is exactly what this is. And Hinako Takanaga's artwork is simply lovely and so expressive, her boys looking so good in their "hakamas".